Resin Question

[Man of Tanith]

Recently Teepee kindly gave me some larch resin.
its collected in a chocloate wrapper and has semi set.
I can just boil it in the wrapper and it'll melt out wont it?

 

[leon-1]

Recently Teepee kindly gave me some larch resin.
its collected in a chocloate wrapper and has semi set.
I can just boil it in the wrapper and it'll melt out wont it?

Hi Sam, I have a project or two involving the use of resin so I have been doing some research on this. Resin / Rosin can have quite some difference in melting points. Many will tell you that you can't melt it in a double boiler (probably the safer method of doing things), however there are things that you can do to optimise your chances.

Use the same principle as a Bain Marie, use two pans / containers. Don't have the second container in contact with the water as boiling water only reaches a specific temperature, steam on the other hand can be considerably hotter.

Place the resin in the fridge or freezer, once it's as solid as it gets you may be able to peel it, take it out and beat ten barrel's out of it. By pulverising it you are reducing the size of the object and as such the thermal mass of the object, this will make it easier to melt. You can then place it into any form that you wish.

 

[Clouston98]

I made a pitch stick a month or so back with mainly scots pine resin, it melted fine when in the bottom of a cleaned out bean tin with a woodgas stove going underneath, didn't take much to melt it.