Anybody try resin casting? I want to make some copies of some out of production parts for a Carfloat Apron. I was at the hobby store and they had some stuff for it but it was all dried out.
Thanks
I try it all the time. Actually I run a small business doing it. Stay away from the products in hobby shops if for no reason other than what you found out. Casting resins have a shelf life. There are several sources to purchase this material from. One is Micro-Mark. They have several small trial size kits to work with for doing just what you want. You will need to get a mold making rubber to make a mold of the master you want to duplicate. Once the mold is completed you can then pour your resin to make the part. The whole process is not too difficult. Smooth-on is a large supplier of the materials mentioned above. I believe they also have a small tutorial on their web site explaining how ths is done. A quick internet search will also yield a large amount of how-to’s.
This should get you started.
Dan Pikulski
I just bought an FP9 shell that was made with resin. Kaslo makes them in Canada. Central Hobbies in Vancouver, BC sell their products.
Hi Repairman: I work with resin castings and silicone molds at work. I’ve used the Smooth On products and find them very good. The casting resin have a shelf life but it is pretty good compared to some of the silicons. Check the Smooth On site and search for other manufactures. Smooth On has small kits that run about $25 dollars. Don’t hold me to that figure but it’s some where around that.
I have been using Micro-Mark’s mold making and casting supplies for years with great success. http://www.ares-server.com/Ares/Ares.asp?MerchantID=RET01229&Action=Catalog&Type=Department&ID=64
For mold making use their One-To-One/Rapid (#82083) silicone mold rubber. For special situations and building a dam around a part you want to mold use their 5-minute Mold Putty (#81853)
For casting the parts there are a couple of choices: CR-300 (#81544) 3 minute set time (and they’re not kidding!) and CR-600 (#82057) 7 minute set time (I recomend this one to start with).
It’ll cost you about $60 for the 1 to 1 and the CR-600, (about $27 each), but you’ll get a lot of molds & castings out of them.
The #82084 starter set has everything you need to get going.
Watch out, this can get addictive! Before you know it, you’ll making molds of everything in sight!.
The low noses/windshields, battery boxes and numberboard/headlight(cast in clear resin) parts for these RS-3m’s were molded and cast from my masters: 
Jay: You did a fine job !!! I wish I had your talent!!!
Here’s a couple more shots including the finished units:
The dynamic brake, stack, oil cooler, air tank and the top part of the coupler housing are also my castings. The couplers have since been changed to KDs. The handrail stantions are from Smokey Valley.
I have used Alumilite products. I prefer the Dow HS2 RTV. The only concern I had with it is a short pot life, 90 sec. Tried Smoothon 320 a year ago and it was horrible, but I understand they had a whole run of bad stuff, so it may be better now. Micro Mark resin is repackaged Smooth-On. Have heard good reports on Polytek resins. Expect to have to take a couple shots at making molds and masters, try some small parts and go up from there. Dave H.
This is going to be my first time casting and I ordered the Alumilite set. I will do some HO size parts.
Do a lot of searching for your product or the one I am using and you will find a lot of links. Read, read, read.
In the past, anywhere I worked and used resins, the resins were normally kept in a non food fridge, for longer life, though I do not remember how much longer they would last. We usually used them up first. Back in 1966 I started using resins they were really difficult to use.
I plan to fridge my products. I have solder paste that I keep in the fridge. It has lasted a long time.
There is a Yahoo casting group that I belong to also.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/casting/
Yahoo has quite a range of groups. I belong to about 15. Five are train groups. There is a ho railroader group but they get a lot of porn. so I left. Most are moderated.
Good luck. It should be an interesting challenge.
rich
Once you start you’ll find all sorts of uses. For example, I had a recurring problem of the flat wire used to mount the corner roof walks on resin kits comming unglued. Made a mold of the roof walk and poured urethane into the mold and put the flat wire into the urethane before it set. A little trimming and problem solved. There’s a bunch of others, but I’ll leave the joy of discovery to you.
I used the Micro Mark products to produce this model of a GE engine last year. block was cast first and then the heads were individually cast and applied. Casting parts is a real riot , I love it. I had never done it before this. Now I’m casting all sorts of one of a kind parts that I can’t get anymore, Traffic cones are one item that I’ve been doing lately.
Beautiful work, everyone.
Can you use the same molds for resin casting that you use for hydrocal castings, or is there a different material that’s needed for the molds?
Also, what are the color options available for the resin? How about clear? There’s a thread running over on Layouts and Layout Building about modelling glaciers, and I’m thinking that this might be an option.
link to Micro Mark products , they have dyes for coloring it before casting, don’t see clear , maybe other companies have clear resin.