can you make mycarta out of construction paper

[legato1]

my teacher was getting rid of 4 packs of construction paper, and i rescued them from certain destruction and now they are here with me waiting to be "reassigned" i have made mycarta before but was wondering if paper was as good as cloth. thansk - Stan

 

[go mike]

Don't take this advice too far, as I haven't tried it.

Paper products will work for micarta handles, but they will be less durable than say denim or heavy cloth.

 

[bjalongi]

I disagree. Most of your durability will come from the resin you choose. But I'm also not a laminate expert. However, there are a few who frequent this board.

 

[mathil]

More chip prone, less "stringy" when finishing.

 

[Keith_H]

I remember a while back Dan Gray mentioning about making purple paper mycarta out of some and it held up well.
One thing is is that the paper seems to fade easy, especially in UV.

 

[AcridSaint]

Ariel Salaverria posted a tutorial on Mycarta he made out of paper towels. I don't see this as being particularly less durable than cloth based mycartas, especially the "burl" types.

 

[butcher_block]

one trick is getting the paper to "wet" out
i have made some spacer thickness before but never anything large

i find that fabric comes inn most any color
now that said i never had on hand that much paper to try things out with

 

[Mark Basford]

Paper works great. you can shread it, tear it or layer it.

Layering is the easiest: The trick is to apply the epoxy with a putty knife so that you get even epoxy distribution between the layers, then c-lamp until dry.

Shredding and tearing are more difficult because a vacuum in needed to get decent results.

 

[fod]

As Butch says, wetting out paper is an issue. The more absorbent the material the better, so it makes sense that paper towels would work well

I don't mess with paper anymore...unless by special request and I will try to steer customers away from it.

And as mentioned by Keith, construction paper tends to fade quickly. A UV stabilized resin may help to some extent, but I doubt it would keep it from fading, just slow it.

Because of the thickness, make sure your resin has plenty of working time, you will need it because of all the layers, especially if you want to go fairly thick. Also, it is pretty slippery and will want to shift when you compress it, so the larger the pieces the better. Thin strips will be rather problematic, in my experience.

good luck

 

[kvolle]

I have made a few with construction paper. They came out fine and hard as a rock. I agree with Mathil, it chips. The last one I did chipped when I was peining the pins. About three sheets down. Not a huge problem, just sanded that part down and blended in on both sides. The one thing I do know is it sucks up epoxie fast and seemed to start the hardening faster than with linen, canvas or denim.
Other than that it works fine and makes a pretty decent handle.

 

[legato1]

thanks guys, is it possible or does it work well when used between layers of fabric to add some color? and what is "wetting out" does that mean getting it to soak all the way through? is it difficult to create a vaccume to do it is it something i can make or is it something i have to buy, i have a few of home depots small 30 buck shopvacs layin around. but i have no idea what needs to be done to make the vacume apparatus. thanks guys - Stan

 

[bjalongi]

Speaking of shredded paper, I have a brick of shredded US paper currency (I think $100 bills) that I've been meaning to turn into some handle material.

 

[Mark Basford]

I now use a the investment bubble of a vaccuum casting machine to stabilize wood and pull air voids out of torn micarta, but when first experimenting I used kitchen vacuum bags to achieve a similar result.

Here's the process that worked out best:
1. Tear/shread your paper - It's best to have a primary and secondary color 60%/40% mix at a min. (for some reason 50%/50% is ...distracting?... it just doesn't look right)
2. Mix your epoxy in your vacuum bag -
Be sure to keep the epoxy away from the top half of the bag because you need to keep your vaccuum ports clean.
3. Add the torn paper and mix/knead the paper until everything was evenly soaked through. Again keep everything pushed toward the bottom half of the bag.
4. Lay your bag on a flat surface and form the torn mass into a brick as you apply vacuum. As more vacuum is pulled, the brick will tighten and become harder to manipulate.
5. Continue to manipulate/massage the brick, pressing air bubbles towards the vaccum ports - continuing to keep epoxy away from the ports - until the epoxy in clear and free of bubbles.
6. Clamp the bag as if you making layered micarta being careful not to over tighten and blow out the bag.
7. Let cure, then grind flat to expose your pattern.

60/40 mix for an LSU fan:

After the bag has been pealed off:

80 grit flat ground:

 

[Mark Basford]

Speaking of shredded paper, I have a brick of shredded US paper currency (I think $100 bills) that I've been meaning to turn into some handle material.

LOL, I made some out of shreaded checks when our company moved locations - one of these days I'll make something from it.

 

[PB Wilson]

Currency should work well because it's more like fabric than most other kinds of paper. There's a percentage of silk and cotton in them I believe.

 

[James_Terrio]

Who's going to be the first to laminate a stack of dollar bills and make a handle out of it?
If you kept them all in register it would look pretty cool when shaped.

 

[go mike]

That would be sweet! have like a stack of about 30 $1 bills, and when you grind the handle shape, you can still see the original dollar bill pattern.

 

[James_Terrio]

Exactly, mike. I think it might be illegal to "deface" currency but c'mon, who's gonna say anything.

Of course 100's would be even cooler but yikes

 

[go mike]

I thought it was only illegal to deface it if you were going to try to use it. Like how people get pressed pennies (defacing? yes. Illegal? The machines are still there...)

 

[James_Terrio]

That sounds reasonable. It's not like you're going to bleach off the ink and print 20's on them (bunch of those floating around here).

OK twenty singles stacks up to about 3/32"... so $40 for a scale 3/16"... I'm thinking a small necker so you can get two sets of 1-1/4" x 3" scales out of it... or a folder of course, but I'm no good at those... the serial and series numbers would be all messed up though since they don't match (if they do match yer in deep doo-doo )

Ummmm... nevermind... this is from the Bureau of Engraving and Printing:

Defacement of Currency

Defacement of currency is a violation of Title 18, Section 333 of the United States Code. Under this provision, currency defacement is generally defined as follows: Whoever mutilates, cuts, disfigures, perforates, unites or cements together, or does any other thing to any bank bill, draft, note, or other evidence of debt issued by any national banking association, Federal Reserve Bank, or Federal Reserve System, with intent to render such item(s) unfit to be reissued, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.

Defacement of currency in such a way that it is made unfit for circulation comes under the jurisdiction of the United States Secret Service.

It is legal to reproduce currency, as long as it's less than 3/4 size, or more than 1 1/2 the size ... there's a bunch of regulations on using shredded currency, too.