Cape Mold Still Rolling

Things have been moving slowly lately, but they are still moving. I'm sort of under the gun right now, as I am going to be moving to Ohio in about a month. So I really need to get this cape project finished up, and get a couple of pulls out of the mold before I leave. I don't think I'll be taking the mold with me, as it's huge!!!

My current dilemma centers on that big table I built to mold the cape. Recall that the main reason I built that table is because my garage floor is slightly graded. My fear was that if I put the cape on the ground and pour rubber on it, all the rubber would run off to one side. I also didn't think it would be very clean on the garage floor, and didn't want to damage such an awesome piece of film history. So I build that big table, and it served its purpose.

But now there are some complications. Because the cape was stretched taut across the table, it hid the seams between wood panels pretty well. But now that the mold is just laying face down on the table, the seams are beaming through. Not good.

Recall that the next step in the process is to make a fiberglass matrix mold for the rubber mold. This way, the rubber will be flat, level, and stable when I go to pour the latex into it to produce a cape.

I don't want my rigid matrix to capture the defects of the wood table, so I needed to think of something else.

After mentally exploring a few options, I decided on a course of action. I rolled some butcher paper down onto the garage floor, and taped it into place. I then put the cape mold over that. Fail! The bummer with the paper was that it had a bulby texture to it. I don't know how to describe it, but when the mold was on top of the paper, it was anything but flat. Change of plans.

I went to home depot to try to find some sheet plastic. I found some stuff that is used as a moisture barrier for laminated floor wood. Looked good, and it was only 12 bucks. The next option was about 50 bucks, and was for painters tarp. The rolled up kind. I probably should have gone with the painters tarp, because when I got the sheet plastic home, I had similar results to the paper. When I rolled it out, it had all kinds of big bumps on it. Not good.

So I abandoned all that, and decided to just put the mold on the concrete floor. There's no cracks in the floor, and it's pretty flat, with minimal texture. BUT, the bummer is, I've been doing project work in my garage for a couple of years now, and there's all kinds of gunk that has accumulated all over the place. Dried resin, fiberglass resin, 1630, silicone rubber, all kinds of stuff. I spent a couple of hours with a paint scraper and my sander going around cleaning up all the little imperfections in the garage floor. I didn't want huge bumps all over the place.

After that, it all came together really quickly. I laid the mold really flat, and went around the edges with masking tape UNDER the cape. This is to keep the fiberglass from bonding with the concrete. I'll spray some release agent onto the tape before running the fiber, and that should allow it to lift up really easily once it's done.



The last thing to do was create some keys on the mold. This way, I'll be able to align the rubber mold perfectly within the matrix once it's all done. Though the mold has some surface detail to it, I don't think it's enough to really help line the stuff up when all is said and done.

I had considered cutting up an old mold and using cubes of rubber as keys, but instead, I just mixed up some rubber with the thixotropic catalyst, making it behave like a putty or spackle. Then I just dropped big gobs of the stuff across the cape mold.



I'm going to let that stuff cure, and then I'll be ready to run the fiberglass matrix. I'd REALLY like to get that wrapped up before the end of Saturday night.

Stay tuned.

Who Said This Project Was Dead??

I've been out of town for the last couple of weeks, and didn't make any progress while away. But I'm back, and things are happening.

First up, I did a test the other day of the cape mold. Brushed in some urethene, and then placed some fabric on the back of it as it dried. Results were not so good. The urethene is not opaque enough, and you could see the fabric through it. That was a bummer. Also, it's too rigid. I can always use a lower shore urethene, so that's not a problem, but the opacity is going to bug me.

So I'm switching gears. I'm moving to latex. In fact, I just ordered a couple of quarts of latex rubber from www.burmanfoam.com. It should be here in a couple of days, so I expect to do another test once it arrives.

In slightly sadder news, the folks who are making my boots have dropped the project. They had a story about how it costs too much, and the economy downturning and all. All valid excuses, but it still sucks. Not sure where that leaves me as far as boots go. I might try to do it on my own. We shall see. Not sure.

No Pics, But Progress

As the title suggests, I have no pictures to show today, but a lot of progress to report.

First, I finally finished pouring the rubber onto the cape. I just got back from another week out of town on business, and I ran another gallon and a half of silicone onto the thing this afternoon. It's all done. Just need to wait for it to cure, than I can pull out the cape and send it back to its eagerly awaiting owner.

I'm experimenting with some new urethene. The stuff that I used on the yellow belt in my last post was nice, though I don't have a source for a variety of pigments. I only have yellow. So if I want to tint it a little different, or create a totally different color, I'm out of luck. So I tooled around with a batch of stuff that I got from Sil-Pak, and it looks nice. However, I only ordered a sample of red pigment for testing purposes. This means that I have poured up a RED belt. My main purpose here is to experiment with the opacity. So far, it looks really good. It will be cured in about 12 hours, and I will take pictures when I demold.

The last thing I'm experimenting with is thinning out said urethene. I'm going to need to make the stuff really brushable for when I do a layup of the cape, so I mixed up a tiny batch and thinned it out with a random thinning agent I had lying around. Truth is, I cannot remember what I used. Senior moment, right here!!! Either way, it thinned it out very nicely. Now I just need to see if it will cure. My guess is that the stuff could easily retard the curing process, so it might be a dud batch. If it was a work day, I would simply contact the place that sold it to me and ask if they have a thinning agent for it. If it doesn't cure, that's what I will do on monday.

Other than that, not a whole lot going on. Looking forward to tomorrow when all this stuff has set up and I can play around with it.

Second Belt Attempt Looks Great.

Tonight I demolded the belt I poured up last night, and it turned out really great. It still has some flaws, but they are the type of things that repeated attempts will surely fix. Most of all, the surface the belt was sitting on was not completely flat, so the goop all built up on one side of the mold, leaving the other side rather anemic. But no big deal at all.

Here's a close up of the buckle. You can probably see some air bubbles, but notice the color and opacity. Opacity is perfect, color is close. Still some work to do on color matching, but I really feel like I've made a huge leap in the right direction.



Here's the full belt. Looks pretty good.



This close up of the strap really reveals how opaque the belt turned out to be. I consider that problem licked. Notice that you cannot see the belt webbing inside at all. Very nice.



So the lessons learned from this are that I need to get some white pigment to lighten it up a bit, I need to make sure the surface beneath the mold is level before pouring, I need to de-gas the urethene before pouring, and I will continue to use a mold release. Oh, and I also need to put some webbing reinforcement into the belt, right around where the faux belt loops will go. The urethene gets very thin right around there, so I'll have to watch it.

Second Belt Attempt

I realized I had some urethene pigment on hand, so I thought I would give the belt mold another try. This time I'm using a different brand of urethene along with the pigment.



Based on how the stuff mixed, I'm much more optimistic about this pour than the last. The color is decent, though not quite right. But most of all, it's really opaque, and that's what I'm after.

I'll check back in tomorrow to see how it turns out.

By the way, that's the cape mold in the top of the picture. It's not done yet, but almost there.

First Pull Out Of The Belt Mold

Good news/bad news on this one.

The good news is that the mold works beautifully. The pull that came out had only ONE air bubble, and it was right where I suspected they might form. Easy to account for in future pulls.



The bad news is that the urethene I'm using isn't quite what I was looking for. It's too translucent. If you look at the edge of the belt, you can CLEARLY see the webbing inside it. That's not good. I have already ordered a different brand of urethene to experiment with, and have contacted a few friends who dabble in this stuff to see what they recommend.



Here's a closeup of the buckle to show how cleanly this sucker is coming out. Looks REALLY good. Of course, the color is off, but I was just experimenting with the pigments on this one, so no sweat. The mold was dirty when I poured this, so there are many surface imperfections, but those will not be present in the final pours.



With my travel schedule kicked into high gear lately, there hasn't been much time for me to continue working on this, but it is not forgotten.

The cape is coming along really nicely, but it's using WAY more rubber than I had anticipated. I had to order TWO MORE gallons just today to finish off the first pour. Yikes!

Cape Is Ready For Molding.

Wait, I take that back. There's still one thing I need to do, and that's clean the cape. I'll just use a soft sponge and some water to dab at the parts where some dirt and grime has accumulated. No big deal.

But other than that, the planets have all aligned and this sucker is ready for some rubber. Yes, you read that right.

Speaking of which, just today, my order from Sil-Pak arrived. Two gallons of silicone rubber, and two different catalysts. One will make the stuff brushable, and the other will make it pourable. I've got it all worked out.



I didn't post this the other day, but my resin for the fiberglass showed up the other day also. I didn't order quite enough catalyst, but I have some left over from my last batch, so I should be ok.



The cape has been laying flat on my molding table for the past few days, and it has flattened out pretty nicely. There are still some wrinkles in the fabric, but that's ok. they will transfer to the mold, but I figure once the thing is done, there will be wrinkles in it anyhow, so I doubt it will be easy to differentiate between actual wrinkles, and molded in wrinkles.

And besides, if you can spot them on the final product, I'll award you a no-prize.

Cape Table Completed

After another week in Ohio on business, I returned home to get cracking on the cape table. I had to make a quick run to Home Depot to pick up some more wood screws, but it's all done now.

Here's the top surface...



And here's what the underside looks like. I stood it up against the garage wall so that I could sweep out the place before I get down to molding. It will also let me move a couple of things around so that I'll have room to work.



The thing is huge! This is the biggest project-related item I've ever built, and I think it turned out well. There was a blunder on one of the corners, but it shouldn't really matter. It doesn't really need to be structurally sound, it just needs to be flat. I think it is.

Yesterday, I ordered my silicone rubber from sil-pak, and it should be here on Wednesday. If all goes well, I may very well have the mold finished by the end of this week.

Doing My Part For The Economy.

While the rest of the country tightens up their belt buckles, and pours their money into low interest earning savings accounts, I'm off doing my part to help revive this stagnant economy by spending my hard earnedz on frivolous silliness.

Witness my latest purchase, two gallons of epoxy resin! I picked up the West Systems brand epoxy resin 105 system, with a couple quarts of the 205 slow cure kick. This is a VERY high quality fiber glass system that I have had excellent results with in the past on other projects.

I have purchased this stuff to make the jacket for my cape mold. For those of you who haven't been following along, the scheme goes something like this:

First I build a big, huge table. Then I lay the cape flat on the table. Then I pour silicone rubber on top of the cape. Then I lay up a fiberglass shell on TOP of the rubber to help it keep it's shape when I flip it over and start pouring up a positive.

I'm hoping that two gallons will be more than enough to complete this project. The good news is that the West Systems stuff has a really long shelf life, so any stuff that I don't use will be able to sit around for awhile until a new need arises.

Here's the link for the place I got my resin from:
www.discountmarinesupplies.com

I figure if this stuff is good to make a boat hull out of, it's good enough for a cape mold shell. (or "matrix", as they call them in da biz.)

Cape Table Build Begins

I'm just now blogging on some progress I've made on the cape table. It's coming along quite nicely, if I do say so myself!

It all starts with a simple plan. I took the cape measurements, added about ten inches to each side, and then drew up some very simple plans using the measurements of the MDF I purchased.



Speaking of MDF, here's the big cart 'o lumber I brought home the other night. Three huge and heavy sheets of MDF, and a bunch of 2X4's.



I started in with my chop saw, cutting the 2X4's to lenght. I cut five ribs for the main body, and two pieces for the ends.



On a side note, I had to get my bike out of the way, as I need every square inch of garage floor space. I FINALLY got around to doing another little project, which is to screw in those hooks into the ceiling. Now the bike is off the ground. WHoohoo!



After getting all the wood cut, it was just a matter of building the box under the MDF. I started with one big sheet, as all of the other pieces will need to be cut to fit my design. I really don't have any idea if it will work or not, but it's a pretty fun learning experience.



So far so good, but I'm a little tired out now, since all that wood is heavy! More in a bit, as it happens.