8 replies to this topic

[Sparky]

I have a small star roller with a plastic drum which looks like acetone will dissolve lol. I am going to modify for a stainless steel drum but in the meantime what is a really good but simple star formula that I can practice with but that won't attack the plastic,

Also what cores are you guys using for eco friendly small stars. I have Tapioca and Quinoa to try as an experiment. Anything else for small stars? Will crumbly dragons egg bits start a star rolling?

 

 

As you can tell, I've only ever cut stars or pressed them (rarely)

[Vic]

If you can roll charcoal base stars you can roll anything, give it a go.

[David G]

You could also try mustard seeds as a core.

[helix]

I found a bag of couscous in the kitchen and have been using that so I would think tapioca would be ok.

 

Don't use too many cores to start with unless you want a load of microstars,

 

You have to be very patient at the outset and merely dampen the cores and then just add a small quantity of comp.  If you over wet the cores/ small stars you end up with a clump.

 

once they get a bit bigger - say 10mm you can use the toro method on them but dont make the toro too thick.

 

If you start having problems with them spiking (if your binder is dextrin) then add a solvent such as meths or some acetone to your water or toro mix,  It will inhibit the detrin from binding for a bit and allows any spiking problems to sort themselves out.  The solvent will evaporate out and allow the binder to do its job but by this time the stars are more evenly coated.

[Deano 1]

I've used mustard seed with great results, and they're only 99p at tesco for thousands in a bag, in the Asian isle.

[Sparky]

Acetone will attack the drum but who rolls with acetone? that’s an accident waiting to happen, water alcohol is what you want and that will not attack the drum, good formulas for rolling? any Veline composition will work fine, rolling media, mustard seed works great.

 

The veline star compositions have lots of parlon in them and are designed to be cut after using acetone to "Wet" them. I presume the alcohol / water mix is adequate at activating the the parlon binder then? I assumed it wouldn't be enough as veline stars are often just described for cutting but maybe there are other compositions I'm unaware of.

[digger]

Veline wern't designed to be made with acetone.

 

This was just a later method developed as parlon (chlorine donor) happened to be acetone soluble.

 

You will note the formula has dextrin in it which is the binder. This is activated with water not acetone. The alcohol in the water mix is just to break the surface tension, try with as little alcohol in the mix as possible as this improves the strength of the finished star.

Edited by digger, 03 August 2015 - 10:13 AM.

[Sparky]

Correct but if you remove the dextrin and red gum and sub that for PVB on the Veline formulas at around 6% PVB you will see a massive improvement on colour plus no fancy primes to boot:

Plus rolling with PVB will make you an expert in a very short time.

 

PVB will need to be used with IPA only rolling with acetone good luck! 

 

So where can I get hold of PVB resin. I don't think I've ever seen it for sale and a quick hunt on the internet hasn't helped me there.

[Sparky]

Well from me as it was Pyro-Gear that got it in and we love the stuff. 

 

It doesn't seem to be listed or is there a trick to using the website ;-)