After building Resolution and doing a lot of looking into silicon RTV moulds I have finally dived in the deep end and use RTV as I have wanted to do castings of hydroplanes etc..
i have looked very carefully at all the pics you've put up of your green and Blue Rtv moulds as well as Youtube and have started doing similar for the Resolutions control surfaces. I haven't done the whole spruce and vent set up yet, want to get experience just with the basic castings.
I get the impression from your workshop that silicon moulds are probably the most common form of tooling that you develop for fabricating parts, is this right? Do you still use hard shell (grp) moulds for hulls? I would consider using silicon moulds for larger parts if they give better fidelity but just don't know enough about how wobbly a large mould like that would be and making sure it was supported enough.
what kind of lifecycle do you get out of your silicon moulds? Any particular hints in looking after them or specific things I should keep an eye on whilst making them and or using them?
i see that these moulds are really wobbly. You back them with what looks like a piece of chipboard. Is there the concern that you may have a little give in the silicon mould and it may slightly distort the piece coming out of it?
Out of curiosity you must have made hundreds of these moulds, would that be correct?
the skills you freely impart are fantastic, I just wonder whether more discussion about tooling design and use would complement the other skills that you teach. I would certainly find it beneficial.
thanks Dave,
David H
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