Good Morning All,
One for after you've all had your medicine no doubt :o)
After trawling through pages of stuff and the feedback I decided I should start at the beginning so for my first challenge I thought I'd think about making my own mould. This then will form part of my Grand Plan(c).... I will outline my G.P. for your delictation and no doubt criticism but this is what I got so far......
My reasoning is that if I can make some moulds then, A. It would be fun and B when I have them "sized up" I will be able to test cast (with the avoidance of bubbles in mind) with some variations on a theme. However for me at least it's just mind blowing the amount of stuff and various ways to accomplish what intrinsically is the same thing. So my G.P. involves accepting and enjoying the journey of discovery (grasshopper!) rather than trying to just bolt to the finishing post (my usual approach).
So I thought with doing some moulds I would then be able to test some different approaches, and also see the size of chamber I may need.
So once I have them the plan is to start with the Polyester resin (the one that uses the catalyst) as its cheaper and I have some... then I will try.
0. Doing nothing but stir carefully make sure its warm and prey to the sticky Gods of resin.
1. Use Ultrasound (turns out there's an ultrasound cleaner with heater I can blag from work for a little while)
2. Go back to my trusty homemade Vacuum chamber and sticky stuff thrower (but that's another story).
3. If all else fails look at a pressure pot - and ok maybe acquire one as well.
So back to the start....
So anyhow I took some advice and have ordered up some Viarmould from links kindly provided by Buckeye (*bows*).
I have ordered the red - mainly because I happen to like red more than yellow if i'm honest, and because I have no idea whether I need less flexible or not..... and also because:
<rant>
I read about using bathroom sealant on the US site but I hate it due to a pavlovian reaction after years of sealing and resealing various bathrooms and showers, which no matter how much effort you put in will always leak when you have to children as boisterous as mine, and you always end up with more on your fingers than the bath.
</rant>
Well ok I also thought the idea of melting it down to try again was great as I NEVER get anything right first time.
And so my poor pre, or hopefully post medicated peoples.. finally to the point!
I limped up to the shed last night and thought I should think about a mould - for my mould..... After much cogitation I decided I wanted to incorporate the following features:
1. Little sticky outty bits so I can "fit" the brass tubes in "situ" - (my thinking) why bother trying to drill acrylic that will end up shattering in my face if I don't have to? And also less waste. That, and the fact that no matter how hard I try the holes "always" seem to end up bigger at the far end when I use the lathe and my drill press is not "quite" tall enough to drill on.
2. Can I make the mould roughly circular so there's less waste to turn off - and also again because corners can be "chippy" when turning down to the round IMHO.
3. I plan to start with a slimline pen mould mainly beacuse they are cheapest pens and I have some kits. I thought a mould that would hold 4 blanks would be ok to start with. (I don't really ever see myself going for volumes).
I have some scrap 11mm ply and I thought I could make the mould mould from and sand/seal the surface etc. with PVA. and now finally *drumroll please* the questions....
1. Any recommendations how "thick" the walls of the mould should be (bearing in mind i'm using red not yellow Viramold)
2. I am "thinking that my mould will be around 20mm diameter for slimlines - is that a little too much really?
3. Is there any point doing 4 instead of 2 sets of blanks at a time - IE will there always be a percentage that fail, no matter what / how I do stuff?
4. Should my mould be "just" long enough for the brass tube or should I make it a bit oversize and if so by how much?
5. Any other gotchas I should be aware off?
My plan is to turn (x4) 20mm'ish diameter "dowel" 22mm shorter than the brass tube. These get glued (?) to two (11mm thick) formers which have holes (which are the diameter of the inside of the brass tube) on each end (which will locate into the middle of the 20mm dowel.
Then throw all that in a box type shape (I'm technical me see..). In principle the "reflected" mould will then have a void that provides for (x4) circular casting with 2 "nubs" to mount the brass tube on.
My plan was to just have 4 in a row for 2 pens.
NB. Ok I guess it wont be truly circuler as Ill get a flat spot at the top but I think that's less resin and still easier to turn than squares. This also "should" mean that each of the four castings will be separate so no need to bandsaw (I hope).
*Disclamer* This is of course how I see it in my head - and not necessarily how it will end up - best laid plans and all that.
So what's do you think? *cringes* - now I've written it looks like the ravings of a lunatic to me ....
Regards
Clive
One for after you've all had your medicine no doubt :o)
After trawling through pages of stuff and the feedback I decided I should start at the beginning so for my first challenge I thought I'd think about making my own mould. This then will form part of my Grand Plan(c).... I will outline my G.P. for your delictation and no doubt criticism but this is what I got so far......
My reasoning is that if I can make some moulds then, A. It would be fun and B when I have them "sized up" I will be able to test cast (with the avoidance of bubbles in mind) with some variations on a theme. However for me at least it's just mind blowing the amount of stuff and various ways to accomplish what intrinsically is the same thing. So my G.P. involves accepting and enjoying the journey of discovery (grasshopper!) rather than trying to just bolt to the finishing post (my usual approach).
So I thought with doing some moulds I would then be able to test some different approaches, and also see the size of chamber I may need.
So once I have them the plan is to start with the Polyester resin (the one that uses the catalyst) as its cheaper and I have some... then I will try.
0. Doing nothing but stir carefully make sure its warm and prey to the sticky Gods of resin.
1. Use Ultrasound (turns out there's an ultrasound cleaner with heater I can blag from work for a little while)
2. Go back to my trusty homemade Vacuum chamber and sticky stuff thrower (but that's another story).
3. If all else fails look at a pressure pot - and ok maybe acquire one as well.
So back to the start....
So anyhow I took some advice and have ordered up some Viarmould from links kindly provided by Buckeye (*bows*).
I have ordered the red - mainly because I happen to like red more than yellow if i'm honest, and because I have no idea whether I need less flexible or not..... and also because:
<rant>
I read about using bathroom sealant on the US site but I hate it due to a pavlovian reaction after years of sealing and resealing various bathrooms and showers, which no matter how much effort you put in will always leak when you have to children as boisterous as mine, and you always end up with more on your fingers than the bath.
</rant>
Well ok I also thought the idea of melting it down to try again was great as I NEVER get anything right first time.
And so my poor pre, or hopefully post medicated peoples.. finally to the point!
I limped up to the shed last night and thought I should think about a mould - for my mould..... After much cogitation I decided I wanted to incorporate the following features:
1. Little sticky outty bits so I can "fit" the brass tubes in "situ" - (my thinking) why bother trying to drill acrylic that will end up shattering in my face if I don't have to? And also less waste. That, and the fact that no matter how hard I try the holes "always" seem to end up bigger at the far end when I use the lathe and my drill press is not "quite" tall enough to drill on.
2. Can I make the mould roughly circular so there's less waste to turn off - and also again because corners can be "chippy" when turning down to the round IMHO.
3. I plan to start with a slimline pen mould mainly beacuse they are cheapest pens and I have some kits. I thought a mould that would hold 4 blanks would be ok to start with. (I don't really ever see myself going for volumes).
I have some scrap 11mm ply and I thought I could make the mould mould from and sand/seal the surface etc. with PVA. and now finally *drumroll please* the questions....
1. Any recommendations how "thick" the walls of the mould should be (bearing in mind i'm using red not yellow Viramold)
2. I am "thinking that my mould will be around 20mm diameter for slimlines - is that a little too much really?
3. Is there any point doing 4 instead of 2 sets of blanks at a time - IE will there always be a percentage that fail, no matter what / how I do stuff?
4. Should my mould be "just" long enough for the brass tube or should I make it a bit oversize and if so by how much?
5. Any other gotchas I should be aware off?
My plan is to turn (x4) 20mm'ish diameter "dowel" 22mm shorter than the brass tube. These get glued (?) to two (11mm thick) formers which have holes (which are the diameter of the inside of the brass tube) on each end (which will locate into the middle of the 20mm dowel.
Then throw all that in a box type shape (I'm technical me see..). In principle the "reflected" mould will then have a void that provides for (x4) circular casting with 2 "nubs" to mount the brass tube on.
My plan was to just have 4 in a row for 2 pens.
NB. Ok I guess it wont be truly circuler as Ill get a flat spot at the top but I think that's less resin and still easier to turn than squares. This also "should" mean that each of the four castings will be separate so no need to bandsaw (I hope).
*Disclamer* This is of course how I see it in my head - and not necessarily how it will end up - best laid plans and all that.
So what's do you think? *cringes* - now I've written it looks like the ravings of a lunatic to me ....
Regards
Clive
Vic
