Please see this link for the CBA group assignment.
As a lover of ceramics and digital fabrication, I've always been interested in bridging these two domains using slip casting. This seemed like the perfect week to give that a shot! From what I saw online, this is a very nuanced process with lots of things to fine tune. Bearing this in mind, I decided to go into this week with the mindset that this is more of a prototype than a final product. Much of my process was modeled off of information I found on a Youtube channel called Pottery by Kent. I also had a really helpful conversation with Graham Yeager, who is a technical instructor in ACT.
My first step was to use Solidworks to model a simple, small bowl.
With my model in hand, my next step was to 3D print this form. I had a lot of issues with the printing process. Unfortunately, I was not as diligent as I should have been about taking notes. Some of my problems were user error (e.g. not setting up my slicer file correctly by selecting the wrong printer or material). But other issues arose with the printer hardware itself. Before diving into debugging further, I decided to give it a whirl on the Prusa's in my lab. This worked perfectly on my first try (below, right).
Hypothetically, I could've used this form to pour a plaster mold by surrounding it with cottle boards, but after chatting again with Graham, I decided to instead 3D print a form that I could pour the plaster directly into.
Ths print also came out really nicely, but I wanted to see if I could smooth things out about. Sand paper did a nice job of this!
Kent, of "Pottery by Kent", preps his 3D prints by applying three layers of Murphy's oil soap and then spritzing them with windex. I was lucky enough to find these products in the Mars lab. Following Graham's instructions, I mixed up some water and USG NO. 1 pottery plaster in a 1:1.4 ratio (water to plaster), and filled my mold.
I came into unmold my plaster the next day. It was nice and stuck in there. I had given it a 50/50 shot of releasing cleanly, so I wasn't too surprised by this. A couple things some other folks in the Mars lab suggested to make it pop out more easily include: adding draft angles (e.g. not having walls that go straight up and down) and removing the mold while the plaster is still a bit wet. Next time! Meanwhile, I was able to get this cast out by using a Dremel to cut three incisions on the sides of my mold, drilling a small hole in the top, and using pressurized air to pop the 3D print off of the plaster. I was then able to smooth out imperfections in the plaster mold using sand paper and a bit of water.
I was then planning to pour my slip to make a ceramic cast...but my mold was still quite wet. I did some googling around and found out that these molds need ~2 weeks to cure passively before they can be used with slip! Alas, I decided to use silicon at this phase so that I could get a feel for what the final form would look like (and close this spiral). Here are the steps I followed to make the silicon cast.
See below for the results and some fun process pics!
Solidworks files for both forms can be downloaded here HW10_CAD_V1.zip and fabrication files (STLs and GCODE) can be downloaded here HW10_FAB_V1.zip.
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