Grandpa Posted September 11, 2006 Share Posted September 11, 2006 I have been asked about rotocasting by a few members and thouhgt I would share my latest machine design I finished this weekend. The concept of rotocasting is to turn your mold in the X and Y axis at the same time to coat the mold with your mold material to end up with a hollow uniformed walled part. The Chief Hook(er) robot will be the first robot I use this new machine on.It also shows I do once in awhile work in metal :P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyman Posted September 11, 2006 Share Posted September 11, 2006 Okay Gramps, fess up. Are you a retired engineer or something? ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robothut Posted September 11, 2006 Share Posted September 11, 2006 What are the mold size limitations of this rotocast machine pictured gramps? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grandpa Posted September 11, 2006 Author Share Posted September 11, 2006 Okay Gramps, fess up. Are you a retired engineer or something? ;)yep... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grandpa Posted September 11, 2006 Author Share Posted September 11, 2006 What are the mold size limitations of this rotocast machine pictured gramps?John this one is 8" x 6". I just ordered new motors and plan on building a 12" X 8". This design should be able to handle up to 24". This design is a open ended frame, most rotocasters are close frame design, here is a link to a commercial design: rotocaster Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dratomic Posted September 11, 2006 Share Posted September 11, 2006 It's the same technology they (sometimes) use to make chocolate rabbits for Easter. So, Grandpa... chocolate robots for the next botstock? ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grandpa Posted September 11, 2006 Author Share Posted September 11, 2006 It's the same technology they (sometimes) use to make chocolate rabbits for Easter. So, Grandpa... chocolate robots for the next botstock? ;)The ones they use for chocolate bunnies is normally only 1 axis and usually hand cranked. The concept was developed in Germany in the 20's. Most of the new action figures are rotocast, the tooling is cheaper and it is virtually seamless and requires very little clean up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robothut Posted September 11, 2006 Share Posted September 11, 2006 The hard part to me is not makeing the machine but makeing balanced rubber molds and some sort of mold support to hold the mold in the machine. I have never tried so it may not be hard at all once you have done it a few times and have a system. I may just have to play with this come winter when I have more time.Thanks for sharing Grandpa your design looks great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Floridarobot Posted September 12, 2006 Share Posted September 12, 2006 That would sure be a nice gadget to own. Nice design.Every time I make molds and resin castings, there are millions of bubbles in my final result so I spend way too much time filling in the holes with bondo and spot putty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grandpa Posted September 12, 2006 Author Share Posted September 12, 2006 That would sure be a nice gadget to own. Nice design.Every time I make molds and resin castings, there are millions of bubbles in my final result so I spend way too much time filling in the holes with bondo and spot putty.For solid cast parts you can elimate the bubbles and voids by pressure casting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grandpa Posted September 12, 2006 Author Share Posted September 12, 2006 The hard part to me is not makeing the machine but makeing balanced rubber molds and some sort of mold support to hold the mold in the machine. I have never tried so it may not be hard at all once you have done it a few times and have a system. I may just have to play with this come winter when I have more time.Thanks for sharing Grandpa your design looks great!It's not that difficult, I'll be making some molds later next week and I'll send you some pictures of how I do it. The most difficult part of the machine is making the ball bearing shaft within a ball bearing shaft for the turning of the x-y axis. The dual shaft design uses 9 bearings for the load, smooth rotation and zero end play. The overall design uses 17 bearings (plus 6 for each gear motor) for smooth rotation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve Posted September 12, 2006 Share Posted September 12, 2006 This is far far removed from my field of expertise -but once again Grandpa a very clean efficiently designed machine. Kudos to you once again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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