E12: Molding and Casting

In this weeks assignment we were supposed to make a mold and cast something.


How to MAKE it

This week I decided to make a mold that consists of two two half-shelfs and a core. Becasue I wanted to make something useable, I decided to make a hight-adjustable feet to compensate position tolerances of a table. The core should be a M10x30mm bolt.
For the 3D design of the mold I used Fusion 360 (for the very first time). We did some tests beforehand and it turned out that Fusion 360 harmonizes niceley with our Modela MDX-40.

Design the mold

Now, you are ready for CAM-processing.

Milling, Molding and Casting



Then I was waiting ...

Final Result

Next morning I detached the clamps and opened the mold. Al went fine and the hight-adjustable feet was done.
As expected (hoped) there were no bubbles included. The surface is smooth and there are just very thin ridges.

Extra's

Climbing Holds

Together with my kids, I wanted to make climbing holds/handles for a climbing wall. I had to make postive forms to create negative forms with them. I did not want to make half-shells because of the complexity. I decided that it is easier and cheaper to just use the foam (which of of course will be destroyed becasuse of its shape. They will be scraped out later).
To create the positive forms, we used OASIS FLORAL FOAM, because it is easy to cut, even with a blunt blade. I also used a Forstner drill to provide space for bolts to attach the handle afterwards.
To create the negative form, I used gypsum because it is cheap and easy to handle.
So far, we have created a bunch of positive forms and few negative ones. Next, we will use quartz-powder-filled epoxy resin to make the handles.

A Body for a Drone

Another project - related to casting - is vacuum forming. Here you can see just one example in which I did a mold as a sandwich of milled MDF sheets, which were glued, filled with (bondo) body filler and sand-papered.

Downloads

The file (made in Fusion 360) can be accessed below. For editing please use the PW: FabAcademy
Donwload STEP file


Take Away's