Resin Casting ??

[highway]

Alumilite has an excellent DVD also. Kinda like "old man" said ... it may not exactly be the products fault that your results aren't what you expected. There is a learning curve with all these products to achieve the best possible results. Reading the directions carefully would help also, thats no joke by the way.

I also agree, and I found the Alumilite resin quite pleasing to work with, I started with what I believe is the same mini set you are referring to

and liked it so much I bought the larger bottles.

As some have said, though, the mini set will not go far, and when I made the trip back to the Hobbytown I bought mine from (over 100 miles away!), they were out of the mold rubber, that's why I only have big bottles of resin. I personally have not had any issues with their mold rubber, but all I was able to make from the starter set is this one for a tractor trailer headache rack and a couple very small part ones, but I have gotten about 10 casts out of it with no problems.

This is one of the boxes I made with their resin,

and follow this link to see one I traded here actually on a truck:

http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=31022

Of course, like others have said, too, it does set very quickly. I forgot that one time after not using it for a while, and this is what happen, a headache rack that turned into some sort of modern art!!

[Len Geisler]

i use the alumilite all the time i have never had any issue's with it yes it set's fast but just back off of part b & it will set slow as far as stripes in it it is because he did not mix it well. i just cast 14 fuel fitting's with exc result's you have to follow the instruction's & it work's just fine

Joe....Not so sure it had anything to do with the mix, as the parts dried hard as a rock. I even asked my dealer, and he told me the same thing, smaller batches sometimes dry with the stripes, and suggested heat. That was when I went back to Smooth On....No heat, no fuss, no muss...

[jas1957]

Check out Lance Sellers web site, in the garage area he has a pretty thorough photo tutorial on casting.

www.lsresincars.com

[my66s55]

This subject has come up before. Check out the following thread. Art Anderson has a post in it. For the record, I've been casting all sizes of resin parts from small to bodies for over 7 years and find that Smooth-on works best for me.

http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=15637&st=0&p=133294&#entry133294

[shucky]

Impcon, if I may make a suggestion? I'd take that body you want to cast the side molding/trim from and build a mold box around the trim directly onto the body sealed with clay. The mold box should be kept simple. You can use very thin strips of cardboard, similar to usps priority mail envelopes (not the paper ones, they are very thin cardboard). Take the strips and make a "box" around the trim. The strips should only be 3/4 of an inch in width or so. If you need to extend the strips to form an entire square'ish box, use some clear tape at the seams. Be sure to wrap the tape around the full seam to seal it. Place "box" around your trim and then run a length of clay around the base sealing the box to the actual body. Find a way to support your body on its side for pouring the RTV into the box. If your concerned about the fine detail of your trim, mix up some RTV and use an old paintbrush and "paint" the RTV onto the side trim entirely. This will ensure there are zero bubbles and exact detail of your part. After you do this, simply pour in your RTV performing a "high pour" so the RTV drizzles into the mold box. The "drizzling" causes most any air bubbles you mixed in to break on their way down as the RTV is stretched/poured so thinly into the mold box. Let the RTV cure, pull mold box off, clean up your mold, dust it with baby powder, heat it to about 160F and pour your favorite resin in. If the mold's top is extremely flat you can place a piece of glass over the resin after you pour it to ensure your newly cast side trim has a flat surface on its back side which will require minimal clean up. If its not that flat you can simply use any flat material (styrene, stir stick, old credit card?) and while the resin is still liquid, run your flat piece across the top of the mold removing most of the extra resin you may have poured. This makes your cast piece semi flat on the backside and reduces the amount of clean up you'll have to do to finish up the piece. It will be delicate but if you work carefully I think this is entirely doable. Good luck!

[crazyjim]

I sent an email to Smooth-On about a mold & casting kit. They have a starter kit that sells for $50.00 to make 2D castings. If I wantedd to try casting a wheel, wouldn't that be 3D?

Here's the info - http://www.smooth-on.com/index.php?cPath=4_1217

[crazyjim]

To make a 2 part mold you need oil based non-sulfer modeling clay like Chavany NSP clay. My problem is that it comes in 2 colors and then soft, medium, and hard. Great! So which one? Chavant is sending me samples. I don't have prices yet.

So which is better? Alumilite or Smooth-On?

[jeffb]

i use medium kleen klay. the chevant clays are used more as automotive styling clays. the cheavants ive ived in the past needed to be very warm to use and then they harden when cool

[crazyjim]

Thnaks Jeff. More stuff to chwck out. Do you use the Smooth-On products for the molds & resin? Alumilite? Something else?

[impcon]

Impcon, if I may make a suggestion? I'd take that body you want to cast the side molding/trim from and build a mold box around the trim directly onto the body sealed with clay. The mold box should be kept simple. You can use very thin strips of cardboard, similar to usps priority mail envelopes (not the paper ones, they are very thin cardboard). Take the strips and make a "box" around the trim. The strips should only be 3/4 of an inch in width or so. If you need to extend the strips to form an entire square'ish box, use some clear tape at the seams. Be sure to wrap the tape around the full seam to seal it. Place "box" around your trim and then run a length of clay around the base sealing the box to the actual body. Find a way to support your body on its side for pouring the RTV into the box. If your concerned about the fine detail of your trim, mix up some RTV and use an old paintbrush and "paint" the RTV onto the side trim entirely. This will ensure there are zero bubbles and exact detail of your part. After you do this, simply pour in your RTV performing a "high pour" so the RTV drizzles into the mold box. The "drizzling" causes most any air bubbles you mixed in to break on their way down as the RTV is stretched/poured so thinly into the mold box. Let the RTV cure, pull mold box off, clean up your mold, dust it with baby powder, heat it to about 160F and pour your favorite resin in. If the mold's top is extremely flat you can place a piece of glass over the resin after you pour it to ensure your newly cast side trim has a flat surface on its back side which will require minimal clean up. If its not that flat you can simply use any flat material (styrene, stir stick, old credit card?) and while the resin is still liquid, run your flat piece across the top of the mold removing most of the extra resin you may have poured. This makes your cast piece semi flat on the backside and reduces the amount of clean up you'll have to do to finish up the piece. It will be delicate but if you work carefully I think this is entirely doable. Good luck!

Thank you for taking the time to make that post! I appreciate it! I tried laying some Play Dough out flad and I pressed the side of an El Camino body into the stuff and it made a decent impression. I am going to try again to make a casting using Easy cast Epoxy Casting Resin. I have ordered some Smoothcast but I wont have it for a few days - so I will try to work with what I have here and learn and practice. I agree that this can be done - it's a learning curve as has been said and this is pretty much new to me. I just wish that I had more time to devote to my building hobby. It seems that all I do is buy and haord.. I have so many projects ahead of me..

[MoparWoman Jamie]

I use the Smooth-On stuff mostly, good products. But I must say that around the beginning of the year, I did how ever run into afew issues with their rubber mold compound. I think I might have maybe got a bad batch or something though as before that I was having very good results and then around feb 2010, I got afew bottles or cans which ever you like to call them and the molds came out horrible and I have one mold here yet that came from that batch and that mold is coming apart in the center area where the rubber compound is not rubber but very soft though. I'm going to use some smooth on resin and put some on the back side of it to act as a glue. But after that the compound seem to work good once again for me. Also their release agent in the blue cans, are for diecast it seems. A friend of mine sold me a can of it over a year ago and each mold I used that stuff in.. didn't mater how many times you wash the resin parts off they would not hold paint at all. i mean you could spray paint them like you would any part BUT once the paint dried and you started to handle the part, the paint came right back off. I mean my friend and I tried all kinds of release stuff to clean the resin parts off and to get paint to stick on them nothing seem to work. I even tried spray glue on afew things I did and yet it seem it was working and then once the glue dried and i handled the part the glue came right off on my hand and glue is hard to remove off anything almost. He and I then switch to Stoner release agent and man that stuff is the bumb as I would use that stuff anyday before I would the smooth-on release agent! I would highly recommend the Stoner as a resin release agent and it can be use with the Smooth-On rubber mold compound and resin also. Don't be afraid to shoot the release agent into the mold either. Leave the mold set for at least 30 minutes after spraying Stoner into it before pouring resin into the mold. But I personally wouldn't recommend Smooth-On release agent.. my friend is still trying to get the dang smooth-on release agent out of some of his molds that used it in LOL.