Molding and Casting
For this week’s assignment, we've been tasked with an intriguing project - to create a mold and then cast it. As a result, this week presents an opportunity to exploit our creativity. Two things I love are the Star Wars series and Lego - both of which have played a significant role in shaping my interests and hobbies. Inspired by these two passions of mine, I decided to merge them and came up with the idea of creating an iconic mold for Han Solo in carbonite - a symbol that resonates deeply with Star Wars fans. <<<<<<< HEAD This week group assignment can be found here ======= >>>>>>> c067151fa1beebfeba5bcabde69ad3070fc6affb
Design and Preparation
To initiate the process, I embarked on an online search for a suitable blueprint to base my creation on. Fortunately, I stumbled upon a file titled Minifig Han Solo in Carbonite by sixcrazypants - Thingiverse . This file, which contained a well-crafted representation of Han Solo in carbonite, served as the perfect foundation for my project.
I jumped to Fusion 360 and imported the stl file. To begin I needed to make sure I would not get any problems to demold, I decided to eliminate the top and bottom shafts of the design. This way I would have uniform edges around my piece and demolding would be easy.
After the stl had been modified I created a base and walls around Han Solo to create a barrier where the silicone would eventually be poured over. This was easy by just drawing a sketch and extruding about 2 mm passed the head of Han.
Milling and CNC Routing
The modified STL file was then processed in VCarve Pro 9.0 to create the machining paths for our CNC Router. The rough and fine details were carved out from sculpting wax, resulting in a detailed replica.
Once the program had a gcode exported for both rough and fine finishes, I went to our CNC Router that you can take a look at our group assignment in week 7.
| Attribute | Details |
|---|---|
| URL | https://www.asiarobotica.com/router-cnc-shop-pro |
| Machine | Asia Robotica shop-1325 |
| Dimensions | 3x1.8x1.7mts |
| Motor Power | 4 HP at 24000 rpm´s |
| Power Supply | 220v/2F/3.5KW |
| Material Fixtures | Clamps |
To make sure the sculpting wax was fixed, I used a few clamps to make sure it would not move. Once that was set, I had my zero calibrated on the left bottom corner of my material and made sure to lower the z axis with care.
For this machining I used the following endmills, the one on the Right is the rough endmill of 1/8 in and the one on the left is the fine finish with a ball nose as well in 1/8 in
After 40 mins I got some great results even with the rough finish.
And after another 3 hours the outcome was great! I couldn’t believe how smooth the molding wax was.
Get a Look at this incredible mold!
Creating the Silicone Mold
To begin with the casting I used the Smooth-on Silicone 30-30 were the datasheet gives us a density of 1.23g/cm^3 and had a 100A : 10 B ratio. To calculate how much of the silicone will be needed, I filled my mold to the rim with water which has a 1g/cm^3 and had a 65 grams of water. Which means that we would need a total of approx. 80 grams of silicone. After some math that would mean 73 grams of part A and 7 grams of part B.
After 5 min of stirring, I verted the silicone into the mold and left to cure overnight. The outcome was amazing! but as the datasheet would recommend, I opted to cure at 65°C for another 4 hours.
Final Casting
As a fun experiment, I cast all the sculpting wax that was milled out to create the mold. This wax was melted on a old pan (that had been out of circulation on my kitchen for a long time) on a medium heat and then poured over to the silicone mold.
