The Tools:
Each month, I plan to cover, in-depth, "How To Cast Resin" miniatures. A few things to know in the beginning are the tools of the trade.
#1) The mold:
Molds can come in all shapes and sizes, but a good, long lasting medium for molds is silicone rubber. I will cover more about silicone mold making in a future post. Unitl then, check out this site for excellent wargaming molds:
hirstarts.com
#2) The pressure pot:
A pressure pot can be acquired from any tool vendor on the net (see links) and will likely need to be modified right out of the box.
Pressure Tank Spray Gun with 1.5 mm Nozzle 2-1/2 Gal. Pressure Pot & Spray Gun with Hoses
Pressure Paint Tank Pot
Grizzly H6330 2-1/4 gal. Paint Tank
Here's mine:
Some additional parts you may need, depending on which tank you purchased:
a) Ball Valve
b) Pressure Regulator
c) Gage and misc fittings to adapt all of these together
#3) The resin:
A no-brainer here, but I will provide some links of where to find good resin.
http://www.jgreer.com/casting-resin.htm
http://www.smooth-on.com/Castable-Epoxy-Res/c1295/index.html
#4) Postage scale:
Most resin will be mixed either by volume, or by weight. Either way is accepted, but a more exact way to measure is by weight.
UltraShip 55 lb. Digital Postal Shipping & Kitchen Scale
Digital Postal Shipping Postage Bench Scales 35 lbs
#5) Cups and mixing containers
You will need a stock of paper/plastic cups and stir sticks/spoons to mix your resin up in. Keep it cheap here, because nothing gets re-used in this department.
#6) Optional Step: Vacuum Chamber
I use a vacuum chamber to degas my resin prior to pressurizing. I know a lot of people into resin casts that do not perform this step, but for me, I already have the chamber for degassing silicone and it only takes a few extra seconds to do. I got my setup on ebay from a seller named pvac-1526.
Here's setup if you're curious:
Hopefully this is enough information for those interested to get a good start on tools and equipment. Stay tuned! Any comments? Feel free to post!
