For my milling I used the Intelitek machine at RPL. This machine is rarely used, which is great because it means it's usually free. I thought this might be a great resource to have instead of having to go to N51 for any small milling job. The file setup went ok - Jen had to help me out a bit with reversing a curve. After the file was ready, setting up the machine was as easy as jogging the endmill to the correct home position, setting it as the origin and sending off the job.
The clean up was easy and enjoyable. The vacuum did a pretty good job sucking the wax from the deeper grooves in the mold.
Anyway, the mold came out nice and clean. I was surprised by how tidy the scalloping was. The surfaces were really quite deliciously smooth. OK... Casting montage!
Since I've been casting a bit already over this semester using Oomoo from Smooth-On wasn't an issue. 1:1 ration of volumes, mix for a couple minutes, pour, shake a bit to get as many bubbles out as possible and leave for (allegedly) 75min. I found I had to keep mine for about 2hr because the silicone was just refusing to cure. I noticed that one of the bottles had congealed a bit, but it wasn't anything terrible so I decided to go ahead with it. Ultimately, I think that's what may have caused a slight slowing down in curing time. Nevertheless, the oomoo mold came out nice and I went ahead and prepared the hydro-stone. It was your usual pouring of plaster into a cup, getting some water in there, realising you poured too much water and having to add more and more plaster until the mixture turned to a consistency of creamy peanut butter. I couldn't fin any reliable info as to how long I should leave the hydro-stone to cure so I decided to leave it overnight. In the morning it was nice and solid and slid out beautifully from the oomoo mold.
And tadaa! My very own halloween candy holder - perfectly sized for a Hershey's Kisses and Reese's PB Cups. Adios!