Wednesday, March 04, 2009

Pouring Resin

Tonight, I got to try something completely new to me, pouring resin.

Mike Senna had some molds made of some of his scratch-built parts, so I joined Matt Munson at Mike's house to learn how to pour resin and cast a few parts for myself from Mike's molds.

I ordered Silcast II resin from Silpak here in Southern California. They offer a one-gallon kit that consists of a pair gallon jugs of the resin mixture. The two additives are poured in a 1:1 ratio by weight.

I've seen Dan Smith's demos in person, but Matt was kind enough to walk me through the process. First up, mixing the chemicals and then pouring the result into the mold, the ankle cylinder holder in this case.



The resin goes into the mold fairly clear, but after a minute or two, it "kicks" and starts to turn white quickly. The resin also gets quite warm, and it needs time to cool before it can be pulled from the mold.




Mike's scratch-built ankle details are made from two parts, so I poured the main body parts while Mike poured the little square parts that sit up top.



Once the casting has cooled, it is pulled from the mold, as Matt Munson looks on in horror.




Success! Matt approves.



Meanwhile, we took a shot at casting Mike's scratch-built booster cover, but alas, the mold has given up the ghost. Oh well.



In the meantime I have several spiffy parts with which to work. A little clean-up on the parts is required, but they are close.



I may pour a few more parts from molds of Mike's scratch-built parts before too long.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Now don't EAT those like Mike did last year!!

Victor Franco said...

Too late, I need a really strong toothpick!

-Victor