11/24: molding
make a mold and cast parts in it

This week I set out to understand molding so that I could cast my final project. Although I will probably cast my final project in PDMS, I wanted to get a feel for the work flow of using wax and Smooth-On 121/30 rubber. I was really pleased with my results this week.

This is the mold I designed:



I ran into a little bit of trouble with CAD and png's - Charlie helped me out with the following e-mail:

"The Python Imaging Library which cad uses cannot read interlaced PNG files. Save it as a non-interlaced RGB PNG file and it should work fine."

That worked perfectly, and I was able to resume my workflow. Although I made these files in Coreldraw, I will probably use a 3D program in the future, render the object in grey scales, and export as png's.

I milled my mold from a block of wax on the modella:



I was really happy with the way the wax mold turned out:



I cast the Smooth-On 121/30 rubber in this mold. This is the result: