The first part of the barrel mold, with keys superglued to base, hot glue over vents, and ready for fiberglass.
Another angle of the same thing. The small flat spot on the edge is where it had poured out of the retaining walls. I just trimmed it to make it pretty.
The fiberglass is on. Ma coat, and at least 2 layers overall of matte, 3 on "wall". Of course by now you know that this is before it's trimmed clean.
Another angle. You can see that the glue is covered this time. I did that on purpose since it has to rest on that side while the second pour of silicone sets up. I wanted to make sure it didn't shift or anything like that. It'll take a little more work to trim, but if all goes well not that much and no further risk of problems.
OK! Now we're getting someplace! The glass is trimmed (somewhat),
retaining walls are in place, and the "core" is suspended inside
the barrel. Pop quiz time: What purpose does this serve? If
you've been playing along at home you know that it's there to reduce the
silicone needed for this half of the mold. The "core"
is made from XPS (extruded polystyrene foam) from a home center (Home
depot in this case) I cut it to leave about 1/4" (or more at
the bottom) all the way around the inside of the barrel. When the
silicone cures I'll carefully remove it, lightly clean the silicone with
acetone on a brush (to dissolve any remains of it) and then fiberglass
this side of the mold. The glass will be brushed into the cavity
left by the foam.
You can see my decorative hot glue work used to hold the foam onto the
styrene strip that suspends it inside the barrel.
Another shot of the suspension. You can also see the foam a little better. I decided to scrap the "glowder" idea for time reasons and just sanded the foam smooth. Also present is my "pull stick" used for removing the retaining walls quickly.
Silicone's poured in, 16 hours later I can remove the junk and do some more fiberglass.
More pics of the extents I went to save a little silicone finally.
You can see that I had to shim the mold to get it level, oh well, that will be the top of the mold anyway. As long as I get the remaining fiberglass level I'll be happy, actually, I'll be happy when I'm done with fiberglass for a while...I'm itchy now.
Where I'm stalled at right now. The silicone wasn't fully cured so I had to let it sit a while longer. You can see the cavity left by the foam, which was removed from the center out then the bit against the silicone was dissolved with acetone.
Since I couldn't finish the mold I went to work on the first casting
of the handle. This is smoothcast 325 with black pigment added,
and cast into the mold which had been dusted with aluminum powder. The
button was cast in the same way, but with red pigment.
The inside of the first castings. The areas in red are air bubbles. They're not too bad, only one is visible from the outside since it's on the edge of the wall. I'm not happy with it overall, but I'll live.
A pic of the "area of seepage" the black spot in the center of the pic is the one bubble I mentioned above.
Another shot of the seepage, it's not too bad, maybe 1/32-1/16" deep at most, I'll sand it to blend in. If I can cast these in what I want to I'll be able to use the same material to patch it instead of sanding. Keep watching for more info.
The molds for the gun so far. Left to right top row: claw for hook, button. Bottom row: right side of handle, left side of handle, barrel. (taken 5/4/05 6am )
OK, so I might have this thing done later today. I have the hook
glued together, it needs to be patched up a little bit, but it's basically
ready for molding. The barrel just needs fiberglassed and cleaned
up. I still technically have to build a spool, or find one that
will fit, but that's not big deal, I have one I can modify if need be.
That's FINALLY it folks, I'm within a few hours of being
done with the molding. The casting will go much quicker, I just
wish I had a pressure pot for this.
I've been thinking about this the past couple of days, I might mold the pneumatics assembled for a purely cosmetic version, since the pneumatics are used to hold things together, mount the hook onto and look cool.
If you don't want to build one, start your emails now.
05/05/05 10 am:
Since I'm still waiting the silicone to fully cure the mold is not done.
It'll be finished up later today, I'd rather not rush at this point in
the game. The hook's been patched, needs a little sanding and a
mold. I emailed Aves Studio about their fix-it paste, if I hear
good things when they get back to me I'll be casting with that. It'll
be a much nicer cast, and will be easily patched with the same material
making for a stronger bond/patch.
I think I have finally decided that I will in deed do the cosmetic version as well as the working version. The cosmetic version will come without hose holes drilled, with a couple of hooks, and the cast "pneumatics" instead of the real thing. It will have a parts list so down the line it could be converted to a working version.
The working version will come in two flavors, a fully assembled, painted, and checked out model, and a raw casting, unassembled kit form. How's that sound?
I want as many people who are interested in one to be able to get it, so that's why the cosmetic version's going to be made. If low budget fan films want one I want them to get it. The whole process has been online, and will get reworked into tutorial form as inspiration and a "pay it forward" kind of thing. I want people to see that making something like this isn't hard. I want to see a lot more stuff like this pop up now that it's done (or very close.)
As I wrap this up, I'll move these pages. Bookmark PAGE 1, it will remain where it's at and point you to the new pages as I put them online. I'll do a good blueprint version, as well as a parts list, materials estimates, and everything like that in the tutorial.