Category Archives: mold

Using Lasagna to Make Cost-Saving Molds

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Building a one-off prototype is usually pretty straightforward. Find some perfboard and start soldering, weld up some scrap metal, or break out the 3D printer. But if you’re going to do a production run of a product then things need to have a little more polish. In [Eric Strebel]’s case this means saving on weight and material by converting a solid molded part into something that is hollow, with the help of some lasagna.

What [Eric] walks us through in this video is how to build a weep mold. First, the solid part is cast in silicone. Using the cast, …read more

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Hackers vs. Mold: Building a Humidistat Fan

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Having a mold problem in your home is terrible, especially if you have an allergy to it. It can be toxic, aggravate asthma, and damage your possessions. But let’s be honest, before you even get to those listed issues, having mold where you live feels disgusting.

You can clean it with the regular use of unpleasant chemicals like bleach, although only with limited effectiveness. So I was not particularly happy to discover mold growing on the kitchen wall, and decided to do science at it. Happily, I managed to fix my mold problems with a little bit of hacker ingenuity. …read more

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DIY Injection Mold Design for the Home Shop

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3D printing is great for prototyping, and not bad for limited runs of parts. Unfortunately though it really doesn’t scale well beyond a few pieces, so when you’re ready for the mass market you will need to think about injection molding your parts. But something like that has to be farmed out, right? Maybe not, if you know a thing or two about designing your own injection molds.

The video below comes from [Dave Hakkens] by way of his Precious Plastic project, whose mission it is to put the means of plastic recycling into the hands of individuals, rather than …read more

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Making a Gun Without a 3D Printer

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Around four years ago the world was up in arms over the first gun to be 3D printed. The hype was largely due to the fact that most people don’t understand how easy it is to build a gun without a 3D printer. To that end, you don’t even need access to metal stock, as [FarmCraft101] shows us with this gun made out of melted aluminum cans.

The build starts off by melting over 200 cans down into metal ingots, and then constructing a mold for the gun’s lower. This is the part that is legally regulated (at least in …read more

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A Great Way to Make Quick and Easy Knobs

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Here’s a great way to quickly and easily make attractive and functional knobs with no tools required. All you need is some casting resin (epoxy would do in a pinch), a silicone mold intended for candy, and some socket head bolts. With the right preparation and a bit of careful placement and attention, smooth and functional knob ends are only minutes away. Embedded below is a short video demonstrating the process.

These may not replace purpose-made knobs for final products, but for prototypes or to use around the shop on jigs, clamps, or furniture they certainly fit the bill. With …read more

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Silicone Molds for Stove-Top Metal Casting

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Casting metal parts from 3D-printed plastic or Styrofoam models is all the rage these days, and for good reason — casting is a way to turn one-offs into mass-produced parts. Seems like most of the metal casting projects we feature are aluminum in sand molds, though, so it’s refreshing to see a casting project using silicone molds to cast low-melting point metals.

Don’t get us wrong — sand-cast aluminum is a great method that can even be used to build a lathe from scratch. But not everyone wants to build a foundry and learn the sometimes fussy craft of creating …read more

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Custom Aluminum Wheels Teach a Thing or Two about Casting

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For some mobile projects like small carts or rolling cabinets, your standard casters from Harbor Freight will do just fine. But some projects need big, beefy wheels, and these custom cast aluminum wheels certainly make a statement. Mostly, “Watch your toes!”

To be honest, [Brian Oltrogge]’s wheels are an accessory in search of a project, and won’t be crushing feet anytime soon. He made them just to make them, but we have no beef with that. They’ve got a great look that hearkens back to a time when heavy metal meant something else entirely, and things were made to last. …read more

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Fail of the Week: Sand Casting Copper

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There’s trouble in the Kingdom of Random – the smithies of the realm are having trouble sand-casting copper. And while [King Grant] might not be directly asking for help, we think the Hackaday community might have plenty to say about his efforts.

We’ve all seen plenty of sand casting efforts before, including attempts to make otherwise unobtainable engine parts. And “lost foam” casting, where a model of the part is constructed of polystyrene foam that flashes off when the molten metal is poured, is a relatively new twist on the technique that’s been used to good effect on a recent …read more

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Struggling Robot Made With DIY Soft Limbs

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[Jonathan Grizou] is experimenting with robot designs, and recently stumbled upon a neat method for making soft robots. While his first prototype, a starfish like robot, doesn’t exactly “whelm” a person with it’s grace and agility, it proves the concept. Video after the break.

In this robot the frame is soft and the motor provides most of the rigidity for the structure. The soft parts of the frame have hardpoints embedded into them for mounting the motors or joining sections together. The sections are made with 3D printed molds. The molds hold the 3D printed hard points in place. Silicone …read more

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Moldy Rechargeable Batteries

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What’s worse than coming in from the workbench for a sandwich only to discover that the bread has molded? That red bread mold–Neurospora crassa–can transform manganese into a mineral composite that may improve rechargeable batteries, according to a recent paper in Current Biology.

Researchers used the carbonized fungal biomass-mineral composite in both lithium ion cells and supercapacitors. The same team earlier showed how fungi could stabilize toxic lead and uranium. Mold, of course, is a type of fungus that grows in multi-cellular filaments. Apparently, the fungal filaments that form are ideal for electrochemical use of manganese oxide. …read more

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