Have you ever tried casting pewter into a silicone mold like this? I know they make special hi-heat silicone, but I've heard of small-batch success from your average silicone.
@@Toystorations Yes, I’ve made prototype parts pouring low-temp metals into my regular silicone molds. But who knows how long your mold will hold up under repeated castings. Try it out and see.
I re-uploaded this video because the audio level was too low in the first upload. That meant losing 500 views and all of your comments! 😭 Sorry about that. Thanks for your patience!
Yessir, you're right - those thin-walled parts are not as ideal for resin casting as they are for injection molding. :) In the past I've gotten around some issues by using two-part squeeze molds, and - for the strength - selected resins like Smooth-On's Task-4. A big sprue is absolutely ideal for situations like this. I tell people that with small or thin-walled items, go BIG on the sprue, to give you that weight above the hole going into the part. Another thing I've done only once (for a smaller figure) is an underpour spout, where you pour into this opening that leads down and curves up into the object, with a vent going up and out above the object. Seeing you crank out lots of parts makes me want to get back rolling with it!
If I had someone like you as my shop teacher in high school, would 100% be in the trade. You speak so clearly that RU-vid autocc has no problem catching on. Thank you.
It's an AFX slot car body,I casting these little terrors is my specialty and making them in non stock colors keeps me in business.Great videos!!!!Silpak is king.
I couldn’t believe how perfect that came out, you really showed your skill and experience here. Also, if someone sent me that car body, I’d be forced to smash it and send it back with a note “damaged in shipping”
Hello Robert, I'm a professional resin caster for about 15 years now. Mostly 1/8th scale hot rod parts. I was also an injection molding process technician for close to 27 years. I've watched a couple of your videos and I've learned a few things. Like you're not a fan of claying parts up, I'm not a fan of cutting parts out of molds. I would have made a two part mold for this car body. I would have done the silicone parting line trick for sure. I would've canted the body front to back at about 10 to 15 degrees to help with flow. On the second half of the pour you could add your wax vents to the highest points as well as a pour spout. Same results without warping the parts. I also make some pretty thin parts (about .030 thick) using a squish mold process. You waste a little resin that way but makes great parts. I'll keep watching for more great ideas.
That’s the first time I ever used it. It is a technique that opens up a lot of new possibilities. I’m pretty excited about it and will use it in future videos.
This video is just a testament to your expertise and knowledge of the process. Really cool to watch and see a new technique being used. Thanks for the awesome videos
I like how your keeping it old school. This video could be shortened into a 20 second video with editing but it wouldn't be the video it is. So I respect that and thanks for the video
I love your videos! I really enjoy how you introduce us in the world of molding. The two piece model video reminds me of how they make keycaps for mechanical keyboards.
I would’ve never thought of pre molding the parting lines. I’ve got some hand carved fishing lures I need to redo molds of because the parting lines are so bad on my two piece molds. I can’t wait to implement all the awesome knowledge from this channel!
Hi Robert! James here. It is exactly one year from 2 days before Thanksgiving 2020, when you first started on my slot car body mold project for this video - which turned out so phenomenally well !!! So, now that it is 2 days before Thanksgiving 2021, I want to be the first wish you a very Happy Turkey Day for 2021 and my thanks for you and all your great teachings with your videos!
Bob, the MASTER! You’ve done it again. Wow I had my doubts. I was thinking to myself, no way! I should have known better. Never doubt the MASTER! Congrats. Best regards, Richard
Fantastic tips. Robert 💖🌺 Quick and perfect results. No wasting time. Before this i would take the longest way trying to make the clay perfect but once again A better and quick way to proced. Thank you . You are and amazing teacher 🌺
Wow, this was the video I needed this week! I'm a new subscriber who has gotten totally hooked on your channel and am excited to soon be a first-time caster! I've been contemplating how I should approach casting a similarly small and thin part with holes, and this video has proved that it can be done. Thank you Mr. Tolone for your excellent videos, I hope to see so many more from you in the future! :)
You made that look easy. I have a part that needs to be duplicated, but know I don't have the skills to mold or cast. I'm trying to learn, but just now starting.
You were just commenting about 5K subscribers not too long ago. A couple days ago you were at 7K now as I watch this one 8.23. Keep doing the good work.
Maestro, what can I say,- thank you for this lesson and letting us having part on this most interesting HOW TO. Great show once again and congrats to your succesful casting. This is getting even better which every video you are putting up. Whish you all the best for your channel - eagerly awaiting the next Show.
@@RobertTolone 110% will help, you have a great way to describe and your attention to detail is far better than most tutorials on youtube. Im fairly new to casting with silicone molds. Im a hands on maker and everything you explain makes perfect sense with great application ! Thank you dearly for continuing your work for us beginners even though you had to set up your shop in a new location. Cheers buddy!!
Fascinating videos Robert, so many useful tips every couple mins. I'm sure wax is much more appropriate than hot melt for this box sealing but incase you do need to release some hotmelt easily, isopropyl/isopropanol is like kryptonite to hotmelt and just a dab around the edge works under and around the hotmelt with capillary action. Hard to believe how well it works until you try it. Doesn't gum up, just releases as a lump. Black hotmelt was created to glue pull handles to cars to pull out dents. A couple ml of iso around the edge and it's off it a couple seconds without any elbow grease and no residue left. Probably not as effective with a porous wood surface either, i've only every used it on non porous items but there's nothing like it for hotmelt removal jobs.
What a great vid, reminds me of my youth, modelling cars out of balsa to make vaccuform molds and then pull clear bodies for 1/87th scale racing, beautifully created Robert. superb ingenuity.
I came across your YT and quite enjoy your vids. I too, have many years in mould/casting and it's fun watching you. I had no doubt, you were going to succeed with the tiny car. You also used pressure chamber which had a much better advantage. The 2 necessary tools in great cast are a degauser and pressure tank. Well done.
Found your channel just at the right time. I just finished my first 2 molds in 2 days and your tips helped a lot. Just used up the chunkys from the left overs of the first mold into the second. And have some epoxy resin cooking in the first mold. I also had an idea for molding something thin a semi spherical and thought how do I remove the inside. I then found you rotor casting videos. 👍
i do like your videos, because you are the only one ive found on you tube that takes on tough casting, technical projects like this one, i take on precision engineering tasks to like- robocop & terminator. the sculpting is only half the battle the moulding is just as tough, especially for areas like the pelvis ( which requires 3 mould portions)and the midsection on robo that have cutaways
New guy here, Very nice way of molding , will try this method, Wax is better than hot glue, Can see your ways are very smart. Hope my molds work as well as yours. Thanks
Wondering with the outside noise if getting some cheap foam on the walls would help, or even just random blankets you can tack up. Something to help both reduce the echo and keep the outside noise from coming in as loudly that can easily be taken down when you're done with the space. We got some wool batting for that use when I was helping out with a podcast done in an old factory turned offices. Made an amazing difference that you could feel just walking into the room.
Yes, all of techniques would be helpful. So far I have been able to work around the construction work so it hasn’t been much of a problem. The worst day was when they poured the concrete and put the pumper right outside my door! That was incredibly loud so I just gave up and waited until they were done.
From your knowledge of the nomenclature, I'll venture that you are a racing fan. As such, I'm sure you recognize that as a Porsche 917K. Anyway, I enjoy your work.
Just one tip from a german dental technician, that works all day with wax. You can hit the wax slightly with a blow torch, that will make the surface smooth an will flat out little dents and sharp edges and lines, that are a result of the inicial lay down of the wax. So the flow of resin is not disturbed. You can also use that technique on thinner parts and spruce, the wax will not run away instantly.
Good stuff Robert. I like your no nonsense approach. I've been tinkering with resin casting by using the 2 piece method with varying degrees of success. It seems that whether I get air bubbles or not is hit and miss. I'm going to try your method and find out how it works out for me. Thanks for sharing your knowledge. I have liked and also subscribed.
Loved your reaction about the clay. I’m going to try adopting your method next time, with big sprue and start using wax. So glad I’ve found your channel. ✌️
Once again thank you for sharing your meticulousness. As always it is truly inspiring to bear witness to your craft and wit. I hope you have had a great thanksgiving. Sitting on the edge of the chair as you freed the car part from the mold, I was relieved that you didn´t leave us with a "spoiler" alert... I wish you all the best and congratulations with the increasing number of subscribers. So well deserved and the numbers will keep growing - no doubt. I, for one, learn so much from you. Greetings from Denmark.
Not sure how you appeared today but this was exactly something I was looking for without knowing it? I'll be looking to subscribe now and learning more. Best wishes from Yorkshire.
The difficulty and outcome of this mold is impressive! Your videos are very enjoyable, entertaining and informative! I have learned a lot today! Best wishes to you and the future of your channel. I can see a snowball effect of increasing number of subscribers happening very soon! 🙂👌
Great channel, i have no use for any kind of casting but i like watching. Also saw the 5k special video, looks like youtube ramped up the recommendations it's almost 12k now!
I am working on teaching myself to cast bugs in resin for preservation and it is going pretty well. One thing I struggle with in a big way is air bubbles and this happens for a couple reasons, I think. One is that when you mount an insect on a pin to dry it in the right position, you end up making a little hole. As the inside dries out, the body cavity ends up filled with air- which escapes when casting- especially as the resin heats up. The other reason is that pretty much all arthropods are absolutely covered in little hairs that have evolved to do many things including trapping air bubbles against their bodies. As my apartment has some pretty strict rules on noise from things like compressors and I don't think the professor that runs my lab will let me sneak a pressure pot into our budget (blasted responsible bookkeeping), I have taken to brushing on a thin coat of resin first. This hasn't totally eliminated my bubbling issues, probably because I am so impatient and working on a crappy little stand on the balcony- also because their shells have little holes all over and it is really hard to get adequate coverage on all of them, but I thought I would share my resin work experience so far along with a question: Have you ever preserved insects in resin blocks before? If so, do you find that a relaxing/entertaining application of resin media?
Damn I love your attitude! For me, well, my craft has to produce an excellence in the sound that my work produces. It's not "god" because the players of my instruments can hear it. They don't need faith, they only need ears. And all the work is in the parts that people can't see .. in the innards. I would dearly love to get a cast version of my product so that my players don't have to pay the high prices I need to charge in bespoke work. The cost of proving-out ABS injection models is about 40K in US dollars, no real craftsman has that. So I keep returning to thoughts of short runs of resin molded product using the same high quality filter of my bespoke work. The limitation is that there are 3 voids that must come together with absolute precision. ABS injection is too expensive and wears-out rapidly at the cost of the product. ABS also has extraneous thermal side-effects that destroy the sound most times by the design and the operation. And besides that, I don't want some large corporate entity to get rich on my back. So it has to be short-runs. DO you have a solution for a 3-window cast? Like I am OK with 2-part and glue, but it has to be internally excellent? Any ideas? And hey, My suppliers get paid.
OH! I’m using this trick in my next project. Very helpful. One question, did you put the silicone in the pressure pot while it cures. So you don’t end up with micro bubbles?
I don’t do that because I have found that it’s not necessary and because often I don’t know if the model that has been given to me is safe under pressure. It may contain voids or porous materials that would not survive pressure casting.
Put the vents anywhere air will rise up and can’t escape - thus catching a bubbles. Put the sprue in the area of least detail - thus easiest to clean up. Also the sprue must allow the resin to fall directly to the bottom of the mold cavity and rise from there.
Wow! It takes some serious skill to cut that out of the mold. I personally would have done a 2-part mold just because it would be easier for me since I'm not experienced with cutting something out of a mold like you did. I do have a question for you. Have you ever did any insert molding projects with water soluble cores? I have a action figure part that looks like it was molded in 3 parts due to the parting lines and has a peg with a mushroom through hole which was captured using the insert technique. Was just curious if you even molded anything like that haha
Im blown away by the craftsmanship and knowledge in this video! Keep them coming! I just subscribed! I have one question! What kind of wax do you use and where can i get some?? Thanks
Beeswax I buy online, you can get it pretty much anywhere. The sticky wax and the blue wax rods I buy from www.freemanwax.com. Full disclosure, they have recently become the official supplier to my channel. But I have been buying wax from them for many years.
@@RobertTolone i found the blue sticks but i can find the big chunk i see in the videos, this website has lots of different choices so im not sure which kind your is. Thanks again!
Hi Robert! These videos are excellent, thank you for putting them out there. I haven't had a go at casting anything yet, but I've heard tapping or vibrating the mold can reduce air bubbles. Do you think if you could make the mold vibrate for an hour or two before curing would help fill any air cavities?
It helps for sure, but the risks are you could break the model or dislodge it from it’s base. My best advice is to save your pennies until you can add pressure and vacuum to your shop.
Thanks so much for sharing these projects with us! I’m learning so much, I was wondering how do we submit a project or work with you on having a mould made?
I am focusing on my RU-vid channel so I’m only accepting channel projects. If you have something you think would be fun to watch me do send pics to roberttolone@yahoo.com
Hi Robert you have some very informative videos, I'am a Locksmith in the UK i have been asked to change the internal operation of a lock for the Emergency Services. then i want to cast it. problem what is the best way to protect the area's where the parts of the locking mechanism lives . any advise would be appreciated as this would be my first casting.....a baptism of fire.
In theory, you could fill the lock mechanism with wax. Then after the mold was made you could remove the wax by melting it off the parts. I would be inclined to test it on a lock that you don’t care if you ruin!
Robert. I have a question, and I am sure you may say "because it could cause inhibition" however, at times that you are so close to the top of a mold and you don't have chunkies near you. Why not shove a pencil or 4-5 stirring sticks or a sharpie or or or down the side corner where you know it will not interfere with the cast?
I don’t like to add any “foreign bodies” to my rubber mold. The main reason for that is that they may interfere with the cutting of the mold or may reduce the flexibility of the mold. Another important reason is that it is easy to dislodge the model from the base, so even when I am pushing in rubber chunkies I am extremely careful not to knock the model off it’s funnel base.
Great video thank you. I'm interested in trying to make a mold so I can make a replacement part for 20+ year old Psion palm top computer, a top screen case. It's quite a low profile part and would need to be rigid not flexible would this approach using a silicone mold and resin be likely to work?
It is often difficult to reproduce injection molded parts with resin casting. One problem is shrinkage. There is a tiny amount of shrinkage when you make a rubber mold and slightly more shrinkage when you cast resin into that mold. So the final part is slightly smaller than the original. The resin cast part may not fit with other existing parts in the device..
The mold release is essential as you know. The only other thing I can think of is that most tin-based silicones are not compatible with platinum-based silicones. I never let the two systems touch each other.
Love your channel. Binge-watching all your vids. Where might I find that sticky-wax heated application tool? Is it a jewelers tool? Does it have a special name i can search for?
Robert, what temperature does your iron use to melt the wax? Also, as a general rule, about how many pieces can you get out of a mold before it degrades? Thanks so much!
It has a temperature control dial so it varies. I set it just hot enough to melt whatever wax I’m using. Waxes melt at low temp, like around 130 F, so the waxer operates at much lower temps than a soldering iron. I get 10-20 castings per mold. But many factors go into mold life, so you have to experiment to see what happens in your use case.
Question. I do a mix of molten metal casting and resin. I have a 14x9" paper Wasp nest I want to cast. Originally thought about doing it in a Plaster Mold then burnout and filling with molten Aluminum but am starting to think about two-part Eubber mix then Resin. Make a great front door hanger for outside to keep people off my porch. Thoughts?
That’s a very interesting and challenging thing to cast. If you want, send me a pic at roberttolone@yahoo.com. Nail the nest just slightly above the doorbell! 😂😂
@@RobertTolone I'm actually a Photographers images not an issue. Might take a few days as we are rearrainging the house to put up the Wife's Christmas Tree Forrest. Thanksgiving today. lol
