Post by lagarkane on Oct 24, 2017 2:29:20 GMT -5
Hi there!
I am really new to casting, so maybe this question is very simple to answer:
I am working on a relatively large mold, in which I want to pour silicone foam (Soma Foama 15), which has a pot life of about 30s...
I need to pour 250ml if part A and B in order to fill my mould, and I need to inject it through a very small hole.
My equipment is not adapted to this, and here's currently my process:
- I mix 66ml of part A and 33 of B in a mixing cup
- then pour it all as fast as possible in a syringe with a large nozzle (max 100ml of content..)
- Then pray that I was fast enough to inject it in the mold before it started to cure
- Repeat operation until mold is full (x3)
The cure time is so short that one in two times, the silicone cures inside my nozzle and jams is entirely...
Another issue is that my mold is coated with Vaseline to avoid adhesion, which also coats partially the sides of my first layer, and prevents the 2 other layers to adhere fully, so the transition between 2 layers are not smooth, and sometimes even partially detach from each other...
To tackle my issue, I cogitated all night and came up with an idea: 3D printing a mixing nozzle, on which I could connect 2 syringes, 1 containing part A and the other part B. The nozzle would have some kind of metal mesh inside to mix the part right before injecting.
This seems to me like an elegant solution to my problem, but I'm also certain that I'm not the first one to try to cast a material with a vert short pot life in a large mold, so my question is,, what solutions are out there to do this kind of casting? Is there a smarter way? are the nozzles that I could buy that would do something similar?
I found "static mixer nozzles" that I can buy online, but they all assume that both parts A and B are in the same syringe, just not mixed. I believe that this would still jam my syringe pretty badly, no?
Thanks in advance!
I am really new to casting, so maybe this question is very simple to answer:
I am working on a relatively large mold, in which I want to pour silicone foam (Soma Foama 15), which has a pot life of about 30s...
I need to pour 250ml if part A and B in order to fill my mould, and I need to inject it through a very small hole.
My equipment is not adapted to this, and here's currently my process:
- I mix 66ml of part A and 33 of B in a mixing cup
- then pour it all as fast as possible in a syringe with a large nozzle (max 100ml of content..)
- Then pray that I was fast enough to inject it in the mold before it started to cure
- Repeat operation until mold is full (x3)
The cure time is so short that one in two times, the silicone cures inside my nozzle and jams is entirely...
Another issue is that my mold is coated with Vaseline to avoid adhesion, which also coats partially the sides of my first layer, and prevents the 2 other layers to adhere fully, so the transition between 2 layers are not smooth, and sometimes even partially detach from each other...
To tackle my issue, I cogitated all night and came up with an idea: 3D printing a mixing nozzle, on which I could connect 2 syringes, 1 containing part A and the other part B. The nozzle would have some kind of metal mesh inside to mix the part right before injecting.
This seems to me like an elegant solution to my problem, but I'm also certain that I'm not the first one to try to cast a material with a vert short pot life in a large mold, so my question is,, what solutions are out there to do this kind of casting? Is there a smarter way? are the nozzles that I could buy that would do something similar?
I found "static mixer nozzles" that I can buy online, but they all assume that both parts A and B are in the same syringe, just not mixed. I believe that this would still jam my syringe pretty badly, no?
Thanks in advance!
