First attempt at resin casting

[Ken]

After seeing everybody else do it, I decided that it couldn't be that hard. Well, it wasn't. What was hard was avoiding air bubbles. Something I did not do very well. Luckily, I will be able to cover/fix the most glaring errors. Weathering will take care of the rest. These are parts of the bogie assemblies of Tamiya's 1/48th M4 sherman. I lost the kit parts to the carpet monster. I had the alumilite beginners kit laying around and figured it would be quicker to cast a new one than waiting on the PO to deliver one, if Tamiya would ship it. I think it looks pretty good for a first attempt. Now to figure out a cheap vaccum chamber to remove the air before pouring...

[ultraliner13]

Well done to you,

I have yet to pluck up the courage to try resin casting. At least you have. Good luck on your future castings.

Cheers

John Wilson

[ismaelg]

Ken,

Good start!

I gave casting a try a few years ago and I actually ended up selling parts, but it was time consuming and the materials had a terribly short shelf life in my weather conditions.

You don't want a vacuum chamber for the bubbles. On the contrary you want a pressure pot. I got one at Sears. You pour the resin into the mold then quickly put it into the chamber and pressurize it with a compressor. That should help take care of the bubbles.

Hope this helps.

Thanks,

[Ken]

Yeah, that does help. I had problems with air in both the molding rubber and the casting resin. I can deal with the bubbles in the casting resin, but I was trying to avoid the bubbles in the molding rubber. At least I know I really need both to do it right. Right now, I will just deal with the voids as the road wheels come out looking banged up, which is good for a combat vehicle

[Randy]

If you haven't vacuumed the rubber, it's generally not a good idea to pressure cast. The small air bubbles in the rubber will collapes and leave bumps on the surface of your part. Looking at your mold layout you're on the right track for that style of mold. Try using talcum (baby)powder in the mold, it will help the resin to flow better over the rubber. You may also want bigger runners for the resin to flow faster as well.

[Len Woodruff]

  Ken said:

After seeing everybody else do it, I decided that it couldn't be that hard. Well, it wasn't. What was hard was avoiding air bubbles. Something I did not do very well. Luckily, I will be able to cover/fix the most glaring errors. Weathering will take care of the rest. These are parts of the bogie assemblies of Tamiya's 1/48th M4 sherman. I lost the kit parts to the carpet monster. I had the alumilite beginners kit laying around and figured it would be quicker to cast a new one than waiting on the PO to deliver one, if Tamiya would ship it. I think it looks pretty good for a first attempt. Now to figure out a cheap vaccum chamber to remove the air before pouring...

Ken I have had a lot of success spraying the molds with lacquer primer to break the surface tension. Try it with this mod and the parts should not have any air bubbles.