Before I purchased my own Moldmaster setup from RIO I took my
work to a local printer and had them do my transformations into
plastic. I believe I paid about $5 per square inch. From these ,I
vulcanized them to produce my waxes. Some of the smaller printers
weren’t equipped to do the process however.It also worked best
when my drawings were copied with a photocopier or laser printer
for better contrast.Good luck.
Fred,
Have you seen the Model Maker kit? As long as your design is
basically flat, you can make a model from a black and white
drawing. Your drawing is “etched” in a plastic-like material
that is backed by metal and you can make your mold from it. I
believe that after the design is etched you can dap/curve the
model. But I have only seen it demonstrated and have never used
it. I think Rio Grande carries it. Perhaps someone else out
there knows more about this product?
Hi Fred this is Roland. I’ve done alot of lettering and signate
type carving in wax over the years. If it’s something that is to
be cast I’m sure I can be of help. If you’re looking for an
object that is to be die-struck, then I suggest you contact
Dominic Ventrua at F.I.T. He is really up on the cad-cam process
and could probably put you in touch with a company that deals
with pantograph cad-cam reproduction. His e-mail is
74037.3471@compuserve.com That’s an old address but should work.
Roland
looking for a source that I can send a drawing and have a plastic, wax or metal pattern made from the art work.
There are a number of ways to handle this, some of them cheap.
One is to go to a photo etcher and have you camera ready art work
done in magnesium (about $20.00), there is a fair amount of
“drift” , meaning the walls of the cut are not perfectly
vertical. Another way is to go to a stamp maker and have them
make the design in rubber but not attach it to a stamp(about
$15.00), you can then cast it. There is the model master that
uses light sensitive polymers (costs about $300.00 I think), I
have one and am not thrilled but have not really given it a
chance to prove itself. Or if you are making enough units have a
steel die made to stamp out a couple hundred, thats really the
way to go if its in the budget. The problem with the police badge
is the tiny little letters are hard to reproduce perfectly when
shooting wax into a rubber mold. You can usually get acceptable
reproductions however. I have made a bunch of these tie tack
sized police badges and frankly they are a pain in the ass, they
are hard to do, cops are cheap and you don’t want to disapoint
them (you never know when your alarm will go off). The rubber
stamp method is a winner for logos etc. Mark P.