really need help/advice.

[manakawari]

ok so we have a milling machine and a 3d printer at work( i work for an embellishment company btw) we make custom embelishment designs for the fashion industry...for a few jobs i have been either milling or 3d printing rather small and detailed items but its not practical for jobs where i am making many of a small single object...i find that if i mill or 3dc print a mold, i can easily cast in resin and this works well with the exception of the finish...what i am doing is either milling an object from acrylic and using that to make a silicone mold, or im milling an open faced mold directly out of acrylic....now this works ok except the finish stinks...some jobs im using special pearlecent pigments that look great on the open side of the cast thats not against the mold but because of the poor finish on the sides touching the mold, just looks crummy....i suppose i could polish the acrylic but this seems very time consuming and would only work for the simplest forms, any amount of detail and this becomes impossible and besides, i still cant seem to achieve the high polish that the stock acrylic has...i was wondering what is typically done to achieve the finish i desire?..is there perhaps a polishing bit i could use for my cnc that would get me the high gloss finish im after?

any and all advice would really be apprciated.

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[manakawari]

after a little research what im thinking about now trying is this, i will mill my master from acrylic(the pieces im creating are odd detailed shapes anywhere from 2.5 inches x 2.5 inches to about the size of pea...after i machine my master i will run a very slow polishing step on my cnc...i will remove the piece and if it allows(not much detail) i will wet sand and then use novus polish to get the best finish(if the piece is too small or too detailed i will skip the sanding and just throw it in the tumbler overnight....then finally i will vapor polish the small masters using methylene chloride......based on my research this seems like i will be able to obtain an optical finish on my master ...i will then take this perfect master and create a silicone mold....do you guys think this will work to allow me to cast perfect resin pieces that will come out of the mold with a high gloss requiring no polishing?

i really need to find a process that will work something like this because i need to make small production runs of these pieces(20 or 30 ) and i cant polish every single one...very often im using pearlized or holographic pigment powders in the resin and unless the surface is flawless, the effect is impossible to achieve,,,it looks so amazing on the open side of the mold but currently any side touching the mold surface just looks terrible....metal really isnt an option to use as a mold material because of the machine i have, my milling machine is just too slow with cutting metal and these jobs are usually me making say 20 of a piece and i never have to make them again so im not concerned about mold longevity.

[awerby]

I'd try this vapor-polishing idea on a small scale before going too much further on this plan; it might work, but it seems like you risk destroying too much of the details you want to preserve. If that doesn't work, you might try alternative polishing methods, like vibratory tumbling with a range of media. Alternative materials would be worth considering as well - acrylic isn't the easiest material to work with. Metals are better - even tin, which can be cast directly into silicone rubber molds.

Andrew Werby
Juxtamorph.com

[bhurts]

Acrylic can be high polished with a buffing wheel and the correct rough. The make small buffing wheels that work with a dremel tool or similar for polishing small details.

Ben