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week six

casting (almost) anything

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Cutting a Wax Mold

This week is for casting, which is another topic I have no experience with so I was really excited to explore it this week.

As I have several tiny succlents on my desk, I thought adding a plaster succulent would be very fun so I decided to model that.

Grasshopper file


When placing the geometry, I realized tht my first instinct - dividing the down the middle vertically, would not work well at all as the drill bit would have way to many undercuts to atcheive any semblance of a geometry. Thus, I divided the pot seperate from the leaves of the succulent.


Image of 3D model Image of 3D model


As Jen mentioned due to the size of the geometry and the undercuts, this cut might not be possible, I made an alternative geometry here. This is a tricylinder, which has some interesting properties and I thought could be fun to cast. In the end the sulluent job would take too long to cut so we decided to go with the tricylinder cast.


Image of 3D model Image of 3D model


And thus the cutting process began. Jen did the set up rpocess using MasterCam but she vaguely explained the steps to me. There were 3 different drill bits used with mutliple different paths. The holes that connect together had to be put on a seperate toolpath.


Image of 3D model Image of 3D model


First we did the rough pass, following by the 1/8th inch pass which refined the geometry a lot more. After some vaccuming and scraping hot glue off the plate, the mold was done!


Image of 3D model Image of 3D model




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Casting a Silicone Mold

There isn't much to say about the casting of the silicone mold, as it was pretty straightforward. The process images below are from the group project, as when casting I did not get the chance to photograph. An important step is to shake and drop the mold to allow for air bubbles to dissapear.

Image of 3D model Image of 3D model


Grasshopper file


The cast came out great after 3h of curing!

Image of 3D model Image of 3D model


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Casting the Plaster Geometry

Similar to the silicone cast, the plaster was also pretty straightforward. There were many air bubbles within the hole and so it was a bit challanging to pour.

Image of 3D model Image of 3D model


This is how the final tricylider came out! What's interesting is that due to the thinest of the tip on one of the sides, it looks like a divot t one of the corners.


Image of 3D model Image of 3D model


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