making a mold
 

hello I was wondering how you make a mold. what are the processes and what is needed. also how expensive is it?

here's the deal.... I've broken a gear tooth and it takes forever to patch, so why not just make a new one? I could just take the plastic and melt it into the mold, comphensating for the missing tooth and save a few bucks. also I've seen people make molds for camera mounts and thought this could become quite useful as I could even go into the depths of making new frames and skids which brake quite often, or make new rotor heads and such (four bladed/3 bladed) and could have a lot of fun. I'm sure many of you woudn't mind doing the same thing either. (hey think of it this way you could make your own coustom canopy shape)

I was thinking mostly plastic which should be easy to mold but if I got really into this does any one know how to make aluminum molds?


just a good thought, thecheat

RE: making a mold
 

It is costly, tough, and not something the average modeler can do. Your best bet, buy extras and keep a stock of them.

I make molds for my glider fuses. They cost a ton, are tough to store and not just anyone can do it without lots of training and reading. not impossible, just not probable.

RE: making a mold
 

well expand on that a bit... how DO you make them, or where could I go to find out how? I'm not just your average modeler you know, I'm er, ah, mm, ok nevermind :D. I am pretty good with that kind of thing though...

PS: could you use clay? I know that's very heat restant, cheap, and would probably work fine for plastic... what think ye?

RE: making a mold
 

The molds I make are fiberglass. You can ask questions on it in the composit section. Molds for gears would be quite different.

I have broken one gear on a heli in the last 10 years, why would you want to mess with making them? They are so cheap, unless you get the metal ones, which I use. They would be a lot more cost to make. You would need a CNC machine, which is over $10,000 for the model we were looking at, and it was tiny

RE: making a mold
 

hmm, care to donate? ok so it does seem a bit exensive, and slightly out of my price range. oh well it does sound nice though.