Boddaker Posted March 21, 2011 Author Share Posted March 21, 2011 Here is the Plasti-Paste II from Smooth-On. It comes as part A and part B, and you mix it 1 parts to 2, respectively. Opening up part B, the paste. After doing some calculations, I figured out the volume of my mold, then converted to fluid ounces to get the total amount of mixture I needed. Here I'm measuring out 2 parts paste. Transferred that to a larger mixing container. This stuff is thick! No sag whatsoever, which makes it great for applying to vertical surfaces. Measuring out 1 part liquid hardener. Thoroughly mixing the two parts together. This stuff normally has a 10 minute pot life, but due to the cold weather, that was greatly extended. Took about four times as long to set up, which actually worked in my favor, allowing me to take my time getting it onto the mold and smoothed out. After applying a mold release agent (seen in the first pic), I troweled the paste onto the mold. After about 40 minutes, it had set up to a hard plastic. I repeated the process for the other side, and in a few hours I should be able to demold them. Having coated the foam with the mold release, it should be easy to pop it out of the mold. I don't want to destroy the foam if I don't have to, just in case I need to make another set of fairings later. Once out of the mold, I'll need to clean up the edges a bit, and start smoothing out the top surface. I should be getting the acrylic parts in this week, so once they arrive, I can see how these fit, and find out if my template measurements were accurate! :worried: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boddaker Posted March 21, 2011 Author Share Posted March 21, 2011 Demold time! So despite the use of a mold release spray, the fairings were still reluctant to come out of the mold. So I had to persuade them a bit. First I cut part of the outer cardboard wall away to expose the mating surface of the foam. Then, using a hacksaw blade by itself, I worked it in underneath the parts to get them separated. Success! Not too shabby, but it still needs some work before they will be bike-worthy. The underside. My integrated tabs idea didn't go over too well with the Plasti-Paste lol. And all four parts demolded. The fairings are pretty flexible and prone to cracking (don't ask me how I know lol), so they will need to be reinforced. Smooth-On recommends a thickness of at least a 1/4" for optimum strength, but I fell short of that with these pieces. I have a solution for this though, and it will also solve the mounting problem too, since my tabs were pretty much non-existent. I will run a piece of 1/4" acrylic the whole length of the fairing underneath that will add strength, and serve as a mounting surface as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Icejon Posted March 22, 2011 Share Posted March 22, 2011 These are beautiful techniques to share. I am sure we appreciate learning the tools of the hobby as well as the use of chemicals. Are they all available from a hardware store or will we have to shop in a plastics store? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boddaker Posted March 23, 2011 Author Share Posted March 23, 2011 These are beautiful techniques to share. I am sure we appreciate learning the tools of the hobby as well as the use of chemicals. Are they all available from a hardware store or will we have to shop in a plastics store? Thank you Icejon. I purchased the Plasti-Paste online from Smooth-on, which is basically a specialty store that deals in plastics, rubbers, and mold making materials. The foam sheets, however, can be purchased locally in the hardware store, as they are standard insulation products. I have found that the pink Owens Corning sheets are more dense, and therefore more suited for this type of thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boddaker Posted March 25, 2011 Author Share Posted March 25, 2011 Got the acrylic parts in today! 3 boxes worth lol. I couldn't wait to get home and dig into them. Here they all are spread out on my desk. The pieces with blue coating is the gloss black acrylic, and the ones with the tan coating are the blue transparent pieces. Looks like everything is present and accounted for. Hmmm, should I put it all away now? Heck no! I gotta see how this all fits together! So I immediately start fitting the tubes into their wheel positions. You can also see the slots I made for the cross sections. Here is one of the cross sections in place. This piece will also hold two 120mm fans. I slide on another rib piece... ...Oops! forgot the center rib that goes in between the other two. This shows the cutouts for the power supply. Why not put the psu in too! And the other cross section in place. Now you can see the interior enclosure taking shape. Might as well add the rest of the pieces on this side: window piece, wheel discs of varying sizes, and the IO plate at the bottom of the center enclosure. Here's a close up of all the layers on one side of the wheel. I got them roughly spaced where they're supposed to be, at 3/4". So I'm gonna be pretty busy this weekend, now that I have all the parts. Can't wait to get to it. I wish I could call in sick tomorrow lol! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fotes Lykos Posted March 25, 2011 Share Posted March 25, 2011 Truly amazing!!! This is probably one of the best scratch builds Ive seen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArgOs Posted March 25, 2011 Share Posted March 25, 2011 Every time I like more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
javanox Posted March 25, 2011 Share Posted March 25, 2011 wow now thats going to be soooo sickk if i have the money i sell my HAF and get this omg looks so sickk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrenkieNL Posted March 25, 2011 Share Posted March 25, 2011 I was wondering who would do the Tron theme; It is soooo suited for a casemod, it was just a matter of time. Now I see Brian has taken on the challenge, i'm convinced this is going to be epic!. GG Brian ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaPang Posted March 25, 2011 Share Posted March 25, 2011 I wouldn't expect less from Bod, hehe. Ahhh, to have an accessible (far away and expensive) laser cutting service down here (sob). Although the acrylics are in, there is still a lot to do! Always eager to see. Cheers and Saludos Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.