Translucent Pigmenting - help wanted

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#1

I am wanting to add pigment to clear gel coat to achieve a tinted translucent coloring but have never used pigments in the fiberglass work I have done. Do you use the standard pigments and just use less of the pigment to achieve this effect or is it better to use the actual pigments made for producing a translucent finish?

I have only found one supplier selling what they term “translucent pigments” and they only offer two colors - blue and green.

Anyone with a good amount of fabricating experience that might be able to tell me how this manufacturer might have achieved this color finish?

http://www.rocketshells.com/liteblue_kit.jpg

These are carbon fiber drums layed up in a female mold and the color is IN the part itself, not painted on afterwords. It is kind of an electric blue, almost like it has an almost metallic look under a blue tinting.

#2

Perhaps it’s clear coated with a blue tint afterward and not necessary in the gelcoat. Hard to say without knowing their manufacturing process.

#3

This company describes their process as the colors being done in the layup process, not applied afterwords. That’s why I am having difficulty figuring how they achieved this unique look in the layup.

I will probably do a test piece to attempt to achieve this coloring. I was thinking of tinting the outer clear gel coat to a translucent blue and using this fiberglass material as the outer layup layer to simulate a metallic look underneath.

Texalium aka “Silver Carbon Fiber” 8.9oz
http://www.icancomposites.com/product_info.php/products_id/29

I realize it won’t be exact, having a fiberglass pattern underneath, but it I might be able to achieve this shade of color from a distance and possibly give it a unique look as well. Worth a shot anyhow was my thinking.

#4

Well I guess you can just lower the amount of pigment being mixed with the gelcoat. I often mix my clear gel coat with black pigment so that the parts come out dark and not so bright.

#5

That was my thinking also - to just lower the amount of pigment to make it translucent instead of opaque.

I have never used pigment additives so it will definitely be a trial and error thing. I have used the black gel coat for making the surface layer in molds.

#6

To get the tint, you’ll need very little pigment. You’ll be surprise how little, so just start out with a small dab and go from there.

#7

Yeah I was wondering how much it might take.

Thanks for the precaution Evan! You can always add more, but you surely can’t go backwards.

Appreciate the feedback,
Chris

#8

Drummz,
I am also interested in producing a translucent finish and am wondering how things turned out.

#9

I think if it would be translucent you would still see the carbon under it. I consider clear coating part of my layup process. It still looks like it has some sort or blue base coat because in the shadow it is pretty dark blue, and from what I know about drum contruction I have not seen a drum set made with gel coat as of yet.

#10

their website says all their drums are finished with a clear epoxy. And if you look at the uniform of the weaves makes me think they are pre-preg. That color you want is not transluctent, it is their leaf blue which is a full color. They are made with a synthetic sandwich core.

#11

I realize the Rocket Shells CF drums are epoxy finished. The deal is I am not wanting to paint the exterior to get the color I want. The company that is going to make a drum kit for me makes solid fiberglass shells without any core or carbon fiber in the construction. The fiberglass drums in my opinion sound better. The trick is to achieve this shade I have seen here from Rocket that I like or something somewhat similar that the other fiberglass maufacturer (Tempus Drums) can and will do, utilizing more of his methods, not Rocket’s. Because he did not offer a finish like this it is basically up to me to do the research in what materials might work to get what I am after and pass it along to him to use.

Tempus drums, who I am going to have make my kit, does in fact use gel coat as their exterior finish which is sprayed into the mold prior to the layup. He shoots a clear gel coat into the mold first followed by another gel coat layer that is tinted an opaque color or utilizing clear gel coat with glitter added and then follows that up with a mat and cloth layup using polyester resin. The shells are relatively thin and the finish on the outside is really nice, smooth and shiny which is the side that parts from the mold. So inotherwords, it is a female mold creating the smooth outer exterior finish of the drum and the interior of the drum has a raw fiberglass finish texture from a hand layup. I own a single shell made by Tempus but now am interested in a whole kit. Tempus typically makes opaques and glitter finishes which are very nice but I was looking for a metallic look, not a sparkle, hence my thoughts of having a silver background of some kind overlayed with a translucent blue. Simply using dyes added to gel coat will not do the trick or achieve this look.

Also the cloth I was talking about using for the outer layer that would be seen is not carbon fibre. It is nothing more than an aluminized fiberglass cloth (actually nickel I believe from a description I read). It is a silver colored weave which looks very cool. I realize the “blue leaf” Rocket drums do not have a weave in its finish, but I thought perhaps the aluminum colored weave may look good behind a translucent blue in a layed up part and thought it was worth a shot. I know it will take some experimenting I’m sure if I am hung up on achieving a shade such as this.

#12

i must have read your post wrong, because I get what you are saying now, or maybe didn’t finish reading before I posted

#13

No problem EMI. All input is well received by me. I realize people are trying to help with knowledge and opinions for what I am after.

I think all you can say to me probably is …good luck …lol! It’s hell being so picky but I know what I like.

If I end up beating my head against the wall and achieve squat I can always have Paul from Tempus Drums make me one of his glitter finished drum kits. The one gold glitter drum I have does look pretty nice, just was hoping for this possibility.

One other idea I have that is a bit different than the above method and look is utilizing blue kevlar/carbon hybrid as the finish layer layed up with clear surfboard resin and also using the same the clear outer gel coat layer against the mold. So basically you’d be looking throught the clear gel coat layer at the blue/black hybrid material for the finish color. The rest of the shell would be a standard fiberglass cloth layup to create the thickness of the shell and would not be seen from the outside of the drum. Evan’s blue hybrid looks much more “electric blue” than the other blue/black hybrids on other websites. He is sending me a sample of this material so I can see it in person. This would probably simplify the whole process a good bit if I really liked that effect. It just would be a bit more costly because of the more expensive hybrid being used.

#14

well then ---- Good Luck :slight_smile: