Wet molding / Prototype Mold

[Webicons]

33 minutes ago, Kenl said:

And at what stage of making the two pieces do you glue them up. Type of glue? 

After popping the leather out of the mold I did a rough trim about half an inch from the final edge and glued it together using Weldwood contact cement.  

I only applied glue at the edges because I was concerned about messing up while joining the pieces together (ie misaligned pieces). 

I then proceeded to trim the whole piece to final dimensions.  

 

[Webicons]

Thank you @RockyAussie.  That’s a lot of great information.  I can appreciate the thought that went into making your molds and I hope to apply these tips on my next mold. 

I was salivating watching the CNC do its work on the video.  It’s definitely on my list of dream tools to get.  If only I could justify it.  I do, however, have access to a Bridgeport mill and the video gave me the idea to use Delrin instead of wood as the dust wouldn’t be so good on the mill.

Thanks again

[Kenl]

Great thanks for the information. I have been wanting to make multi layer bowls and glad to hear how someone else is doing it. Thanks for sharing.

[Webicons]

34 minutes ago, Kenl said:

I have been wanting to make multi layer bowls

I saw one of your post regarding glueing up while wet. Keep in mind that the leather shifts and shrinks during the molding process so  best to apply the glue after the pieces dry.  

On a double sided bowl I would recommend molding both pieces at the same time so the offset is already built in to the piece.  

Cant wait to see it complete.  Please post when done. 

[Kenl]

Thanks for the heads up. Any tips are welcomed.

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On 2/7/2018 at 2:32 AM, RockyAussie said:

Also on the top mould having a relief groove just past the cut off point helps the forming. Brian

Hello Brian - It looks like the relief line that you made for your handcuff mold was only on the frame side.  Correct?  You didn't make another relief line on the opposite side of the mold?

I am planning on putting in some time to learn Sketchup.  I wish the controls were more intuitive and working in a 3D space is not the easiest thing.  Have you used Sketchup before or do you exclusively work with AutoCAD?

[RockyAussie]

7 hours ago, Webicons said:

Hello Brian - It looks like the relief line that you made for your handcuff mold was only on the frame side.  Correct?  You didn't make another relief line on the opposite side of the mold?  Yes that is right, the idea is to allow the leather to have some room to expand without affecting the main shape.

I am planning on putting in some time to learn Sketchup.  I wish the controls were more intuitive and working in a 3D space is not the easiest thing.  Have you used Sketchup before or do you exclusively work with AutoCAD? Only Autocad i'm afraid. Thats what Ive been using for many years. I believe TurboCad is a lot more affordable and a very useful program to have. The drawing took awhile to think out how to achieve the results but now it just seems to come pretty easy. I tend to set a couple of lines across and up and down and off to the side, and as long as I remember to always copy them into further changes I then find it pretty easy to add or subtract etc using the ends of those reference lines. Hope that makes some sense. Brian