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 Posted - April 11 2009 : 10:30:45 PM
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Hi, I bought some semi cabs at wal-mart yesterday (see My Wal-Mart Ho Scale Purchases ) for my truck stop. They were 4 dollars apiece, and I only bought two since they weren't very well stocked. I am probably going to need about 15 trucks for my truck stop and to put on my roads. Instead of spending all the money to buy the cabs plus the trailers I was wondering If I could make static copies of them using plastic resin. I think it would be worth a try if I could save that money to spend on other things. I saw some mold-making material at Michael's, and I was planning to covert he cab in it and cut the mold in half when the material dried. i have no idea where to get plastic resin, but I might stop in Hobby Lobby sometime. If anyone has any experience with molding or has any advice it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
-Jacob
Quote: "I didn't fail, I just found 1200 materials that won't work"
-Thomas Edison
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 Posted - April 12 2009 : 8:53:46 PM
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I'm gonna answer my own question. I was searching around the web, and I found a very useful site that explained a simple way of making molds: http://www.b9robotresource.com/molding1.htm I will try this method, maybe with a different kind of mold-making material (I have some in mind that I found at the craft store) to avoid the de-gassing process and all of the expenses involved with the de-gassing equipment. I will post some pics and my results after I try it.
This is kind of off the subject, but I think its worth posting . . . for those of you who own a shop-vac, if you take the top off of the bottom and put on your own container, you can use it to suck up hard to pick up things, like toothpicks or bb's. (I learned from experience)
-Jacob
Quote: "I didn't fail, I just found 1200 materials that won't work"
-Thomas Edison
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Posted - April 12 2009 : 10:08:07 PM
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quote:I will post some pics and my results after I try it.
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Can't wait to see how this turns out. I've never tried anything like this before, but it has popped into my mind once or twice. It could be good for making things like horns, ladders and truck frames. Seriously...if there was an easy way to make some of those little detail parts, I could get a number of engines back on the rails
-cheez
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Posted - April 12 2009 : 10:16:40 PM
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Very interesting. Doesn't look nearly as complicated as I assumed it would be.
Give it a go, I'd love to see what you end up with!
    
- Matt -
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Posted - April 13 2009 : 4:19:25 PM
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Well, I ran by Michael's today, and looked at their model clay section. I found some plastic casting resin, (30.00 for a bottle about 3/4 of a gallon  sorry for the imprecise measurement) and I found an interesting product called Mold Builder. You brush it on the object, and then peel it off to make a mold. They didn't have the pourable silicone used at the website, though, so I might run in Hobby Lobby if I can. Hopefully the stuff won't cost as much as the resin at Michael's I do have a 40% off coupon, though.
-Jacob
Quote: "I didn't fail, I just found 1200 materials that won't work"
-Thomas Edison
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Posted - April 13 2009 : 4:43:22 PM
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that peel on stuff doesn't work well IMO. Well, you have to put on LOTS of coats. I think I tried some of that once to help GIC make some rocks.
I totally forget we had that until you just said that.
If you're looking for a pourable, look where they have baby footprints/hand kits. At Walmart in the Craft section, they have a kit that you can mold a baby's hand or foot. You simply put their hand in a cup and then pour this stuff in and it sets very quickly. The mold is single use though, at least for the hand thing. Guess it would depend on your object.
http://www.castingkeepsakes.com/
~anna
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Posted - April 13 2009 : 5:10:07 PM
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That link you found is an excellent guide. I've done plenty of molding & casting on the job, and it's pretty fun to do. The main issue is the cost of the resin and molding rubber. I always degassed the rubber, but you can set it on a running tool or appliance that has some vibration to help burst the bubbles (do a load of laundry off balance when you mix, lol). You'll need a two-piece mold to copy vehicle bodies.
Micro-Mark has the supplies and a link to a molding tutorial from Model Railroader.
http://www.micromark.com/COMPLETE-RESIN-CASTING-STARTER-SET,8174.html
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Posted - April 13 2009 : 6:07:46 PM
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Thanks for the help, I'll check in Wal-Mart today. Since you have experience with this NickelPlate, you would probably be the one to ask: Is there any where to buy cheap molding supplies? I really don't have 80 dollars to spend on a Micro Mark kit. Also, The cabs I bought are cheaply made (figures, they came from Wal-Mart) and just have a shell that looks like the semi cab riveted onto a base where the wheels are fastened. I think the best way to mold it would be to after I remove the rivet and take the shell off somehow put tape or something else on the open sides of the shell, enclosing it. This way the resin will come out as a solid cab, instead of a thin shell. I think It would be hard to remove if it were just a shell, because the silicone mold would be sticking out into the shell (I think you call that an undercut?). If you have any advice it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
-Jacob
Quote: "I didn't fail, I just found 1200 materials that won't work"
-Thomas Edison
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Posted - April 13 2009 : 8:05:42 PM
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| well I did start a Diecast HO Trucks section on here so that might give y'all some good ideas fer a Truck Stop
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Posted - April 14 2009 : 5:29:28 PM
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thanks for the tip microbuss!
-Jacob
Quote: "I didn't fail, I just found 1200 materials that won't work"
-Thomas Edison
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Posted - April 14 2009 : 6:45:15 PM
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Good News and bad news. The bad news is that wal-mart doesn't carry the casting keepsakes kit anymore, but the good news is that hobby lobby does! I had a 40% off coupon so I figured you can't go wrong for 6 bucks. Heres some pictures:
contents:
instructions:
it includes two bags of make-a-mold and one bag of casting plaster. The only problem is that you are supposed to rip the mold off of the cast when you are finished. I'm going to try to use it more than once, but I don't know what the results will be. I'm going to use the plaster for my first "practice" cast, so I can have some experience before I try the expensive stuff. I'll try it out and post my results!
-Jacob
Quote: "I didn't fail, I just found 1200 materials that won't work"
-Thomas Edison
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Posted - April 15 2009 : 07:30:55 AM
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Jacob,
I'm really not aware of where the best prices can be had for molding supplies, since I did it on an industrial basis, and didn't have to shop for them myself. My advice is to Google them and do price comparisons with their shopping search.
You can also ask in the Mold Making Group on Yahoo: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MOLDMAKINGGROUP/
You could make a solid vehicle body, if you don't care about an interior, but a two piece mold will reproduce the shell without undercuts. Rubber's a lot more forgiving than steel anyway, so even if there is an undercut, the mold flexes.
They do make mold release for casting, but it's usually unnecessary. Urethane just doesn't stick to mold rubber, and I'm someone who's done hundreds of pulls. Unless the parts are large and thin-walled, the only time you'll need it is when pouring a two-sided mold to keep the rubber halves from sticking together.
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Posted - April 15 2009 : 08:22:58 AM
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Ok thanks a lot. I'll try just the shell.
-Jacob
Quote: "I didn't fail, I just found 1200 materials that won't work"
-Thomas Edison
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Posted - April 18 2009 : 11:03:41 AM
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FInally- some results. good news and bad news. bad news: three words. MOLD. RELEASE. AGENT good news: the mold worked! It couldn't have gone better. It was amazing to pour in a liquid and then 90 seconds later remove a solid! The mold material is actually called Make-A-Mold, an alginate impression material. It picked up every little detail. Plus, it only cost six dollars with a 40% off coupon from hobby lobby. It also came with a little bag of plaster that you can use to practice with. First of all, I had to disassemble my truck cab, by drilling out two rivets and unscrewing two screws:
after one rivet and two screws:
I used a 1/8" drill bit for the rivets.
After two rivets and the screws:
I decided to take the windshield off too (just another 1/8" rivet):
I left the smokestacks on, since they were so tiny and would have been hard to mold by themselves.
All of the pieces disassembled:
Heres my mold box I made out of legos, just like the website said to:
I mixed the first bag of Make-A-Mold, and mixed and poured it as fast as I could (it sets in 2.5 minutes) and stuck my cab and a screwdriver handle in (to make it easier to align the mold),
and in 90 seconds I pulled out my cab to reveal a perfect mold half.
I replaced the cab, poured the second half, and removed the mold:
The lego pieces have little letters on each bump,and the detail in the mold was so extreme you could cleary read the word lego on the mold material (although it was backwards)
Now back to the bad news. I drilled a hole in the top of the mold to pour the plaster into, I mixed and poured it, set it on top of the dryer so it would vibrate, and 15 minutes later I pulled apart the mold and . . . the plaster was stuck to the mold. I guess I did need mold release stuff after all. I tried to force it out, but that only ripped the mold. So I'm going to try to make another mold, and this time ill usee mold release agent.
-Jacob
Quote: "I didn't fail, I just found 1200 materials that won't work"
-Thomas Edison
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Posted - April 19 2009 : 11:33:15 AM
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Looked on ebay and found some neat alginate impression material thats 12 dollars for 6 pounds of material. I think thats pretty good! plus its supposed to be healthy and good for the environment. The only problem is that Its a weight ratio, but I bid on a scale for 2 dollars . As soon as it gets here ill test it out, hopefully I will get the same results as last time.
-Jacob
Quote: "I didn't fail, I just found 1200 materials that won't work"
-Thomas Edison
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Posted - April 21 2009 : 7:57:35 PM
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Hmmm . . . Someone told me about some silicone molding compound at Hobby Lobby that cost 10.00 (6.00 with a 40% off coupon)for a few gallons . . . Sounds too good to be true, but I better check it out before I order anything from Ebay! I change my mind a lot
-Jacob
Quote: "I didn't fail, I just found 1200 materials that won't work"
-Thomas Edison
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Posted - April 21 2009 : 11:39:02 PM
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Plaster isn't a good material choice for a thin part like this anyway. It doesn't have much tensile strength. Go with resin for casting parts.
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Posted - April 22 2009 : 08:29:21 AM
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Ok, I'll keep that in mind. Guess I'm gonna have to fork out the 20 or 30 bucks now.
-Jacob
Quote: "I didn't fail, I just found 1200 materials that won't work"
-Thomas Edison
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Posted - May 03 2009 : 1:31:50 PM
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I was right about the 6 dollar silicone . . . It was actually plaster casting material. Darn! Looks like I'm gonna have to head back to Ebay.
-Jacob
Quote: "I didn't fail, I just found 1200 materials that won't work"
-Thomas Edison
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