Decided to try casting this keychain using urethane resin and metal powders for cold casting metal effects so I put together this acrylic box for making a silicone mold.
Normally I’d use melamine or MDF for the base and craft sticks for the walls on something like this, then hold it all together with hot glue… nice and real “science project” looking… Then I figured, this isnt much material usage and it would look much tidier, and I dont feel like waiting for the glue gun to heat up when the laser is already on and ready to go… so I made the parts on the laser and opted for permanently welding it all together to avoid the inevitable thick hot glue joints that always allow a little silicone seepage.
that is so smart to do the acrylic cut, and then make resin copies! I have been messing around with moldmaking, but didnt think of doing it for acrylic items.
Yep! I do this for 3D printed items as well. Casting copies lets you choose your own material for the properties and special effects you need, as well as being way faster to cast duplicates.
I don’t use the silicone sprays, the particles settle on any surface they can find in the workspace and if you need to glue/bond or paint other projects in the same area, it will present a ton of problems from fisheyes in paint surfaces to just not being able to get anything to stick.
I do use talc powder though, just not for casting the mold from the model.
And the first finished mold. This one has some teeny air bubbles on the surface and looks like the inside of a “D” and “Q” had air bubbles stuck in them but all in all, came out great. Definitely good enough to test out some metal cold casting techniques.
I seriously would never get anything done if I gave in to my desires to try all these cool things that I see on this forum LOL I guess I will just have to live vicariously through you guys
Shut the front door! I have been wondering whether or not it would be possible to create molds for PMC. Thank you for exploring this theme and for sharing your findings here.
I have the first test part in the mold right now. It won’t be ready to demold til Sat morning because I only have slower cure resin on hand for making thicker castings. Used aluminum powder so I’m not sure how it will turn out. I normally use the aluminum just for dissipating heat in larger castings.
One way to deal with potential problems with bubbles in investment casting is to first paint the model with the investment using a brush to ensure coverage in high detail areas.
Then I figured, this isnt much material usage and it would look much tidier, and I dont feel like waiting for the glue gun to heat up when the laser is already on and ready to go… so I made the parts on the laser and opted for permanently welding it all together to avoid the inevitable thick hot glue joints that always allow a little silicone seepage.
