Inlay is going to turn into a saga If this keeps up!  I had previously tried doing my own alternative to inlace’s resin infill material.  It was kind of a disaster.  The dye I added had a very adverse effect on the two part epoxy and resin.  A few weeks later I looked at the casting dye and noticed that it had completely separated.  There are no instructions on the bottle to mix before use, so it isn’t 100% my fault.  I remember last time that I had to add a lot of the stuff to color the resin, and It still wasn’t very opaque.  That could have been my issue all along.

I created another test structure and went to work.  I don’t need to revisit inlace, I know it is good.  For the acrylic paint, I tried to slop it on really thick so when it shrinks the pockets will still be filled.  The two part and polyester resin were done with a minimum amount of dye added.  This time they looked proper dark.  The results were unfortunately bad.  The polyester resin didn’t adhere well, and the two part epoxy had kind of a rubbery feel to it.

Well acrylic it is then!  I went a little deep with the sanding and buzzed off part of the R, but other than that It looks good.  Without further thought I ran off to make the “Cube Sweet Cube” sings I wanted to make weeks ago.  The results were not issue free.

The acrylic paint shrinks considerably when it dries.  The shrinkage is difficult to predict and often includes bubbles.  I was trying to go thin on the pocket milling so I didn’t have to use as much paint.  In trying to plane everything flat I shaved the paint right off in sections.  The neat byproduct of that is some really cool looking shavings.

I have one last test up my sleeve.  The acrylic paint coats well, but does not build up consistently.  I will try taking a rounded bit and make deep pockets.  These will get a good but thin coating of paint.  I can shave or sand plenty off the top with out worrying about going too deep.  Assuming the surface finish of the paint is ok, this should be a good solution.  More results to follow!