Experiments! With water putty part 1.

As some of you may know, resin, bondo, fiberglass, spot putty, silicone, urethane, etc is not cheap. Like a lot of us I don't just have money to throw around. I am always looking for inexpensive substitutes, and I think I may have found one. Not saying that this is breaking news, this product has been around a while. But it is news to me, and I am here to share it with you. A while back my father got me a great book, "The Prop Builder's Molding & Casting Handbook" by Thurston James.

 If you are at all interested in how to do the kind of things I do in this blog, this book is a great place to start.  Some of the references are a bit dated, and its more geared for theatrical prop making,but it still is a wealth of knowledge.  It has a whole chapter dedicated to working with hardware store products, which is where I came across Durham's Rock Hard Water Putty.  Its a water based wood filler that does not shrink, and can be sanded, cut, drilled and when dry has many of the same characteristics of wood. The book details how to use it for casting, but I wanted to try it as a spot putty and for reinforcement. I worked 2 batches, one the pancake batter thickness that the book described best for casting and the other the peanut butter thick paste the instructions on the can told me to do.  Now I am doing something that I would never tell anyone else to do, testing an unknown product on works in progress. But what the hell, I  like to live a little.

I got to work on things late tonight so all I got done was prep and application. The book says that the putty can set in as little as a half an hour, but my shop is pretty chilly right now, and that's making it take longer. All of these will get some more progress posts in the coming days. Thursday is my birthday! Doesn't really apply to the post but I am excited anyways. You should be too!