WEEK 7
molding and casting
Overview
This week, we ate structurally colored chocolate and made messes.
halloween costume
I had a bit of a late start this week getting started with my mold, but not for bad reason! I just wanted to make a kickass halloween costume.
Read more about it on my week 6 page.
digital model
choosing a thing
At first, thinking of something small that I don't have enough of, "shot glass" came to mind. But then I remembered, I'm a wine and beer gal there's no need for that. I do have an excess of Command hook strips that do not have a hook, and a lot of scarves that need hanging now that the chilly weather is rolling in, so I thought making a wall hook that could be screwed, nailed or taped on the wall would be a useful thing.
how?
I had to miss class last week to take an exam, and thus was quite unclear about how exactly the 3D model should look to produce the appropriate mold. To start, I simply modeled the hook. Then, upon checking in with Joon at SC, realized it needed to be in modeled in mold form.
Copying a classmate who was making something intended to be soft (and thus, her mold was simply a hole in the shape of her object) I thought I nailed it. But upon followup questions about next steps, realized that unless I wanted a soft, flexible hook, this design would need to change. After way too much time, I got there:
milling the wax mold
mods please/b>
Still holding a grudge for Aspire, I chose to use the mill in 101 so that I could use mods, thanks to Nathan's help explaining its use and illuminating the fact that most of the problems we have with mods is due to lack of internet, solved easily with hotspotting.
should I pause and clean it orrrr
As minutes turned to halves of hours (should have increased the offset from 0.5), a lot of blue shavings accumulated. At first, it wasn't too bad. But after an hour, it seemed worrisome. Would it cause machine problems with all this accumulated wax snow? In the meantime, and to the dismay of those around me, many Christmas songs were sung as the mill became a winter wonderland.
pouring the oomoo
oops
It became instantly clear that I accidentally left no room for fuid to sit atop the hook shape, making the outcome less of a mold and more of an outline. So, I extended the top of the wax mold a bit with tape, poured the standard 1:1 (by volume) ratio to make purple, gooey oomoo (more like oom-ew). Filled her up, put her in the cabinet and kissed her goodnight.
casting catastrophe
making the valves
The title is a bit of a hyperbole, but I made a lot of mistakes during casting--the first one and worst one being making the entry and valve too small. After cutting the pieces of the mold apart, I needed to drill holes. Drilling was a bit annoying due to the elasticity of the material, but I had made my own bed by not including holes in the model. I made a second valve for the bottom curve as I assumed air would also get trapped there. In retrospect, it was probably the only valve I needed. I lightly clamped the pieces together and began the next step.
which will dry the fastest
Wanting to make many hooks, I wanted to use the hard material that would dry the fastest i.e not the plaster or fake-metal stuff. Asking around, it seems there was some "5-min-epoxy." That sounded perfect! Mixing the 5:1 resin:hardener ratio of the epoxy in the cabinet, I ended up with a beautiful amber color goop.
holes too small--panick!
Having only 5 minutes before it dried, I rushed to pour the epoxy into the mold hole to find it did not go in at all. Panicking due to the time restriction, I grabbed the crappiest scissors I could find and pried apart the holes as I poured, sort of destroying the mold. The clamps were keeping it together though, so I would at least have this one hook by Wednesday.
5 minutes later
Why isn't the epoxy dry? Googling the product, I found that this particular epoxy takes 1-7 days to dry. In the meantime, a classmate located the real 5-minute epoxy. Was it worth it to take apart the clamps, risking the mold falling apart, and starting again? In the end, I decided not to risk it and just try to swing by between classes the next day.
allergies lead to...
While cleaning, I should have definitely worn gloves, but I did not think of it and got a lot of the epoxy on my hands. Having allergies this time of year, I rubbed my eye without thinking and eventually, as the burning became worse, decided to take care of it:
final product
LOL
I guess I will try again after class.
