molding and casting : 20 April

This is an exciting part of fab academy. I am a 3d Printing buff by nature, but believes in the power of molding for scaling up production to fairly large numbers of replicas with great finish.

Molding and casting is a bit challenging. But I will be observing the workflow which can be optimised for fast and smooth production of miniature replicas with different materials.

objectives

Familiarise Materials.

Design a mould : single part < Two Part < Multi parts etc.

Goodness of a mould lies in its texture finish. Different textures inside the mould cavity can give different finishes to the cast. Ever wondered about the matt finish, silky smooth finish etc of your mobile phone covers, its all the magic of mould cavity texture. It depends on the material we use to machine too.

I decided to try with a ring design i made some time ago. Used Rhino to cut the mesh into two parts and made it on top of two boxes.

Rhino

Rhino

Familiarise 3D machining.

  • Machine it on wax or other suitable material.
  • Make Soft mould with flexible materials.
  • Cast parts out of it.

N.B : More will be updated.