1. Design of a 3D mold
2. Milling the mold
3. Casting the mold
4. Others forms to do molding and casting
5. Selft evaluation
6. File download

1. Milling machine monoFab SRM-20
2. Laser cut Epilog Legend 36EXT
3. Silicone Moldmaking
4. smooth-cast
5. MDF

For this assignment I have to design a 3D mold, machine it and use it to cast parts

I decide make my mold on Autocad 3D, because I used it in computer-aided design assignment

The next step was milling the mold, for this task I used the monoFab SRM-20 milling machine.

The monofab has a easy interface to do the mold, this machine has a good resolution and also has an intuitive user interface

In the program of the monofab(MODELA player 4), you can select the appropriate length, the type of material,the type of milling cutter, and the initial point, for my case I selected two operations the first a Quick debarking and the second a fine finish.

Finally we have to make the roughing and finishing to send it to milling machine Monofab SRM-20

I decided use Mold Max 60 as mold, and I used silicone F-20 Plus as final product, for cast the mold dont was necessary use a release agent.
You have to use these products in the following order:

I did my casting using 200g of Mold Max 60 and 12g of catalizer because the ratio of quantities is 100:6

Now I going to use silicon F-20 to do my casting, I decided use this product because I want to do a stamp of the fab lab logo. The ratio of quantities is 100:3

Is very important to use a good release agent to prevent the silicone from sticking to the mold, I have goog results with car wax

I finally filled the mold with f-20 silicone and after twelve hours I got my seal

I liked do molding and casting and I decided use the silicone, Smooth-cast 326 and Mold Max 60 as mold

First I took some measures to replicate the samples

For this i needed to design a container for the mold

To calculate the exact quantities y use rice

You have to take a special care to do the mix because the ratio is 10 to 1, if you use too much catalyzer the mold becomes hard very fast

The last step is to pour the mixture into the molds and wait

Finally we extract our product

Also I tested Mold Max60 as material for mold and the Smooth-Cast 326 as fill material for the mold

In the end I could have some results of my molds.

1. What worked:
   • Was amazing perform molds and almost everything worked
   
   
2. What did not work:
   • One mold failed, because I forget mix with vigor, and the silicone did not hardened
   
   
3. Things to improve:
   • You need to avoid bubbles, and is essential made holes to get out the air
   
   

File download