We finished the second half of the first attempt at a mold on Tuesday, and managed to de-mold the forms that evening. New lesson learned – if you don’t spray a sealant, the new silicon bonds with the old. Thus I had to cut a new seam in the mold, to remove the original. Fortunately, the silicon had no interest at all in sticking to the PLA, so that removed very easily. However, with the structure and slots of the front, the silicon resisted being removed from the part itself. I was perhaps overly cautious, but it took several minutes of working to fully free the halves, and avoid any tears in the silicon, but in the end I had two successful half-molds.
As expected, the detail is pretty much spot on, and you can see numerous flaws in the original reflected in the molds. This includes the hot glue residue (don’t use hot glue on PLA), and sections where the printed original was a little more rough than preferred. But for our first attempt, I consider it a success.
I cut a fill hole in the corner, where we will be pouring the resin, which is our project for Wednesday or Thursday. If I recall correctly, the resin needs 24 hours to cure, so it may not be until Friday that we get to see the final results of the project. But my confidence is definitely growing.
