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Alginate Retarder

Alp OzbenAlp Ozben ✭
in General
Hello everyone,

First i want to thank everyone putting effort to make this magical job more accessible to amateurs.  It is awesome to watch professionals at work.

I have a question about alginate usage for live castings.

I live in turkey and i cannot find alginate specific for live castings. All alginates I can find are dentist alginates and thier work time is very very short.

I was wondering if there is a way to slow down the dentist grade alginates cure time.

I used cold water but it wasnt a big help :(

Thanks in advance.

ALp

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    Travis DunnTravis Dunn ✭

    Hi Alp,

    I've read that you can mix baking soda in water and mix the solution in with your alginate to slow the curing time. It's probably something you'll have to experiment with a little to find out just how much of the baking soda solution you'll need to get the curing time you want.

    Travis

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    Chris EllerbyChris Ellerby Admin
    Here is a document that covers slowing the set time of alginate:
    https://www.artmolds.com/pdf/Extend_Setting_Time_Alginate.pdf

    As some of the chemical reactions involved in the setting of alginate are pH dependent I can see how adding baking soda could impact things.  The PDF linked above covers this a bit.

    /Chris
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    Alp OzbenAlp Ozben ✭
    edited October 2015
    Wow thanks a lot guys :smiley:
    I have read this article but didn't understand it at all.
    Thanks again
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