Initial Sketches and Ideation
1-Part Mold
Mold Material: 3D Printed
Casting Material: Sil-Smooth 940
For the 1-part mold, we made a 3D printed negative of the final product. This was designed by Zahir Bashir and then 3D printed in Nolop by Maya Dubolle and Vio Ta. Then, I had done the casting using the 3D printed mold in Sci-Tech 252. For the 1-part mold, we used Sil-Smooth 940 as the casting material. For this, I used the scale to measure out parts A and B in a ratio of 100:10 in weight. Then, I mixed and poured into the 3D printed mold to let the Sil-Smooth cure over 24 hours.
I chose this material because it was stiffer than the Mold-Max material according to the Safety Data Sheets within each box. Also, Sil-Smooth was fairly easy to remove from 3D printed plastic.Finally, I took the base part out of the 3D printed mold, and trimmed the edges that had spilt over.
2-Part Mold
Object Material: 3D Printed/SLA
Mold Material: Ajla-Safe
Casting Material: Mold-Max 30
We chose the Ajla-Safe material as the molding material because of its fast cure time of about 8 minutes. Using this property, we were able to make the Alja-Safe mold and cast using Mold-Max 30 in one Nolop session, rather than having to wait 16 hours to make the top half of the mold. For this, I was at Nolop with Vio when making the bottom half of the Alja-Safe mold, but then left for class. Then, Vio and Maya made the top half of the mold and casted the Kirby. Furthermore, I was interested in using Mold Max 30 for the casting material because it was pink, and matched Kirby and our team color.
The first challenge we faced was that we used water that was too warm to make the Alja-Safe mixture. According to the Safety Data Sheet, the warmer water caused the mixture to cure too quickly, as it cured while we were still mixing (1-2 minute cure time). Then, we made another batch with lukewarm water.
Another challenge using these materials was that we could not find clay in Nolop to set the first half of the Alja-Safe mold. Thus, we poured Alja-Safe mixture directly into the casing/box. Then, we pressed the Kirby 3D printed object into the mixture with alignment screws. However, this caused a problem because the Kirby object’s center of mass was slightly off which caused object to rotate. To solve this, Vio held the Kirby in place as the Alja-Safe cured. Furthermore, the screws were too dense compared to uncured Alja-Safe- so we placed screws in when the Alja-Safe was partially cured.
Vio and Maya found that Mold Max was less viscous, thus harder to pour into a small spout hole. This caused the final product to have bubbles throughout. So, we may want to use a thinner material.