| |
> Yes, these will be made of resin. The air bubbles problem is
> eliminated by the pressure chamber. The molds themselves are made
> of a liquid rubber that hardens overnight into a fairly solid
> substance.
It's called RTV rubber (Room Temp Vulcanizing)
> I doubt this type of mold will be appropriate for producing
> interlocking pieces, but for things like minifig weapons/accessories
> I think they'll be just fine.
It should be. You can take a record (with some types of RTV and casting
liquid), and produce copies of it. I dare say, that the accuracy that we are
striving for is likely less than this.
>
> > What exactly is this pressure chamber and where can I get one and for how
> > much?
>
> Well, not being into the whole thing and not being the kind of
> person that hangs around hardware stores, I can only give you a
> layman's description.
>
> His pressure chamber looks like a big pot - clamps and stuff to hold
> the lid on. He has a fairly large air compressor that runs into it
> (and I mean large - loud and huge). He also has some kind of
> doohickey that sits between the compressor and the chamber and makes
> it a vaccuum chamber when he needs it to be.
I'm sure if you looked under molding (probably under hobby, molding, cast or
something like) you would get a good description of it. Or, I know that this
issue has been brought up in some of the model Train mags, and I would assume
in the plastic modeling world as well.
BTW, in lew of a compressor, you can use a 'asperator", which hooks onto your
tap to create strong vacuums (26" plus).
If you can obtain a copy of "Model Railway Journal" Issue 98 (ISSN 0267-3207)
there is a article inside it titled "bubble free castings". (this is the
closest to hand, for me, however, I know that MR in the US has also published
articles on resin casting in the past)
(from a brief peruse of the article, it is only about the vacuum chamber, and
how to use it not about casting as a whole)
It should work out as far as it goes, it is a neet concept. I was contemplating
taking it up to make some monorail track for sale, but then the busy bee
discovery took away that idea...
I'm also leary about the trademark/copyright/patent protection. However, from
what little I know of it, for a copyright (not a patent), the object has to be
widely availabe new for it to still be copyrightable as far as a manufactured
product goes (or the intent to reproduce has to be clearly known) Lego doesn't
seem to fit within this catagory (since most of the parts that we want to copy,
they arn't making any more, and they seem not to reintroduce parts that they
have discontinued)
James Powell
James Powell
|
|
Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: I NEED A PITCHFORK!!
|
| Thanks to Mr. Stanley and Mr. Powell for the help. Future updates and information will be much appreciated also. To tell the truth, making pieces already available from lego, or even from older kits, is of no REAL interest to me except for a VERY (...) (25 years ago, 8-Nov-99, to lugnet.market.buy-sell-trade)
|
Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: I NEED A PITCHFORK!!
|
| (...) Sure. I might even have Jack write something up since he's the expert. Here's his website for the Star Wars stuff, btw: (URL)I have been given some sketchy, yet very useful, instructions about molding in (...) Well, I definitely will ask Jack (...) (25 years ago, 7-Nov-99, to lugnet.market.buy-sell-trade)
|
16 Messages in This Thread:
  
- Entire Thread on One Page:
- Nested:
All | Brief | Compact | Dots
Linear:
All | Brief | Compact
This Message and its Replies on One Page:
- Nested:
All | Brief | Compact | Dots
Linear:
All | Brief | Compact
|
|
|
|
