Week 6: Molding and Casting

Prior Experience: 0/5

I have 0 experience in molding or casting. It seems more intuitive than electronics though, so I am not as scared.

The Idea

I wanted to create some sort of stamp that I would want to produce a lot of. I decided on a stamp of my club's logo. Maybe I can cast many stamps and give them out as gifts. I reused the same svg that I created using Adobe Illustrator for vinyl cutting in Week 1.

CAD

First, i created a block of the provided dimensions. Then, i created a square hole in it, and extruded a cylinder from the base of the hole. Finally, I added the design to the top surface of the cylinder, and extruded it. I designed it parametrically, so the stamp can be resized as needed.

CAM

Anthony helped out a lot with the CAM.

Milling the Wax

Anthony also walked me through the milling process. The most important step was zeroing the z-axis which was done using a metal block with a clip.

Pouring

First, I measured the volume of the mold by pouring water into it. I then mixed a 1:1 ratio of the two substances and poured the Oomoo into the wax mold. I then let it cure under the heat lamp. This step was fairly straightforward.

Casting

Finally, I mixed the hydrostone and poured it into my mold. 1 hour later, I had a stamp! Unfortunately, I had to do some detailing work (digging away with a sharp tool) at the end because some of the details were lost during milling. This was rather tedious and it didn't turn out super clean.