by Mike@IHP » Thu Feb 14, 2013 8:37 pm
CLASSIC WARSHIPS wrote:Look for the tour of my old casting on this web site under the business name of Classic Warships.
http://www.modelwarships.com/features/t ... -tour.html
I had 6x pressure chambers to make a production line. When I finished loading the 6th chamber the first was ready to unload and de-mold. I was able to manufacture about 8x 1/350 cruiser kits per day with this shop.
Steve Wiper
http://www.classicwarships.com
Wow, my casting shop doesn't look anything like that! Of course, never weres generally don't warrant space for large production lines.
Two things: plastic sheets (replaceable and disposable) under your work prevent any resin from sticking to the work surfaces, either waste or otherwise. (And you will need every inch of work surface you can get.) Don't allow any little stray chunks or pieces of resin to get underneath your molds sitting on the work surfaces while casting because they will distort the casting right through the rubber. Make sure you store your molds each separately; don't stack or pile them or allow them to make contact, because they will dent easily, which will show up in the castings, and you can't fix that. Some rubbers will break down after a few years in storage if not used, so order a good quality silicone rubber. Also, if you're going to build any kind of casting facility in your basement for regular work, make sure you discuss it with anyone else who lives in the house because you will need to provide adequate ventilation and make sure you can contain the mess of the process and noise that the compressors make.
I'm glad I am starting to get out of it, though. Resin as a process is messy, imprecise, prone to too many errors and mistakes, slow, labor intensive, and you often don't get out of it what you put into it. Plus, it's a health hazard, all that exposure to the chemicals. And, resin kits are still intimidating and harder to sell to those not familiar with them. It's why after 20 years of doing it professionally, I have grown to hate it. Sorry to go off on the dark side of resin like this, but it needs to be mentioned.
Plastic is the way, the truth and the light.
As an example:
http://ihphobby.tripod.com/hopages/hoselrvpage.html. I did this car in resin for years, including painting and assembly, and for all my experience there's no way to match this kind of quality (or quantity) in resin.
Mike Bartel
IHP
http://ihphobby.tripod.com[quote="CLASSIC WARSHIPS"]Look for the tour of my old casting on this web site under the business name of Classic Warships.
http://www.modelwarships.com/features/tour/classic-warships/Classic-tour.html
I had 6x pressure chambers to make a production line. When I finished loading the 6th chamber the first was ready to unload and de-mold. I was able to manufacture about 8x 1/350 cruiser kits per day with this shop.
Steve Wiper
http://www.classicwarships.com[/quote]
Wow, my casting shop doesn't look anything like that! Of course, never weres generally don't warrant space for large production lines.
Two things: plastic sheets (replaceable and disposable) under your work prevent any resin from sticking to the work surfaces, either waste or otherwise. (And you will need every inch of work surface you can get.) Don't allow any little stray chunks or pieces of resin to get underneath your molds sitting on the work surfaces while casting because they will distort the casting right through the rubber. Make sure you store your molds each separately; don't stack or pile them or allow them to make contact, because they will dent easily, which will show up in the castings, and you can't fix that. Some rubbers will break down after a few years in storage if not used, so order a good quality silicone rubber. Also, if you're going to build any kind of casting facility in your basement for regular work, make sure you discuss it with anyone else who lives in the house because you will need to provide adequate ventilation and make sure you can contain the mess of the process and noise that the compressors make.
I'm glad I am starting to get out of it, though. Resin as a process is messy, imprecise, prone to too many errors and mistakes, slow, labor intensive, and you often don't get out of it what you put into it. Plus, it's a health hazard, all that exposure to the chemicals. And, resin kits are still intimidating and harder to sell to those not familiar with them. It's why after 20 years of doing it professionally, I have grown to hate it. Sorry to go off on the dark side of resin like this, but it needs to be mentioned.
Plastic is the way, the truth and the light. :-) As an example: http://ihphobby.tripod.com/hopages/hoselrvpage.html. I did this car in resin for years, including painting and assembly, and for all my experience there's no way to match this kind of quality (or quantity) in resin.
Mike Bartel
IHP
http://ihphobby.tripod.com