Molding and Casting

Group assignment requirements

The group assignment for this week is the following: - Review the safety data sheets for each of your molding and casting materials
- Make and compare test casts with each of them
- Compare printing vs milling molds

find any mold that you are able to use. Any shape works. Gather all the molding and casting materials you have in your lab to be able to test them all

Material 1 : [Resin Epoxy]

Safety

This material requires wearing gloves and avoid touching it also when the reaction starts its heat up so its not wise to touch the mold after pouring it, Also you should wear face mask to avoid inhaling any fumes.

General information

Mix ratio (if applicable): [1:1]
Work time: [1-Hour]
Cure time: [24-Hour]
Cured material state: [Solid. example: clear]
Datasheet and sources:

Process steps & Pictures

As for the mixing We have added the material by putting a sign on the cup and we poured from the material until we reach it and we did that by eye and we made sure the both cups are identical with the mark. then we mixed them together in one cup and we stir them well for 3 to 5 minute and then we poured them in the mold.

• And this is the final pouring result.

Result

The process was really fun but unfortunately this material is very disappointing as at the beginning I thought its good but when the result came its not as expected ( I thought solid means as stone so I can’t bend it but this one can be bend if we put pressure and the look is not so clean in addition to it takes more than 24 hours to cure and the pot time is less than 1 Hour as it start to be paste after 40 min almost.)

Overall this material is just good and can do testing to drafting things only.

Material 2 : [Mold Star 15 Slow]

Safety

This material has to be used in ventilated room, Vinyl gloves only , with long sleeve and we should wear safety glasses.

General information

Mix ratio (if applicable): [1:1]
Work time: [50 Minute]
Cure time: [4-Hours]
Cured material state: [Silicon Rubber , green color] Datasheet and sources:
Links

Process steps & Pictures

list and add pictures of the steps to be followed to be able to cast this material. Include weighting, mixing,etc..

Result

The material is so great and very easy to deal with and it does not require a very accurate weighting and it does not require a very aggressive mixing it so nice to use and the outcome are perfect so easy to peal out and it cure faster than what is written.

printing vs milling molds

select a small 3D file, slice it for 3D printing & prepare it for fine milling. Compare the time it would take both, the process of creating the toolpath, the simulated result, as well as the accuracy / resolution of both machines

• I will use the following file for both printing and milling. –> File

• I will use Ultimaker S5 (3D printer) and SRM20 (Milling machine)

Slicing the Module

Cura –> 3D printing.

• Ultimaker s5 with nozzle 0.4 can go until 20 micron which is the finest layer height but in my case it did not work so I chose 0.4

• The estimated time is.

SRP-Player –> Milling

• SRM 20 have a very fine resolution than the S5 as it can give 1 Micron

• Let us import the module to SRP player.

• Then we will choose the settings and create the tool path.

• Then moving to the toolpath settings.

• Then creating the toolpath and check the estimated time.

This time is for milling on wax with 1 mm bit.

Reflection

The process of slicing for the 3D printer is much easier and faster also preparing the printer and choosing the material is much faster when we cones to the milling option as milling needs preparation for the bed and the bet in addition to zero all the axis in the require position. However the process of milling is much more accurate and more precise compared to 3D printer.