Hi
My dad is thinking of making a mold of my proton pack to make it a bit lighter.
My current pack is made from moslty plastic, with a wooden mother board, and other resin parts.
How easy would it be to make a mold of it from fibre glass?
I dont mind the idea of doing it but the only thing that puts me off the idea is I am scared of ruining my current pack and the paint.
Any ideas would be appreciated.
There is no way you could mould a finished proton pack with all the parts connected.
It would need to be the shell with exceptions of the booster tube/frame filler plugs etc… (this is down to personal preference)
If you have no moulding experience I suggest not trying to mould the proton pack first. You need to practice first as its highly unlikely that if you tried a pack as your first mould that it would be successful. You would need to use something soft, like Silicone or Latex, but again, you would need moulding experience with each to make this successful
Lawrence
Oh yes, I know will have to take all the parts off and do them seperatley, thats not a problem.
My dad would do the fibre glass part as he has plenty of experience with it. We are not going to do it yet anyway maybe later this year.
Just finding out any tips.
I’ve recently done a proton pack mould, and fibreglass shells are light and strong, check out some of the progress blogs to get idea’s
recently to my knowledge I’ve done one and so has | Alkaline |, so check our out, we were both novices when it came to it.
Are you planing to sell copies? Because it would probably be cheaper and time saving to just buy a fiberglass shell from someone else.
No, we am not planning to sell copies, we just want to have a go at making one. We are not going to be doing anything yet anyway.
My dad will be the one doing the work as he has alot of experience with fiberglass but he is working on another project at the moment so we are in no hurry.
Do you know anyone who sells good fiberglass shells?
dude you’re starting to bug me. You’ve been here nearly 6 months already right? so do some browsing and check the For Sale Section. Exoray, | alkaline | and mikenelson1982 all have fiberglass shells for sale there.
but once again, I shall save you the leg work. if you want a fiberglass shell in the UK, I suggest waiting for Sevv to do another run here.
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within 5 hours of initial posting. What exactly are you asking here? If your dad has such experience with fiberglassing what could we possibly help you with?
I’m with kind2311 on this, we’re usually more than happy to help but you’ve got to do some research on your own first.
Asside from this whole website, a quick google search brings up this tutorial: http://www.gbproject.com/plans/mctut/index.html and this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrIBCzzUHa4 in the first 10 hits.
Think of what it really is you want to know, try to find out the answer on your own and if unsuccessful post here with a specific description of your problem and what answer you’re looking for.
says someone that sells his own.
its cheaper to make your own man. you’ll be alright.
…I do not sell Proton Pack shells, and even if I did, you are still wrong about everything else. The guy is not making a bunch of shells, he is making one, and that is not cost-effective no matter how you approach it. If he is going to make 5 for him and his friends, then sure, go for it, but that isn’t what he has said here.
Here’s a question along the same lines, is it possible to produce fibreglass pulls from a high-pressure Vac-Formed mold (rather than a silicon mold)?
There’s a plastics company where I live that have an industrial vac-forming machine and can produce molds in a variety of plastics and strengths from a buck. I’m just wondering if that’s an easier way to create a detailed mold rather than spend $500 on silicon and supplies and risk stuffing it up.
the outside wont be very detailed, but the inside will be. if you want to have a crisp detailed pack, you have to reproduce the inside of the vac copy.
I guess that would depend on the price of the vacuum forming. The shell would probably break while demolding the first couple of pulls, possibly wouldn’t even survive the first pull.
Yeah that’s what I mean, using the inside of a vac-formed shell as a mold to make fibreglass packs.
This is the website that lists the matarials they can use for Vac-Forming. http://www.warringah-plastics.com.au/manufacturing.html
I figured that would be the deciding factor as well. Considering a vac-formed mold would be rigid and not as flexible as silicon, and not as easy to de-mold.
Just a thought, anyway…
You might be better off creating a buck to have them vacuum form on. Since they are using expensive machines they could possibly reach a higher level of crisp line and quality compared to past offerings.
That’s the other option. Only problem I can see is, not being sure of the thickness of the formed plastic, how much smaller to make the buck. I’m only looking to make another 3 shells, so I’ll have to find out if it’s worth the effort of making a mold, or just continue building MDF packs.
I am sorry if I have started to bug people about this, I didnt mean to do that.
I guess I am a bit lazy when it comes to research, but now I will do some research first in the future, so thanks for that tip.
Also thanks for the links you gave and sorry if I have confused people with my questions.
But again thanks for the links.