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Has anyone heard of this material... Plastimake?


wm cheng

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Solscud just emailed me this last week. Looks interesting. I'm not sure if you can use it for resin molds as resin heats up as it's curing. So it'll melt the surface of the mold. You might want to freeze the plastimake right before pouring resin into it, but then it'll become a tedious process. Injecting this into a rubber mold might work though.

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Solscud just emailed me this last week. Looks interesting. I'm not sure if you can use it for resin molds as resin heats up as it's curing. So it'll melt the surface of the mold. You might want to freeze the plastimake right before pouring resin into it, but then it'll become a tedious process. Injecting this into a rubber mold might work though.

Are you sure of that? I use 48H curing epoxy resin and I know it can be heated to 100°C to cure stronger, but I doubt it heats up that much by itself

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I read a review article in FSM (Fine Scale Modeler) on this stuff and he used it successfully to resin recast, one of the storage wings pods from a model. It was not a perfect cast but it worked just fine for him for what he needed.

I will see if I can find the article on online and post it.

EDIT: This is not the same stuff I was thinking. Thought it was the re-usable molding material I saw in the article in FSM, whereas this is a "resin" replacement. This stuff looks more like a special kind of wax.

Edited by idontknow
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Polycaprolactone or PCL

"sold under various tradenames, such as "InstaMorph", "Friendly Plastic", "ShapeLock", "PolyMorph", "Plastimake", "Protoplast", "Plaast" etc."

idontknow: This link gives a very good idea about what it is and how it works. Definitely not wax. Unless you're saying the stuff on FSM was like a special kind of wax?

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Hey Mickyg, Here is the link to the stuff I was thinking about originally http://www.composimold.com/ that the plastimake reminded me of.

Thought they were the same when I first saw the linked material.

But, as a kid I would melt my mom's large candles (and get in some trouble when I was caught) and re-work it to make things as it cooled. and would re-use it over and over.

The wax from the candles back then were soft though unless it was really really cold. Hence why I think the plastimake looks like a wax type of material.

Wasn't trying to say that either is a wax, only how the plastimake resembles wax.

Edited by idontknow
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I gotcha. I've used wax myself for quick and dirty molds. I take the part I want to cast, mount it in some strategic way, then pour molten wax over it, making sure to get the bubbles out as best I can. Then I mix up some two part epoxy and "pour" (cause it's never thin enough to really pour) that into the wax mold.

This stuff looks like it could be used in a similar fashion but also has many/better applications as well.

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Wish I had thought of doing that. Many a time I cast a rtv mold for a one time casting.

I had tried a generic silicone you get from a do it yourself store one time, but it was too flexible, then tried to use plaster to strengthen the outside, didn't go well either.

I am definitely gonna have to try your idea next time.

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for single small parts I've often used two part epoxy putty to make a mould and the used the same putty to cast the part. Works just fine. I've done two part and single moulds. But Isince I got my hands on Oyumaru I just use that over and over again.

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