15. Molding&Casting¶
1.1 Assignment requirements:¶
- individual
design a mold around the stock and tooling that you’ll be using, mill it (rough cut + (at least) three-axis finish cut), and use it to cast parts
- Group
review the safety data sheets for each of your molding and casting materials, then make and compare test casts with each of them
1.2 Preparation¶
-
Read previous students work and learn what they did previously
-
Read Tutorials from Fabacademy
1.3 My workflow of the week¶
Design 3D files -> Build the mold using wax and silicon rubber -> use resin to cast
2. How i did it¶
2.0 Heroshot of the week¶
- Successful One: I made a temple this week!
- Failure prototype:
2.0-00 Bill of Materials¶
| Name | Qty | note |
|---|---|---|
| AB&PU resin | 1 | mixing rate 1:1 |
| silicon rubber & Curing Agent | 1 | Rate mixing it is 100:2 |
| Wax | 1 |
2.0-0 Safety Datasheet¶
For the materials i used
AB resin and PU resin:
-
Need to use gloves to take them out as it is harmful to health.
-
When stirring them together, need to be careful as it generates a lot of heat.
2.1 Fusion360 design my mold¶
First i decided to cast an temple as following.
Make a postive mold - 66.42mmX45.9mmX14.4mm
2.2 Failed experience Making the mold¶
2.21 Making Wax¶
- I started going to use wax to do the mold. Finally it turned out to be fail because of the wrong type of wax i was using
- Put the wax pieces into a china cup and then put the cup into a pot with water in it. Heat with 90 degree temperature until it melts to liquid form.
- Use silicon mold to make a shape of box with dimension ‘12cmX8cmX2cm’ and pour the melted wax into it.
- Put it into a fridge and wait it to be solidified.
2.22 Making wax mold¶
- Set up the CNC(ArtCAM is used as the CAM tool)
- Set the size of the canvas(75*52)
- Import the 3D file
- Set the toolpath(Default)
- Choose the tool(20 degree 0.1mm mill)
- Simulate the milling
- Save the toolpath
- Start milling and wax mold is done
2.23 Making rubber mold¶
- Silicon rubber and its curing agent mixing rate: 100:2 (pair of gloves to be wore is important)
- Pour into the wax mold
- HeroShot of my mold!
2.3 Failed experience of Casting¶
- Mix the 2 resins together 1:1 and then melt them.
- Pour the liquid into the mold
- Wait for 60 mins and done!!
2.4 Successfully molding and Casting¶
- I bought a new wax, with harder material compare to the previous one. It came as a brick.
- Same as progress 2.22(Making wax mold) and Done the wax mold
- Same as process 2.23(Rubber Mold), Silicon rubber melt and put it into the wax mold (pair of gloves to be wore is important). Then done the mold in silicon rubber.
- Same as 2.3(Casting).Poured in the resin
- Take it out and cut
3. Problems Occurred & Solutions¶
3.1 The first time fail to mold and cast¶
It turned out to be the wrong material of the wax i used for molding. That was figured during the regional review section and i bought another kind of Wax and had a Successfully one later.(Also documented above)