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Water in a water cooler - what product do I need?


fov

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I use EasyCast  I love it.  What's great is that you can make as much or as little as you need.  Like Debora, I'm usually mixing mine in condiment containers, using just one plastic spoonful of each component.  The EasyCast really does get rid of most the bubbles, but, as you said, one or two in a fish tank would be OK anyway.

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Thank you for all of the great ideas! These are the bottles I'm looking at: https://kitkraft.com/products/1-7-8-corked-glass-bottle

They seemed close to the right dimensions (a 5 gallon water bottle is 19.5" tall and 10.75" wide), and I also like how it's tapered at the neck. The airbrush bottles don't look quite right to me. But I don't like that it's a cork rather than a screw top, because I'm also concerned about it leaking. I found a plastic bottle from hotel shampoo that might have worked but the mouth of the bottle would have been too small to fit the castle inside. (The mouth on the glass bottle is 1/2"; the plastic bottle I had was closer to 1/4".) So I'll keep looking and see if I can find bottles with a screw top that are more of the shape I'm looking for.

Gluing the cork on with hot glue is a good idea. Whatever I end up doing, I'll get multiple bottles, fish, etc. so I can experiment.

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Hi Emily!

   Are you familiar with this site?

https://www.sciplus.com/

This place has all sorts of interesting things including bottles and containers! My Brother-In-Law took me to the one in Chicago and you could spend hours exploring all the bins of "stuff" They do mail order as well as having a few brick and mortar stores. 

 

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2 hours ago, havanaholly said:

Bill, I had lost that link!  Thank you for posting it.

You are very welcome!

If you ever get the chance to visit one of their stores do it! Set aside a few hours and just explore. There is more merchandise in the stores than what is listed in their catalog.

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3 hours ago, WBrownIV said:

...If you ever get the chance to visit one of their stores do it!...

I live a mile west of Pensacola, FL, in Alabama;they don't seem to have any stores down my way *sniff*

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I feel your pain Holly! I was lucky to have been visiting my sister and brother in law. They both love the place and wanted me to see it. Now I want to go back!

On 7/12/2019, 3:26:04, havanaholly said:

I live a mile west of Pensacola, FL, in Alabama;they don't seem to have any stores down my way *sniff*

 

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Thanks for the link, I haven't seen that site before! I don't see the right kind of bottles but there's a lot of interesting things to look at.

I'm collecting my supplies for the water cooler and will post again when I make some progress. Thanks again for all the great suggestions.

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  • 1 month later...

Just looking at some older posts and read this one.  You may already be done with your water cooler but another option for water would be uv resin. It cures in sunlight so sealing it in a clear bottle should not prevent hardening.  https://www.amazon.com/Resin-Ultraviolet-Decoration-Transparent-Activated/dp/B07DL1TNZ9/ref=mp_s_a_1_1_sspa?keywords=uv+resin&qid=1567839197&s=gateway&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUExUU5DVUpBOTlBUzlUJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwODIzMjE1MkJSWldGOUlJMllZTSZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwMjYzOTU0MzdOSVJIT1dSNUhXVyZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX3Bob25lX3NlYXJjaF9hdGYmYWN0aW9uPWNsaWNrUmVkaXJlY3QmZG9Ob3RMb2dDbGljaz10cnVl I have used it in jewelry making using a uv nail lamp for curing and it works well.  Easier to use than the usual two part resins.

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On 9/6/2019, 11:58:00, tjb said:

Just looking at some older posts and read this one.  You may already be done with your water cooler but another option for water would be uv resin. It cures in sunlight so sealing it in a clear bottle should not prevent hardening.

Thanks for the tip. I bought EasyCast but haven't tried it yet. I'll keep the UV resin in mind in case that doesn't work out. Some of the reviews say you need to do it in thin layers or it stays tacky, which could be a problem for me since I need to pour all the resin in at once so I can flip over the bottle and get the air gap at the top.

I'll be tackling this project soon, I'll report back on how it goes! (It might be a hilarious disaster!)

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  • 3 months later...

I am finally getting close to making this. (For months I've been thinking through everything that could go wrong!) I'm going to try two different versions - one with resin water and one as a snow globe (distilled water + glycerin). I bought waterproof epoxy meant for aquariums to seal the bases. I have a few extra jars, castles, and fish so I can make a couple more if neither of the first attempts work out.

I'll be using these domes: https://alphastamps.net/products/tall-glass-cloche-with-cork-base?_pos=7&_sid=8bc429564&_ss=r&variant=30887607664719

The castle is a metal charm. For the one with resin water, I'm planning to prime the charm with gesso and then paint it with craft paint. Do I need to use some kind of sealer to prevent the paint from leaching into the resin?

For the snow globe version, I think the metal charm would rust, so I'm going to try making a mold and recreating it in resin. Same question - once it's painted, should I use some kind of waterproof sealer on it? Any brand recommendations? The varnish I normally use is water-based so I don't think that would work for this.

Oh, and another resin question - how quickly does it start to harden? I'm wondering when I pour it into the dome and glue in the base, if I need to immediately turn it right-side up to prevent the resin from sticking to the top part of the dome (where the air gap will be), or if I can wait 5-10 minutes for the epoxy on the base to set before turning the jar right-side up, and the resin will settle down to where it's supposed to be. I read that resin doesn't stick to mineral oil so I'm thinking of maybe putting mineral oil in the top part of the dome where I don't want the resin to stick, but that might look cloudy/streaky on the glass.

 

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12 minutes ago, fov said:

I'm wondering when I pour it into the dome and glue in the base, if I need to immediately turn it right-side up to prevent the resin from sticking to the top part of the dome (where the air gap will be), or if I can wait 5-10 minutes for the epoxy on the base to set

I'd stick the base onto a piece of tape and tape it to the sides of the dome, That will hold the base in place so you can turn it over immediately. Not sure how quickly the resin will set when not exposed to the air, but this could make the question moot.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks Sam and Holly!

Last weekend I did my first experiment with resin. I'm going to make a version of the aquarium with real water in it (like a snow globe), and my castle charm is metal, but I didn't want to put metal in the water version because it'll rust. So I got some putty to make a mold and cast a castle out of resin. I understand the consistency of the resin now and I know that measuring out *exactly* as much as I need to add to the aquarium won't work because some resin stays behind in the paper cup when you pour it. Instead I'm going to mark the dome with a piece of tape so I know how much to fill it up. (I need to fill it up correctly the first time since once I insert the base and see how it looks, I won't easily be able to remove it and add more resin without making a huge mess.)

My attempt at making a castle didn't work out so well so I'm going to try again this weekend and then will hopefully be brave enough to fill up the aquarium.

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49 minutes ago, fov said:

I didn't want to put metal in the water version because it'll rust.

Maybe not ... steel rusts, and I'm pretty sure the castle isn't made of steel.  You could also paint the castle with enamel instead of craft paint. The water won't affect the enamel.

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Hmmm. I don't know what kind of metal it is. I am using straight pins (glued to the charm) to help hold it in the cork, and I have seen pins rust over time before.

Enamel is what I'm using already (I figured craft paint would degrade after sitting in water). If the second resin castle attempt doesn't work out maybe I'll try it.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Water cooler attempt #1 was a bust. I used the resin and for various reasons ended up with a ton of bubbles. It looks like he's swimming in seltzer water.

snm292.jpg

 

I was going to try a snow globe next but was concerned about the castle rusting over time. The snow globe would have had regular water in it with a few drops of glycerin. A reader of my blog suggested using only the glycerin, which won't cause rust -- why didn't I think of that?!

This one came out much better. I used monofilament (fishing line) for Mr. Spatula's stem and it's almost invisible. It doesn't have quite enough "water" in it, so I'm going to make another one and fill it up a little more. I also wasn't able to push the cork in as far as I wanted to because the adhesive I'd added to the cork got in the way. It doesn't seem to be leaking but it makes me nervous. So next time I will not add glue to the cork and I'll push it in firmly, then will add waterproof sealant around the bottom as a precaution.

 

snm300.jpg

 

More details are on my blog here and here.

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