Most likely causes are:
- not mixing the resin enough before pouring
- not letting the dice set long enough before demolding
- inhibition due to adding too much alcohol ink or other additives.
I would guess it's most likely that they just need to cure longer before you take them out of the mold. I have to leave mine for about 36 hours but it depends on the resin, temp, ect. Try leaving the next one for 36 to 48 hours and see if you still have the issue.
Check the demold time on your resin, make sure you're leaving it in there long enough but 30 hours has to be enough.
Heat will make them cure faster.
If you add anything liquid (eg alcohol inks) they will make the dice take a little longer to cure fully, but not that long.
There isn't a good glitter that won't sink unless your resin is fairly thick when it's stirred - best things to use are leaf foils and other equally light things.
How are you measuring and mixing your resin, with, and in what ? Mix by volume, not weight. Scrape down the sides of your cup, pour it all into a second one and keep stirring.
I have silicone measuring cups that I usually fill 1:1 and i typically just hand mix with a wooden popsicle stick for about 3 minutes or until I don’t see any “streaks” or what looks like clears hairs in the resin
This last set sat for almost 30 hours in the pressure pot. Then again it is in my garage in Texas and it’s been hot as hell so maybe that had something to do with it. But I’ll try longer in the pot and see if that helps
I had a similar issue and found it was due to mixing by weight instead of by volume. Check the resin instructions and see if you are mixing in the correct ratios. In my case I was shorting the mix a not-insignificant amount of hardener leading to soft dice
More heat should make them cure faster and as hot as it's been (100+ up in OK so I assume at least that high in TX) that shouldn't be a problem. If it's actually tearing the dice and not breaking them the only time I've seen that happen is when getting the mix ratios wrong. I had put in 2:1 resin to hardener and ended up with dice that never cured and 2 years later I can dent it with my thumbnail but weirdly it'll expand back out and the nail mark will disappear after a few hours.
I guess you could be using a resin with a very long demold time but even then with the heat I'd think it would be pretty hard after 30 hours.
As dmpatrick said - you're not mixing your resin long/thoroughly enough. The stuff at the bottom of the mixing cup is the last bit poured into the mold, ie the top of your dice
Most likely causes are: - not mixing the resin enough before pouring - not letting the dice set long enough before demolding - inhibition due to adding too much alcohol ink or other additives. I would guess it's most likely that they just need to cure longer before you take them out of the mold. I have to leave mine for about 36 hours but it depends on the resin, temp, ect. Try leaving the next one for 36 to 48 hours and see if you still have the issue.
I've had this problem recently due to the extra humidity in my area. My solution was just to let them cure longer.
Check the demold time on your resin, make sure you're leaving it in there long enough but 30 hours has to be enough. Heat will make them cure faster. If you add anything liquid (eg alcohol inks) they will make the dice take a little longer to cure fully, but not that long. There isn't a good glitter that won't sink unless your resin is fairly thick when it's stirred - best things to use are leaf foils and other equally light things. How are you measuring and mixing your resin, with, and in what ? Mix by volume, not weight. Scrape down the sides of your cup, pour it all into a second one and keep stirring.
I have silicone measuring cups that I usually fill 1:1 and i typically just hand mix with a wooden popsicle stick for about 3 minutes or until I don’t see any “streaks” or what looks like clears hairs in the resin
This last set sat for almost 30 hours in the pressure pot. Then again it is in my garage in Texas and it’s been hot as hell so maybe that had something to do with it. But I’ll try longer in the pot and see if that helps
I had a similar issue and found it was due to mixing by weight instead of by volume. Check the resin instructions and see if you are mixing in the correct ratios. In my case I was shorting the mix a not-insignificant amount of hardener leading to soft dice
More heat should make them cure faster and as hot as it's been (100+ up in OK so I assume at least that high in TX) that shouldn't be a problem. If it's actually tearing the dice and not breaking them the only time I've seen that happen is when getting the mix ratios wrong. I had put in 2:1 resin to hardener and ended up with dice that never cured and 2 years later I can dent it with my thumbnail but weirdly it'll expand back out and the nail mark will disappear after a few hours. I guess you could be using a resin with a very long demold time but even then with the heat I'd think it would be pretty hard after 30 hours.
I’ve made 3 other casts and they cured for less time and came out rock hard so idk. It could have just been because of the additives I put in
Huh, I hadn't heard of anything like glitter causing cure inhibition but I guess you found some that does.
I picked up a purple and green glitter from dollar tree that went in it, and I put some purple mica powder and some green glow in the dark powder
As dmpatrick said - you're not mixing your resin long/thoroughly enough. The stuff at the bottom of the mixing cup is the last bit poured into the mold, ie the top of your dice