Need to reproduce a piece...use Resin, 3D printer, etc...

[Historicalbeltworks]

Hey guys, I have a question.   I did apiece for a customer, and he’s decided he wants like 20 more. It’s a small thing, but I don’t want to retool the same thing 20 times. Any thoughts on reproducing a piece of tooled work, such as making a mold and pressing in my clicker?  I’d like to avoid the appearance of just having a stamp made and then pressing them out. It looks a bit to sterile for me.  Thanks

 

[fredk]

I would

1. apply plenty of wax to the tooling

2.build a dam around it using something like blue-tac

3. pour in a moulding silicon rubber

4 . this will give a negative of the tooling but is too soft to use

5. Make a moulding rubber copy of the negative, this should look the same as the original tooling

6. use that second rubber copy to make a resin negative of the tooling. Use polyurethane moulding resin. Make it about 20 to 25 mm thick with some glass-fiber, aka fibreglass, in through the resin

[Dwight]

I have a couple of "customers" for whom I make key fobs.

I sent to China, . . . had brass stamps made . . . they work very well . . . the detail is beautiful . . . and the price was reasonable, even though it took almost 6 weeks to get them.

There are folks here in the states who may make you a stamp for a reasonable price.

May God bless,

Dwight

[RockyAussie]

A little similar to @fredk method but could be a little quicker. I have done this before and it worked very well under clicker press usage for copies going into a few thousand. Seal the leather piece first then when well dry coat will a spray mould release agent then build your box or blu tack wall. Follow by pouring in some high impact casting epoxy to a height of 1/4" to 3/8" height and then put a piece of steel cut about 3/8" thick on top of the epoxy whilst still wet and then let dry 24 hours or more. Only bad thing I found is that it gets a bit hot and is likely to take off your sealer off of the leather master piece. Talc powder may work better than the mould release spray but I cant say for sure. This is the stuff I used https://www.barnes.com.au/rigid/md60-2017#/399-sizes-750g

[fredk]

3 hours ago, RockyAussie said:

. . . Only bad thing I found is that it gets a bit hot and is likely to take off your sealer off of the leather master piece. Talc powder may work better than the mould release spray but I cant say for sure. . . 

Thats the main reason I say to make the rubber negative first.

I recently spilt some moulding resin on a well sealed and waxed scrap piece of leather. The resin stuck to the leather like it was part of it.

[Historicalbeltworks]

Thanks for the info guys I got a couple things now I’m gonna try I’ll let you know if it works or if it doesn’t.