Lmao. How appropriate! They look comfy and stylish too! Ah well, maybe nextime.
Hey, a few nights ago I watched 20000 Leagues Under The Sea. That Captain Nemo is one morose dude.
Say Capn, just as a follow-up. I was just advised that as of last week there are 44 container ships sitting off the coast waiting to be offloaded. 44!
I mentioned there are containers in Illinois that can’t be offloaded. Apparently, it is some sort of frame they need to unload the rail cars. There is a shortage because they are not being returned. They have recently instituted daily fines in an effort to expedite the return of these frames. But here is the thing that I just learned. There are 20 MILES of railcars sitting on track waiting to be offloaded. 20 MILES! Like I said, rail has stopped sending cargo trains to Illinois for several weeks now. The containers are being held on the west coast as a result.
So here is how my Monday opened. Remember that resin issue I mentioned. I have a customer that uses crimp terminals by the 10s of thousands, some parts into the 100s of thousands. Getting product has been hand to mouth. Well-- with a lot of pressure on my part I was able to get some product freed up and shipped last week. Well guess what? Something happened at FED X. The shipment has been stuck in TN for several days. We called FED X today and well, “we don’t know what the issue is. We will start an investigation.”
Translation? You are SOL. My customer goes line down on Wednesday. Now I need to try and broker some if I can find any. These are the daily battles and the insanity of it all. It is absolute chaos. It is so broken.
THE END
Don’t feel alone. I work part time now for a body shop. Sheet metal and other parts are getting hard to come by, either by transportation issued or the regional warehouse not having them. Not an area problem, is nationwide.
Our windshield and glass contractor is having problems getting glass now as well. He’s being told that some windshields are better than a month out, and some there’s no date when they’ll be available.
And the insurance companies are screaming because of increased costs and time on rental cars, And not many of those in circulation because of the auto production problems.
Yup. It is impacting every facet of the supply chain. We are seeing shortages across the spectrum. I may not mind it so much if our customers would step into reality. Some of them are oblivious and instead of trying to work within the constraints of the crisis, no, let’s increase production during it and you need to make it happen. Ridiculous.
Anyhow, it is what it is.
Ok, back at it:
If I do this again, I will try placing a sheet of wax paper underneath the mold before hot gluing. It was somewhat of a pain to detach the mold from the plate. I thought it might pop off with some coaxing, but I underestimated the strength of the gooy glue. I had to pry it up, bit by bit. Not a terrible problem but my arms got a workout. Live and learn.
On the bright side-- I found that removing the clay base was a breeze. It basically popped out. I thought for sure I’d have to gouge it out chunk by chunk. Not so. Also-- the silicone cured beautifully. No issues.
I pulled the clay from the spokes and cleaned up some rubber flash.
Next up I need to make a vent and then it’s ready to pour the second half. Maybe I can get to that tomorrow.
Notice the circular piece at the top. I pulled that from the mixing cup. No bubbles. So with luck-- it might be a nice mold.
This rubber is pretty cool. You can’t see it in the image but the piece I pulled from the cup has a thin sheet still attached that was pulled from the wall of the cup. I gave it a good go to rip it and it wouldn’t. This is strong stuff. It might be good for dipping tools even. Maybe.
Looking good so far Bakster.
That mold looks perfect! Crossing my fingers everything goes well.
Thanks, Gam.
All systems are go.
Well;
If you fail then my way is wrong after all! Nah, looking good!
Thanks TB
New to the forum. Wow. There’s a lot to swallow in this thread and much to learn. Thanks to all for sharing.
Mac
Hey Mac, welcome to the forum! I am glad to hear you found this thread and that you are enjoying it. Feel free to ask questions as they come up, or, just to chime in. There is a lot of chiming going on, and for the questions, there are wiser folk than me here if I can’t answer it.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
And, whatever you do, don’t scroll down to the Science Fiction sub-forum and look up the Icarus build.
Not unless you have a lot of time (it’s near to 70 pages long, and mostly ape & monkey jokes).
There’s an outstanding model build set in a nifty diorama, though. If at the end of an Icelandic Edda [:)]
Oh, and whatever you do, don’t look for our dear Baxter’s Seaview build–it’s stunning, too.
Hey Capn-- You are too kind, sir! Thank you!
Lol… so true.
My job has me bound tightly but maybe this weekend I will get more done.
I guess I can spill the beans about a change. I decided to pull the trigger and buy casting resin. Though the Puduo works, I have since found some bubbles rose to the surface causing dimples. (Thus is the need for a pressure pot). I could easily fill the defects with CA but call me crazy, I decided I went through all this work with the mold, why not try using the recommended pourable resin. I want to see how well their product works. And since casting is something I have wanted to dabble in at some point, now is a good time to experiment.
I didn’t originally plan to do this so I might face some issues in how well the resin flows into the mold. I have seen that some people use syringes to inject resin and that could be an option to try if all else fails.
It’s a journey, and it can’t be a journey if I don’t take it.
Awwwwwwwww, the PotA Icarus build thread was friggin’ epic!!!
Looking forward to seeing how the casting resin works out. Of course no reason you can’t make a dozen or more wheels with different materials and techniques to see which one works out the bestest!!!
I have yet to go into the realm of casting but stuff like this makes me want to give it a whirl. Most impressive Steve.
That makes me laugh, Cliff. Still laughing.
Now there is a man that appreciates experimentation! [Y]
I can’t wait to get at it.
Thanks Joe!
Bakko me old mate, (in Oz we tend to shorten everything and usually put an ‘o’ on peoples names. Why??? FIK), I have never had a crack at casting, not sure if I want to, so I’m going to watch and learn from your trials and trepidations. It’s cheaper and less painful that way…