Thread: Nice bit of lateral thinking

I made a Stupa for the local Buddhists a few years back from epoxy and sand.
The epoxy was megapoxy, same stuff they use to restore thousand year old churches in Europe.
I used a 10 to 1 mix and as the mixture was so stiff used a moulders tool to ram it into the mould.
Needed an assistant to batch progressive amounts and the whole process took an hour or so.
The mould was in muck (MDF) painted in acrylic auto paint with Jelutong cores.
It had brass detail up the front steps. Got 2 more orders SA and NZ so made money on the mould.

A mate who made chairs etc here in Sydney used to get the cast iron swarf from Lewis pulleys to backup his epoxy moulds.
He used cast iron rather than Al because he needed the moulds to retain their heat to cure the isocyanides he shot into them.

The moulds for lost wax investment (industrial not jewellery) use Al and epoxy.

Sculptors also use epoxy and Cu based dust for 'Bronze' castings.

I'm always amused how the Yanks do something quite clever like this and then use a weird release agent etc.

Clever idea.
H.