Still Saturday, Still Testing - Urethane one-part pigment friendly

I rounded up the usual suspects for a bunch of test today, including some carbon fiber backed epoxy castings. The way the fiber laid out on the epoxy was smooth and I didn't want to cover the carbon fiber with pigmented epoxy, so I tried using clear epoxy. The finish wasn't as smooth as I had hoped, but a batch I tried later holds promise to provide a gently curved clear backing that will protect the carbon fiber and smooth the back of the small pieces that I had in the mold. The idea is to make lettering that can have a hole drilled into it like jewelry, so the backing is important since it may be against skin.

Other test included trying to print with a one part urethane that can clean up with water. Not great results, so I ended up embedding the mixture into the screen. I have two different types of this urethane and the harder one called "Tortoise Shell", more stiff, worked better than the softer one called, "Snakeskin". I did a variety of quick test with steel pigment to see if it will bond to different surfaces. It did not appear to wrinkly some paper based materials, but I don't think I got enough material through the screen to tell for sure. I am also trying to adhere it to a pvc coating on some magnetic sheet material.

The other test was to use the Tortoise shell urethane mixed with filler and atomized steel with a silicon mold of a Mayan calendar. The first layer in the mold was painted in like a gel coat. I left it alone for 2-3 hours and when I came back it was cracking, which isn't a good sign for thick layers of this urethane. I then mixed a batch of the more flexible urethane, the Snakeskin stuff, and poured a rather thick layer behind the gel coat layer. I am hopeful that the two types of urethane will bond with each other and that the thicker more flexible material will be less likely to crack when and if it dries. This is pretty thick layering, 1/8" to 3/16", so I have no idea how long this will take to dry if it does. I did not use any release, so I am also hopeful that it will separate from the silicon mold.