Molding Plastic Parts

[Mr V. (aka Lanmarkl)]

Does anyone know how to mold parts in a manner that will look professional but not cost 10-30,000 dollars. Someone in the past molded the Spy Ding Robot and it came out OK. He did it at home and the cost must have been truly minimal (out of the pocket!!). The effort was tremendous and I am sure if that person did it again it would have looked like a mirror image!!! I wish I was able to make a contact with him, he did a great job!! My concern is the Liquid Latex rubber (*Mold Builder/ Castin' Craft) does not effect the plastic it is put on to make the mold. I also have the Clear Liquid plastic Casting Resin. Any advice or suggestions from anyone experienced would be most appreciated :)

This would be my first attempt and I will have to go very slow (Step by Step).

Jean

[larry seven]

:) Jean, you can do a search back in previous Alpha pages from the search button at the top of this page. Several members do resin casting here. I have done a little of it myself, but frankly, I was in awe of the work of more professional members, such as the work that member Grandpa did on a dome for the Robby Mechanized robot. Just superior mold work! Heck, the mold its self was a work of art. Anyway, there has been quite a few discussion on casting resin parts, just take a glance back on Alphadrome Robot Talk in the past year or two. Good luck, -Larry7

[Mr V. (aka Lanmarkl)]

Thanks Larry Seven, what you informed me shows a great deal of information. I am going to have to take my time and process this slowly.

Talk to you soon

Jean

[Grandpa]

I do a fair amount of casting for profrssional projects and robots. I have posted a few tips over the past year or so. If you have any questions, ask away. Be aware, to get good results you will have to spend some money on equipment and not use the products offered at most hobby shops or craft stores.

[9tobor9]

B) Hi Jean ! If needed, let's put some medium bucks if not big bucks into casting them guys properly !!! I'm willing to help !!!

The JITB could be made at a real low cost, as you surely have noticed it has a CONSTRUCTO body & legs where only the colors differs. So, what would be needed is a cast of the head & the arms, & a bunch of Constructo!!!

[robothut]

I have posted many , many posts threw the years about casting parts. First do not use Latex to make your mold, you will use Silicon rubber liquid for high detail type parts and Silicon putty for fast medium detail parts. Then do not use the craft store clear casting resin, it has alot of shinkage and is brittle. Do some searching and you find that I have given places to order the materials and so on. Gandpa hasd a nice post not long ago about useing a cheep presure pot modification to make bubble free resin parts. I have been useing a modified pressure pot for vacume and presure casting for many years and it work great. But you can get very good results with out a pressure pot if you mix the resin carefuly and poor it slowly to minimize the traped air.

[9tobor9]

:P Definitely the best way would be to ask the master molders to do it, if I can give you a piece of advice, JEAN !!! They have this tendency to let us , mere mortals, believe we can, as they are, master the matter, but it's uglily more complicated than what those nice posts of Ken & John describe. What really helps in this is experience !!!

If I'm to participate in this, I will have the Bank re-cast made by pros; & there are few of them, even fewer since 6 weeks :(

[Grandpa]

John and Laserman are experts at casting, they have posted several good articles, also check out some of Henks posts, it is just such a loss that we have lost Henks expertise. I almost forgot to mention Bart, he has done some good casting work.

[Mr V. (aka Lanmarkl)]

I would like to thank everyone for their responses. They are very helpful!! Tobor I will definitely be in touch with you in the future to arrange. I can hardly wait!!! :)

Jean