Molding & Casting

This week we were encouraged to design a 3D mold using CAD software, machine it, and do casting.

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I wanted to make a human face this time. In the past I used an opensource tool called "MakeHuman" to design and rig 3D characters for my games. It's a pretty powerful and easy-to-use tool that enables users to design facial and body features by just tweaking the parameters.

I designed a character and used his face for this assignment. The model is exported as a Blender Exchange (.mhx) format and is then imported into Blender. In Blender, I deleted the all the meshes except for the head.

Since I'm just making a one-part mold this time, I cut the head into half and made a flat surface at the back.

The model is then exported as a .stl file.

After that, I imported the file into PartWorks 3D and did the Rough and Finishing Tool Paths. By following this tutorial, everything went pretty smoothy.

I was using the large ShopBot for milling, and the spindle speed was 6000.

The Rough Cut

The Finish Cut

Making the Flexible Mold using OOMOO Silicon Rubber

Making the Part using Smooth-Cast Plastic

The Finished Part