I just finished a mosaic pin: here's what I did...

Joined
Sep 23, 1999
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I started with a 12" section and cut the lot in half. It consists of a 1/4" round brass tube, 4 pins that are on each side of a square hollow tube, and inside of the hollow tube is a copper hollow tube. When I use the pins, you'll get a pic.

So, after making 2 6" sections, I put less than 1.4 of a tube of DevCon 2 ton epoxy into a plastic pill container that you get from a Pharmacy, put in maybe half of a teaspoon of black RIT dye (I brushed off the thick grainules of RIT and kinda mashed the rest of the grainules), and I took a plastic knife and dipped it into paint thinner 3 times and let the paint thinner drip into the mix.

I thought that it would take a long time to harden, but it didn't at all, and now I have a great 6" section of mosaic pin.

I had enough epoxy left over to easily to the other section, but I wanted to test this mixture first.

OH! Than reminds me, I forgot one important part. I have some clear tubing from the hardware store that the pin fits snugly in (I had to force it in.) I put some super glue on the end of the tube and jammed in the pin, something like 3/8" into the tube, and I put super glue around the edge where the end of the tube meets the pin. Theidea is to get a good seal. I use the tube as a straw and suck until black epoxy comes up into the clear tube: then i know I have gotten epozy right through the pin.

CAUTION: It takes a lot of pressure to do this, so 6" of pin at a time is plenty!

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"Come What May..."
 
George: A very good tip! I was thinking about what I wrote when I went to bed, and remembered that I forgot to say to use enough clear tube so that you can see when the epoxy comes out!! No need to epoxy your lips together, eh!

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"Come What May..."
 
Crayola and George: Thanks for the tips. You make that sound easy enough that I might even be able to do it. Crayola, can't wait to see pics on the pins.

Dan
 
Here's another idea for ya. Get some titanium wire and either heat color or anodize it and incorporate that into your mix. Only the ends would show color but...BTW, the titanium wire that I ordered years ago was dead soft.

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Peter Atwood

email: fountainman@hotmail.com
 
Pretender: it is as easy to do as it sounds!!! I have been waiting for a good day to grind 3 knives, so in the mean time I've been trying to do other knife things, liek making pins and designing knives. Mosaic pins kick butt! Flat grinds and pins!!!

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"Come What May..."
 
Whats the bonus of using the Rit with thinner, as opposed to just epoxy colorant?

R.W.Clark
 
The bonuses are:

Rit costs me $2 Canadian! I'd have to order in epoxy colorant, and I'd rather spend my $$ on steel if I am paying shipping and such!

The benefit of the thinner is that it makes the epoxy more runny, so it gets sucked up the tube easier. I tried water before, but it took several days for the epoxy to harden! With my current set up, it hardened over night.

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"Come What May..."
 
Fair enough. I am always looking for ways to cut production cost. Even though I have a full shelf of colorants I will try the Rit to see how it works.

As far as the thinner. Do you use paint thinner, laquer thinner, acetone, M.E.K. ?

I have only made one pin myself. I have just been buying the Barry Posner stuff. But at $10+ a shot! I will be making all of mine in the future. I burn through about $40 in pin stock a week.

Also, someone somewhere mentioned using an aquarium pump for drawing the epoxy up? Does this work?

R.W.Clark
 

Dunno if an aquarium pump will generate enough suction, but a vacuum pump will....compressor off old refridge works great...just plug off all but 1 vac & 1 pressure line.
 
R.W.: I just used plain ol' pain thinner. I have a 4 litre jug of the stuff.

One other fine point: When I miked the lot together, the runny epoxy wasn't completely black. It looked kind of grainy, um... I don't really know how to describe it. But it wasn't a solid black color. I didn't want to add more dye, as I though that adding too much stuff to epoxy would make the epoxy not work properly. When the lot hardened though, the epoxy is a solid black.

When I use the pin I will bget a better idea of how well my set up WORKED, but it LOOKS like it was a success. One package of RIT dye would do a ton of pins, at this rate!

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"Come What May..."
 
Tried it just how you said. But I was too lazy to go buy some Rit, so I went ahead and used a colorant.

Worked great, but man I must get a pump. Nearly colapsed my stupid head trying to suck that epoxy up. (guess you really need something between them ol ears
biggrin.gif
) Also when I added the paint thinner, it seemed to kick off the epoxy. Any suggestions?

Figured the cost of time and materials. The pins will now cost me $1.25 each. Thats a big savings.

Thanks
R.W.Clark
 
If I were going through as much pin stock as you are, I'd do Robert Dockrell's trick. Look for my earlier (within the las 20 days or so) thread on mosaic pins. You use some kind of easy to get hydraulic thingy.

the 6" section that I made will likely last me through half of the summer, and by that time I will have my collapsed lung repaired! Indeed, sucking epoxy through a straw is MUCH worse than the McDonald's milk shakes!

I'm glad that you are saving mucho $$ on the pins, and you get to say that you made them too! And hey, the sky is the limit with respect to design too.

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"Come What May..."
 
A note on vacuums...

Harbor Freight sell a venturi vacuum run from your compressor...Used for repairing car air conditioning systems...

I got one for $9 and it works fine for sucking epoxy...Also will work for home stabilizing of wood and antler...

Running Dog

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Running Dog Knife Company
www.runningdogknife.bigstep.com
runningdog@dog.com
 
I bought a vacuum pump for starting homebrew beer siphons called a Vampire Suction pump. It is a hand pulled pump mainly used by the petroleum industry to take uncontaminated oil samples. The thing is quite slick and could be found online by doing a search on Vampire suction pumps. Mine cost about $35 and they sent it to me immediately and then billed me later! It sounds perfect for this application. Very smooth strong pull.

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Peter Atwood

email: fountainman@hotmail.com
 
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