Assignment IX Molding and casting

molding and casting

The objective of this assignment is to learn how to use different materials for molding and casting. Usually, when we have any project, it`s neccesary to make a prototype of the future object by shaping liquid raw material using a mold.

What we are going to do? The lavalier with 4cm of diameter. Why? Because I`ll integrate an electronic board with any sensor in it.

 

For this assignment I decided to make a lavalier that will containg an electronic board 3mm x 1.7mm. I´ll connect it with bluetooth. This is the way the board will obtain the sensor´s information.

To start the molding, we need a brick of wax, a paintbush, a hammer, a drill and a good design!

Such as for this assignment, its not usual to use cnc shopbot. But it´s fascinating because the cutting time reduces dramatically. Unfortunately, the smallest drill´s diameter is 3.17mm. It´s very important to fix well the wax brick.
molding and casting

So, I settled the brick´s angle as zero, the origin point. Then I´ll make a tutorial explaining all the details.

The cutting time was 4 minutes only!

molding and casting Here we are. Then I filled the wax model with rubber. I mixed these two components with equal amounts.
molding and castingmolding and casting After 10 hours I´ve got this result.
molding and castingmolding and casting

The next step is to make a box with laser machine for molding with liquid plastic "smooth-on".

Laser settings are: 30/100/5000

 

molding and castingmolding and casting

Now we´ve got the box. These two bottles contain a liquid plastic.

 

molding and castingmolding and castingmolding and casting

Here is the sequence. So, we mix these two components such we did with the rubber.

 

Wait for an hour to obtain the result.

molding and casting
molding and castingmolding and casting

I recommend you to use th CNC shopbot for your designs. The Modela is able to cut the wax but its not able to work for hours cutting the models of all students. So, nobody was using the CNC Shopbot while doing this assignment. So, I used it!