PTownSubbie's Casting Basics Guide

Welcome to the World of Casting!  You are about to embark on a venture of excitement, frustration, success, failure, and hopefully in the end, some appreciable pen blanks. Casting is not for the faint of heart or easily discouraged. It takes practice, learning from your mistakes, and understanding the effects of various weather conditions, such as heat / cold, humidity, and water condensation, in your particular climate and region of the country.  Please contact us if you have any further questions. 

Our preferred types of labels for clear cast pen blanks can be purchased at OnlineLabels.com. We recommend Alumilite Clear or Clear Slow (urethane resin) for casting labels, which we now have available in 2#, 8#, and 16# sizes. 

• OL9805WJ - Weatherproof Matte for Inkjet printers full size label 8.5" x 11" with a 1/2" border, so the actual print area ends up 7.5" x 10". We print using Microsoft Word - narrow margins and centering the page of labels. See our video for more details.
• OL177WJ - Weatherproof Matte for Inkjet printers full size label 8.5" x 11" with no border. Custom borderless printing is not available on most home printers, but if you have full page print capacity / settings, you may be able to print more labels per page depending on the label size you print.
• OL9805LP - Weatherproof Polyester for Laser printers - note laser printer ink may flake off during casting process, so it's not a preferred printer option.

If you are just starting out, we offer casting bundles with Alumilite Clear / Clear Slow (urethane resins). The 2 blank horizontal mold is a flexible option for those wanting to try out various blank and tube in casting options from one mold system.  No one-size-fits all mold is the perfect casting solution, but we wanted to offer an inexpensive way to test out casting various ways before investing in dedicated individual molds for each type of pen blanks you want to make. For more advanced casters, we also have casting bundles with dedicated tube-in molds and gisi style faux segmenting molds. 

PTownSubbie Mold Articles: Mold Instructions Mold Specifications How to Print Labels for Pens using Photoshop / Word Clear Casting Demo - Part 1 - Preparation Part 2 - Tube-in Molds Part 3 - Demolding How to Use a Tube-in Mold Preventing Leakage How to Use a Block Mold Color Casting Colorant Options How to Use a Blank Mold Casting Hybrid Burls How to Use a Gisi Mold Casting Demonstration How to Use a Vertical Mold Removing a Blank Cast

Color Casting Options Alumilite Dyes Mica Powders Pigments Differences in Casting Products Stabilizing Demo - Part 1 - Part 2 Cartridge Pen Making Useful Tips and Tricks Tube-in Rolling Jig Label Sizing Templates Mold Release Sprays Mold Rack System