Post by Mastercaster on Mar 10, 2009 9:10:41 GMT -8
I'm already going to have to give up this shtick. I had some ideas of what I wanted, I thought about the chrome egg crate ceiling light panels you see in office buildings, but I knew it would be hard to clean and would not bend much to release cured resin. I thought about scratch building something but when I found this, I knew it was my holy grail for my theory of helping to displace excess resin and air from within the mold. It is 4 1/4 inches wide by 8 1/4 inches long. I started making parts molds just smaller than this. It might be more accurate to say this is part of the venting system. I got this home and took a exacto knife and cut a little "V" in all the walls that formed cells or squares so when it is set on the mold that has a lot of vent holes it gives the excess resin and air an escape route. Why all the fuss?? Thinner flash means more accurate parts. Flash from my new way of casting is as thin or thinner than sprues from kit parts. And that means the parts are easier to clean up after being removed from the mold. This is an isolation pad that motors or compressors are mounted on for vibration purposes. The other side has the same material on it and there is a layer of cork between the two so it is flexible. I sprayed mold release on it and keep doing so. When the mold is pulled out of the pot and the weight is removed, you have to pull this off the top of the cured mold. This is not always easy to do. A lot of the cells or squares will be filled up with cured resin. I can then bend it to pop the resin loose to remove it for the next use. Resin casting can be messy because you have all this cured resin flash, etc that is waste. It seems to get a static charge and it will stick to other things.
I have already torn off part of one side from using the clear resin. I just got some rubber resin in the mail so I can make a mold and have more on hand.