Types of resin
The common point between all types of resins or other ‘binding agents’ used to make orgonites is the presence of long chains of carbon, polymers. All the following materials can be used to make orgonites.
- Polyester resin: also called fibreglass in many countries, this resin is produced by a reaction between organic acids and alcohol. The resin is composed of unsaturated polyesters and most often styrenes which reduce the vicosity of the resin. In the non-catalysed form, the resin is liquid/viscous, a catalyst must be added to start an exothermic (heat generation) reaction which will form the free radicals on the unsaturated links and hence allow the resin to solidify. The required catalyst percentage is usually around 1% at room temperature, with the best temperature to work with these resins usually around 20°C.
- Epoxy resin: which (like polyester resin) is also called fibreglass in many countries is a resin composed of monomers (or short polymers) with an epoxide at one or each end(s) which must then also be mixed with a catalyst to start-up the reaction that will allow the resin to harden. Thanks to its chemical structure, the polymers are much more interlinked than with polyester, this makes hard epoxy much more resistant to shocks and various corrosions in comparison with polyester resin. This resin is also liquid in its non-solidified state, the quantity of catalyst required to make the resin solid depends on the type of the epoxy and on the ambient temperature, in general it is between 20% and 50%.
These resins, compared to synthetic resins do not require any catalyst, but the drawback is that these resin cannot harden to become a completely solid plastic. To make orgonites with these resins, one must usually just heat up the resin to make it liquid enough and then mix the metal shavings and quartz and then let it cool down again. These resins will all melt at some temperature, it depends on the resin. That’s why it is best to cast orgonites with natural resins inside some kind of a container to be sure that when the temperature increases the orgonite won’t melt, for example when placed in full sunlight.
There are many types of natural resins:
- Pine tree resin
- Dammar resin
- Acacia resin
- Amber
- Spruce resin
- etc.
These resins can be extracted from almost all trees and plants.
Another ‘binding agent’ that can be used to make orgonites is caramel, it requires a bit of practice to become skilled at heating up the sugar to the right temperature, to keep it in a caramel state while mixing the metal shavings and quartz, without letting the caramel burn and blacken. Like natural resins, the only inconvenient with caramel is that such an orgonite won’t ever be solid either, if exposed to direct sunlight (or high temperatures) the orgonite is sure to melt too. Thus, as with natural resins, it is best to cast these orgonites inside a container. Glass/plastic jars are the best.
There are other binding agents being discussed on internet to be used for the fabrication of orgonites, but I won’t be able to guarantee anything about these methods, or if they are useful to make functional orgonites. One of the discussed products is bees wax. These waxes are composed of long chains of carbons, but there are still many negative feedbacks indicating that bees wax is not perfect to make orgonites. In my opinion this might be due to the fact that bees wax are greasy/oily, whereas all other binding agents that work are usually very sticky and not greasy at all? Maybe the grease prevents the metal and quartz from binding properly with the wax.. Another subject on internet is plasterite and in my opinion this is a completely bogus idea, maybe due to the fact that plaster is much cheaper than resin, hence some people try to promote it? Basically plaster is used instead of resin, according to all that is said above, there is no way for this method to work, because plaster is not composed of polymers (long chains of carbon), all other working binding agents are composed of polymers, plaster is mainly composed of calcium sulphate.
