{"id":1195,"date":"2022-03-01T23:59:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-02T04:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scope-eye.net\/?p=1195"},"modified":"2022-03-02T05:47:16","modified_gmt":"2022-03-02T10:47:16","slug":"casting-spikes-something-clever-day-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scope-eye.net\/?p=1195","title":{"rendered":"Casting Spikes, Something Clever (day 17)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Day 16&#8221; didn&#8217;t amount to much &#8211; motivation was low and I didn&#8217;t have a clear idea of what I wanted to accomplish. I spent a bit of time carving and refining the new putty work on the pauldron. Tonight I opened up the spike mold I made a couple days ago to see how it turned out, and cast a few copies of the pauldron spike.<br \/>\n<a href=\"\/model-data\/1_100_Zaku_Kai\/zakufz_20220301_pauldron_1.jpeg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/model-data\/1_100_Zaku_Kai\/zakufz_20220301_pauldron_1_thumb.jpeg\" title=\"Trying the pauldron part with the newly-cast spikes\"><\/a> <a href=\"\/model-data\/1_100_Zaku_Kai\/zakufz_20220301_pauldron_2.jpeg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/model-data\/1_100_Zaku_Kai\/zakufz_20220301_pauldron_2_thumb.jpeg\" title=\"Another view of the pauldron part with the newly-cast spikes\"><\/a><br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\nI continue to have trouble with my mold rubber. Over 48 hours after pouring the rubber and it is still tacky to the touch. Touching the surface of the mold I even left fingerprints in the surface. And when I took apart the lego box around the mold rubber, areas where the mold rubber formed a thin layer on the lego bricks, the rubber stuck to the lego brick and tore off from the rest of the mold. This mold rubber should not perform this way, normally it&#8217;s very strong and resilient when cured.<br \/>\n<a href=\"\/model-data\/1_100_Zaku_Kai\/zakufz_20220301_spike_mold_1.jpeg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/model-data\/1_100_Zaku_Kai\/zakufz_20220301_spike_mold_1_thumb.jpeg\" title=\"While removing the mold rubber from the lego box, thin pieces of rubber stuck to the bricks and tore off the mold...  And the top of the poured rubber was sticky to the touch. The mold rubber is still not performing as it should.\"><\/a> <a href=\"\/model-data\/1_100_Zaku_Kai\/zakufz_20220301_spike_mold_2.jpeg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/model-data\/1_100_Zaku_Kai\/zakufz_20220301_spike_mold_2_thumb.jpeg\" title=\"View of the open end of the mold - I got one big air bubble there, but maybe it's OK...\"><\/a> <a href=\"\/model-data\/1_100_Zaku_Kai\/zakufz_20220301_spike_mold_3.jpeg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/model-data\/1_100_Zaku_Kai\/zakufz_20220301_spike_mold_3_thumb.jpeg\" title=\"For pouring resin and demolding cured resin, I can stretch the mold open. Interacting with the mold like this is also useful for getting air bubbles out, since my pressure casting system is not available to me.\"><\/a><br \/>\nI don&#8217;t know what&#8217;s going wrong with the mold rubber. I may just need to buy a fresh batch. But I&#8217;ve not known this product to misbehave like this. When it&#8217;s too old, it&#8217;s too viscous which makes it hard to pour effectively, but it still cures properly, so I don&#8217;t know what&#8217;s going wrong. I spent a solid 4 minutes shaking the container of mold rubber catalyst. Perhaps I need to increase the amount of catalyst I&#8217;m using, or check my measuring\/mixing process to make sure I&#8217;m not inadvertently reducing the amount of catalyst I&#8217;m mixing in.<br \/>\nFrom there I cast a few spikes. Because of the way this mold is set up it&#8217;s hard to avoid bubbles in the mold &#8211; I have to be a bit aggressive about getting air bubbles out before the resin cures. I cast three spikes, and the castings got progressively better each time: The first had a massive bubble covering about half of the spike&#8217;s base, the second has a smaller bubble, and the third is free of any major bubbles. I can fill these with epoxy putty or something to correct the parts, but I may just cast them again instead.<br \/>\n<a href=\"\/model-data\/1_100_Zaku_Kai\/zakufz_20220301_spike_cast_1.jpeg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/model-data\/1_100_Zaku_Kai\/zakufz_20220301_spike_cast_1_thumb.jpeg\" title=\"A bit of resin popping out of the open end of the mold as I cast a spike\"><\/a> <a href=\"\/model-data\/1_100_Zaku_Kai\/zakufz_20220301_spike_cast_2.jpeg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/model-data\/1_100_Zaku_Kai\/zakufz_20220301_spike_cast_2_thumb.jpeg\" title=\"The first spike I cast had this big bubble at the base of the spike. It's correctable but it probably makes more sense to just cast another one later.\"><\/a> <a href=\"\/model-data\/1_100_Zaku_Kai\/zakufz_20220301_spike_cast_3.jpeg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/model-data\/1_100_Zaku_Kai\/zakufz_20220301_spike_cast_3_thumb.jpeg\" title=\"Third spike cast turned out much better. There may be some air bubbles lurking below the surface, but as it is, it appears quite clean.\"><\/a><br \/>\nIt&#8217;s kind of another low-yield day on the project, but progress is progress. Also, tautology.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Day 16&#8221; didn&#8217;t amount to much &#8211; motivation was low and I didn&#8217;t have a clear idea of what I wanted to accomplish. I spent a bit of time carving and refining the new putty work on the pauldron. Tonight I opened up the spike mold I made a couple days ago to see how [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[8,86,68,20],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scope-eye.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1195"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scope-eye.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scope-eye.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scope-eye.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scope-eye.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1195"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/scope-eye.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1196,"href":"https:\/\/scope-eye.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1195\/revisions\/1196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scope-eye.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scope-eye.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scope-eye.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}