Battles With Bits Of Rubber

Closing moulds correctly is vital to get good casts out of them. There seems little point in making a good mould and then getting bad casts out of it. In this episode we chat about things to consider when looking at ‘mould closure’. Essentially, a mould other than a flat or open mould will usually need to be attached or fitted to another component to produce a cast. This could be another part of the mould if a ‘multi-piece’ mould is made and/or a core which will be placed into the mould to create the interior. These pieces need to remain securely in position, and may be required to exert a lot of force if the cast piece needs to have thin seams which are more easily repaired. That has cost implications - think about having to repair bad seams of fifty casts out of a mould which wasn’t closed correctly! Small block moulds are often clamped together for speed and convenience, but what happens if the mould is huge, such as a full body or a dinosaur? This episode has another hefty set of notes to help make sense