JANET LIUHow to Make (almost) Anything

## Resin Hexagon Pieces I used this week to test my idea for my final project. I wanted to use resin to create the hexagonal resource pieces. First, I designed a really simple mold in Onshape. <figure><img src="../images/full/08/mold_cad.png" width="1000"/> </figure> I used Rhino to join and layer the different cuts, and then Aspire to mill out my block on the small shopbot. This was not the right choice. I had to make two separate toolpaths, one for the hexagons and one for the outline. Had I used Neil's mods I would not need to be so complicated, and I could actually mill out the entire pocketed walls rather than a really thin outline. Also, I used the wrong settings when cutting with the shopbot for wax, so the speed of the spindle melted the wax chips and caused them to stick to the mold. This made some pretty messy edges. I ended up using a razor to shave down these chips, but it still looked pretty bad: <figure><img src="../images/full/08/mold.png" width="500"/> </figure> I used the shop OOMOO to create my flexible mold: <figure><img src="../images/full/08/setting.png" width="500"/> </figure> Howeveer, taking the mold out of the wax turned out to be a huge pain. I had to use a chisel to clear out one side of the mold, and then dig a punch in between the OOMOO and the wax to lift the OOMOO up and out of the wax. Finally, I did it, but this caused the walls to be a little messy. <figure><img src="../images/full/08/final_mold.png" width="500"/> </figure> Once I had my mold, I started casting some resin! I mixed up some clear Epoxacast-690 to pour into my molds. I used some resin dye we had in the shop to try out resin coloring. I used a brass stick to mix in the green and brown after pouring the resin. I used too much dye for the brown, so it all came out the same color. However, for the green, I was able to get some pretty swirls and colors in the resin. I mixed the yellow dye in before pouring the resin into the mold, so that was consistently yellow throughout. After 24 hours, here were the final resin pieces. resin pieces | resin in the board :---------------:|:---------------: ![](../images/full/08/final_resin.png) | ![](../images/full/08/resin_in_board.png)