Bakster

Looking forward to trying this. I have always wanted to make a silicon mold but I never saw the need for all the fuss.

Ah, RTV, I've used Wacker 2-part.  You have to think about how you make the mold for undercuts and the like.  But the Wacker was good enough to cast "lab metal" (at least once).

I started using automotive RTV, but its ability to consistently model fine detail was iffy, and it was pretty much use it all.

CapnMac82

You have to think about how you make the mold for undercuts and the like

Exactly. Hopefully I get that figured correct. I think I do.

CapnMac82

But the Wacker was good enough to cast "lab metal" (at least once).

Wow. My Dad used to use lab metal a ton and I used to use it for auto body repair. Strong stuff, hard to sand. 

I pulled the backside of the mold today and guess what. I was able to pull the outer flash off easily and the internal flash I was able to cut off. All in all-- this simple mold worked well. But-- there are some distortions and I am looking forward to making a better one.

Here is the next poll please. I am thinking of using either one of these two rivet configurations. Do you have an opinion or thoughts?

[/quote]

Well I tell ya Pilgrim. Is that a war wagon? Or is that a bullion carriage?

Well, I don't know John. What I do know is it's time to throw back a frothy.

Bakster

Well, I don't know John. What I do know is it's time to throw back a frothy.

 

Make that 4. It's been a rough week

As far as the rivets  are concerend...

I like the first pattern.

HOWEVER,  it would look even better if you combined both patterns together...

I know, I know .... soooooo much extra work...

LT's idea is good..... will tie the spokes to the rim.

Bakster

Make that 4. It's been a rough week

 

littletimmy

As far as the rivets  are concerend...

I like the first pattern.

HOWEVER,  it would look even better if you combined both patterns together...

I know, I know .... soooooo much extra work...

 

Dang it Tim, you took too long. I had no responses, so I pulled the trigger. I went with the second. I am at a point I could change things still, but, barely. I was ready to pour the mold today.

I am a little fuzzy on what you and GH are suggesting. Are you suggesting the first pattern but add rivets to the inner spokes? Like what I posted below earlier on below? Only, without the rivets along the rim? Just space them more like my last post?

mustang1989

 

 

Bakster

Make that 4. It's been a rough week

 

 

 

 

LOL! I know the feeling Stevo. Workin' like a dog all dang week and I've got some more to do today.

 

 

Yeah, work has been brutal. An older person should not have to endure this, noone should.

I was chatting with a cashier yesterday at a local Walgreens. She apologized that I had to wait for her, then she started telling me she is the only person working there and that she has been working 90 hours a week. She looked to be about my age. They are short two people due to COVID and, they can't find workers. I pressed her about the workers and she said, "It's true. We can't find people. People would rather sit at home and collect unemployment, especially with the bump in pay the government gave them." Well, that just ran out and now two people that worked there and had dropped out at the start of the pandemic, have since approached her to come back. She told them no to coming back. Basically, she is taking the position, you didn't want to work while you were soaking unemployment, then look elsewhere.

In my world, we struggle with the same. It is hard to find and hold workers. And not only that, but we can't get product. The resin debacle talked about months back is still in full swing. Lead time on such things as wire terminals has gone from what was often stock, to a lead time of 30 weeks. Resin is currently on allocation and that impacts pretty much anything that uses plastic.

Then there are freight issues. Truck driver shortages, pallet shortages, cargo space shortages, dock worker shortgages, on and on. We had hundreds of thousands of dollars in product sitting in a cargo container for over a month because the shipper can't find the necessary pallets to offload. It got so bad that railway from the west coast stopped  freight into Illinois because they had nowhere to go with it. There is no end in sight to this madness and unless some miracle happens, we could be in for a rougher ride.

More than you wanted to hear. Whatever you do, don't get a job in procurement. Brutal!

So yes, 

Thanks for your advice Tim and GH, but I am going with what I started. I must keep pressing on or I'll lose my gumption.

A word about applying the rivets. For many of you this is old news but for some following, maybe not.

The two tools below made this job fairly easy. The wax pencil works like charm for placement. It is like the perfect tool. You lightly touch the tip to your piece, and it holds it long enough for you to place it. The amazing part is that it seems to know when to let go. You lightly touch the piece where you want it and the pencil releases it.

The second tool is a homemade jobber. I cut the eye of a sewing needle roughly in half. I use this for applying CA in precise amounts. You dip the needle in thin CA and the glue collects in the eye. Tap the needle to the piece you are gluing and the CA flows on. This is great for PE as well.

So my workflow is this: Use the pencil to postion the piece you are gluing. I then hold the piece in place with the tip of an exacto blade or other tool, then flow on the glue using the needle. Yes, I am using two hands at once. After that I use a small piece of paper towel to wick up any extra glue. It works like a charm. I also did a few where I dabbed the glue onto the piece still stuck to the pencil, then place the piece. The glue is thin, so you have a little time to position it. Then wick the excess. 

Using Sculpey polymer clay I filled in the areas that have undercuts. The mold compound requires using a clay that is non-sulfur based. Apparently, using a sulfur- based clay will affect how the mold will cure or not cure.

Making the base.

Making the walls using foamboard, then hot glue to seal the frame.

Needs to be mixed yet but the silicone is a 1 to 1 formula. Don't let it fool you. I was careful to pour it 1 to 1.

They say to pour the silicone in a stream allowing it to flow around and onto the piece. 

And now we wait.

There was a good amount of bubbling. They say you don't need to vacuum chamber the silicone but we shall see just how clean it comes out. Most often these manufacturers make claims like this but real world the opposite is true. Which is another reason why I typically avoid casting. To do it right-- you need the right tools, vacuum chambers and pressure pots.

Anyhow-- there we go. Let's see where this side journey takes us.  

Bakster

There was a good amount of bubbling.

No fault to your process to be seen here.

Which may not deter Murphy and his crew of gremlins.  Rotten [expletives] that they are.

Were you embarking on a serious pursuit of casting glory, you'd likely want/need a vacuum pot, since the lowered pressure will pull bubbles out.

Such devices are easier to get of late, as the bowl-turners have embraced epoxy resin for turning, and you don't a defect when putting a tool to a blank at 200rpm in a lathe.

The present results do not warrant such effort and expense.

Bravo.

Looks awesome to me Bakster, good luck with the casting!!! 

And crazy as the real world is modeling is one of the ways I get away from it- if only for a few hours. 

Bakster

Whatever you do, don't get a job in procurement.

Or logistics.  Sigh.

New vehicles are in short supply due to problems getting chips and ECM and similar PROMs.

So, people are buying (or retaining) used vehicles.  Which has increased pressure on the supply of repair/replacement parts.  Which is starting to hamstring those in the repair field.

Vehicle is roken and needs a simple repair?  If the mechanic can't get the repair parts, the repair is no longer simple.  Sigh.

Such things cascade.

Group 31 truck/equipment batteris have suddenly become unobtanium.  Which means the truck needed for the delivery is sidelined even if a driver is available.

Or, the truck delivering the batteries to the wholesaler is sidelined because they can't repair the truck.  That's assuming the admin clerk who ships the batteries to the supply house is available to husband the order through.

The number of people in the chain who have no idea is increasing, too.  Call the supplier of a thing.  Tell them what you want.  They go, sounds great, but I can't find any in my system.  So, is that a system error or a supply error?  Dunno.  "Dunno" is not a helpful answer.

Sigh.

Would drive a person to drink, if the drinks are delivered.

CapnMac82

Or logistics.  Sigh.

True! Heck, that Walgreeens lady was telling me about how they can't get truck deliveries so that they can restock their shelves. I have customers that are airing product from overseas costing tens of thousands. I heard one of our customers paid 64,000 on one shipment alone. It is insane and it's not sustainable. It is affecting everyone in some fashion. I see a wall coming, if something doesn't change soon.

Gamera

Looks awesome to me Bakster, good luck with the casting!!! 

Thanks Cliff to both.

Gamera

And crazy as the real world is modeling is one of the ways I get away from it- if only for a few hours. 

Exactly why I am burying myself in it. I am with you on that my friend.

CapnMac82

Were you embarking on a serious pursuit of casting glory, you'd likely want/need a vacuum pot, since the lowered pressure will pull bubbles out.

Agreed. One day I might just buy the stuff. Just not worth it right now for the little I do.

Thanks Capn.

Sady I missed out on picking these up on Ebay for you Bakster:

Gamera

Sady I missed out on picking these up on Ebay for you Bakster:

 

 

 

Lmao. How appropriate! They look comfy and stylish too! Ah well, maybe nextime. 

Hey, a few nights ago I watched 20000 Leagues Under The Sea. That Captain Nemo is one morose dude.  

Say Capn, just as a follow-up. I was just advised that as of last week there are 44 container ships sitting off the coast waiting to be offloaded. 44!

I mentioned there are containers in Illinois that can't be offloaded. Apparently, it is some sort of frame they need to unload the rail cars. There is a shortage because they are not being returned. They have recently instituted daily fines in an effort to expedite the return of these frames. But here is the thing that I just learned. There are 20 MILES of railcars sitting on track waiting to be offloaded. 20 MILES! Like I said, rail has stopped sending cargo trains to Illinois for several weeks now. The containers are being held on the west coast as a result.

So here is how my Monday opened. Remember that resin issue I mentioned. I have a customer that uses crimp terminals by the 10s of thousands, some parts into the 100s of thousands. Getting product has been hand to mouth. Well--  with a lot of pressure on my part I was able to get some product freed up and shipped last week. Well guess what? Something happened at FED X. The shipment has been stuck in TN for several days. We called FED X today and well, "we don't know what the issue is. We will start an investigation."

Translation? You are SOL. My customer goes line down on Wednesday. Now I need to try and broker some if I can find any. These are the daily battles and the insanity of it all. It is absolute chaos. It is so broken. 

THE END

Don't feel alone.  I work part time now for a body shop. Sheet metal and other parts are getting hard to come by, either by transportation issued or the regional warehouse not having them.  Not an area problem, is nationwide.  

Our windshield and glass contractor is having problems getting glass now as well.  He's being told that some windshields are better than a month out, and some there's no date when they'll be available.

And the insurance companies are screaming because of increased costs and time on rental cars, And not many of those in circulation because of the auto production problems.

goldhammer88

Don't feel alone.  I work part time now for a body shop. Sheet metal and other parts are getting hard to come by, either by transportation issued or the regional warehouse not having them.  Not an area problem, is nationwide.  

Our windshield and glass contractor is having problems getting glass now as well.  He's being told that some windshields are better than a month out, and some there's no date when they'll be available.

And the insurance companies are screaming because of increased costs and time on rental cars, And not many of those in circulation because of the auto production problems.

 

Yup. It is impacting every facet of the supply chain. We are seeing shortages across the spectrum. I may not mind it so much if our customers would step into reality. Some of them are oblivious and instead of trying to work within the constraints of the crisis, no, let's increase production during it and you need to make it happen. Ridiculous.

Anyhow, it is what it is. 

Ok, back at it:

If I do this again, I will try placing a sheet of wax paper underneath the mold before hot gluing. It was somewhat of a pain to detach the mold from the plate. I thought it might pop off with some coaxing, but I underestimated the strength of the gooy glue. I had to pry it up, bit by bit. Not a terrible problem but my arms got a workout. Live and learn.

On the bright side-- I found that removing the clay base was a breeze. It basically popped out. I thought for sure I'd have to gouge it out chunk by chunk. Not so. Also-- the silicone cured beautifully. No issues.

I pulled the clay from the spokes and cleaned up some rubber flash. 

Next up I need to make a vent and then it's ready to pour the second half. Maybe I can get to that tomorrow.

Notice the circular piece at the top. I pulled that from the mixing cup. No bubbles. So with luck-- it might be a nice mold.

This rubber is pretty cool. You can't see it in the image but the piece I pulled from the cup has a thin sheet still attached that was pulled from the wall of the cup. I gave it a good go to rip it and it wouldn't. This is strong stuff. It might be good for dipping tools even. Maybe.

Looking good so far Bakster.

That mold looks perfect! Crossing my fingers everything goes well.

Gamera

That mold looks perfect! Crossing my fingers everything goes well.

 

Thanks, Gam. 

Dodgy

Looking good so far Bakster.

 

All systems are go. 

Well;

 If you fail then my way is wrong after all! Nah, looking good!