10. Molding and casting¶
This week we have to cast parts from a milled model. I was working in composites doamin in my first job and is used to casting. So this week should be relatively easy.
I decided to make a black panther face cast and started from a .jpg file which I took from the link at the end of this page.
I used inkscape & Fusion 360 to make a stl file out of it.
I milled the 3d shape in industrial wax block. 1/8 inch” ball end 4 flute bit was used to do the cutting since smaller bits would require more time to cut. The cutting process is similar to the PCB milling week.
Me & Gouri did the moulding together. Her Milled part can be seen beside mine. The grain pattern comes because we use ball end mills and the steps the end mill take for each cut is not overlapimg enough. However Black Panther suit has a pattern simillar to this so I did not bother trying to remove it.
We took Part A & Part B according to the mixing ratio of 1:1.3 & mixed thoroughly
Special care was given to make sure the eye pockets were filled in without air trapped inside.
I gave 24 hours for it to fully cure since the weather & ambient temperature kept changing during this time.
For final casting I used an Epoxy based resin with mixing ratio 2:1 by weight. Notice the part line bef0ore mixing.
I had an open notch at the top of Black Panther’s head so I put a paper tape over it and kept it pressed to a flat surface.
The final cast has that grainy pattern & all the corners & edges came out well without blowholes.
We all read the safety datasheets before doing this & were extremely cautious of safety. The chemicals were handled in a well ventilated area with proper gloves.
Source¶
The logo for the blackpanther was taken from this page
The file was a png and I used the tutorial from here to make .STL file
