Double Bass Old Wine in a New Bottle (rosin recycling tutorial)

#61
Two related topic

1) Can old rosin be composted?

2) @Don Kasper, are you interested in providing a service to those of us with multiple old rosins by letting us mail it to you? I, for one, would love to see if have a new life, and you could sell it. We do something similar in my town with bulk styrofoam - there's a company that accepts it and turns it into picture frames. Our town does have to do anything other than deliver it to them, and we know we've kept it out of a landfill. (And when it does eventually make it into a landfill, it'll take up _way_ less space.) I'd be glad to pay the postage to send my old rosin to you rather than throw it away.

-S-
 
#62
Steve Freides said:
Two related topic

1) Can old rosin be composted?

2) @Don Kasper, are you interested in providing a service to those of us with multiple old rosins by letting us mail it to you? I, for one, would love to see if have a new life, and you could sell it. We do something similar in my town with bulk styrofoam - there's a company that accepts it and turns it into picture frames. Our town does have to do anything other than deliver it to them, and we know we've kept it out of a landfill. (And when it does eventually make it into a landfill, it'll take up _way_ less space.) I'd be glad to pay the postage to send my old rosin to you rather than throw it away.

-S-
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Hi Steve,
Hmmm...(#2) Interesting idea, but I'd feel guilty - anyone can rejuvenate their old rosin(s) by melting (& mixing) them in a microwave or over a stove-top burner. In my experience, the melting AND mixing process almost always results in a much improved cake of rosin.
I would encourage anyone interested to try it themselves.
Thanks for your interest!
Don Kasper
 
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#63
I tried, campfire style, it was good fun, and to my surprise it worked with most satisfactory results! Thank you @Don Kasper for a good tip! I'd throw the old Pops otherwise, with a feel of a needless waste.
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#64
Steve Freides said:
2) @Don Kasper, are you interested in providing a service to those of us with multiple old rosins by letting us mail it to you? I, for one, would love to see if have a new life, and you could sell it. We do something similar in my town with bulk styrofoam - there's a company that accepts it and turns it into picture frames. Our town does have to do anything other than deliver it to them, and we know we've kept it out of a landfill. (And when it does eventually make it into a landfill, it'll take up _way_ less space.) I'd be glad to pay the postage to send my old rosin to you rather than throw it away.
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Since Don isn't interested, I'll take it (bass, violin, viola or cello - not picky) if you don't want to DIY. Though I would also second the encouragement to DIY. I use an electric oven (no flames) on the lowest setting (170°F for that one) and it's easy-peasy. Dunno about selling it (will not be consistent, depending what went in - and hey, it's tax time, not wanting to create more paperwork headache for presumably not much income) but I'll take, remelt and redistribute - probably locally unless it gets huge.

I don't think it would compost very effectively, considering it's more or less the first step on the way to amber (fossilized tree sap.)
 
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#65
bassmanbrent said:
Last night I scraped off the top layer of my Kolstein's soft rosin, dropped it in a little pie plate and heated it for around 10 minutes in the oven (350 degrees). Not sure if it's as good as new but it sure is better than it was yesterday. If I do this again, I think I'll just plop the rosin and it's silicon cup in the oven (after a quick scrape of the top layer). I'm thinking that if my wife's silicon muffin tins are made to go in the oven, I'm sure the Kolstein cup will survive just fine...
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Did you try this? Did the Kolstein container survive the oven?
 
#73
First time melter here - thanks to Don, Troy and everyone who’s posted on this topic.

My leatherwood was pretty dried out, and was considering a rehair too (white hair not grippy enough to begin with for me, but the tone with this combo was gorgeous).

Now it’s as good as new!! (not better tho - and this wasn’t a combo of different types of rosin)

Technique:

Freezer 20min, didn’t crush the cake but did scrape outer layer off, microwave in existing silicone at 50% power in 2 min increments for about 6min total, stirred w/ toothpick, refrigerate for 5min, then sit covered in silicone for 24 hrs before using. Damn, really nice. Had orchestra rehearsal last night and it held up great.

I think next time I will cook it longer and/or crush the frozen cake - the cake soup was hot but the molten consistency wasn’t very thinned out. Should it be? I was expecting maple syrup-ish but it was thicker than that.

Oh - and i will wear latex gloves when handling the soup, that stuff STICKS to fingers man…. :)
 
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#77
Jmilitsc said:
the cake soup was hot but the molten consistency wasn’t very thinned out. Should it be? I was expecting maple syrup-ish but it was thicker than that.
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It should not be that (maple syrup) thin, IMHO - the hotter you get it, and the longer it's hot, the more volatiles you drive off when heating, never to return. Might be a thing you'd want to do if starting from raw tree sap, but starting from rosin, no.

Minimum heat to get the job done.

As already noted I prefer the conventional oven, though I'd probably use a double boiler on the stovetop if my oven was gas, not electric. The water in the bottom does not even need to be boiling, based on temperatures that work in the oven. I can't say how low you can go, as my oven has a lower limit, which is plenty. So less would probably work, but not worth the bother to rig up an experiment for the little I do.

Perhaps some sous vide aficionado can vacuum-bag some rosin and melt it that way. Those seem willing to go low. I'm apparently too marketing-resistant to have jumped on that bandwagon myself.
 
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#78
While I remember, here's what I bought last year. It's a silicone mold for mini brownies. My brother clued me onto this. He got a silicone candy mold and made little heart-shaped rosins for his kids, with the pieces of broken rosins that had accumulated in his house. These molds come in all shapes and sizes.

I cut the mold apart into individual squares with a utility knife. Then I reformed some POPS rosin by just cutting each cake into pieces, putting them into the cups, and melting at a very low temperature in the oven. Remember that POPS wants to flow by itself at the slightest provocation, so it doesn't need a high temperature. Just the heating and re-melting seems to soften it. Each cup goes into a little ziploc bag. Electronic components come in those bags, so I recycle them. Just leaving it in your car on a hot day will also recondition it pretty well.

The rosin turns out as well as any re-melted rosin. In other words, it's not like brand new, but better than year-old rosin. I only use it for practicing Dotzauer etudes at home, and jazz soloing, neither of which will get me kicked out of a section.

Amazon.com

www.amazon.com
 
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