15 Sep
2006
15 Sep
'06
3:26 p.m.
Quoth Tony Duell:
Incidentally, do you have any experience of the 2-pack
'synthetic
rubbers' that Devcon (and others) make? I may well need to use such a
product to make a roller (for a classic computer -- an HP9820's internal
printer), and I do need to mix small amounts. The smallest Devxon pack I
can get over here is something like 500g, and costs \pounds 30.00. I am
going to go broke very quickly if I have to pay that out for every test
run (I know it won''t work first time).
I've worked with silicone RTV rubber. For molding/casting it has
excellent properties for holding small detail, releasing cleanly from
pretty much ANY material that isn't itself, and lasting for multiple
pours; it's also done a good job staying stable in the container for long
periods (read: 4-6 months) even after opening (so it can be used a little
at a time), and have never had a mold lose any stability at all once the
RTV had cured.
Having said that, I've never tried it for applications like printer
rollers, rubber capstans and such. Whether its hardness or other
properties would be suitable for that, I can't say; but I do think it
would be worth a try. If you do try it, let me know what happens.
My only advice: Whatever you cast it in, make sure that cast is completely
free of oils, grease, sulfur-based modeling clay (though "Sculpey" is
okay) or latex. It'll prevent the stuff from curing, leaving you with
either A) something a bit too unstable to use or B) one hell of a mess.
:/
Presumably the people at Devcon will have some documentation for their
stuff which can be downloaded (and if they don't, try www.smooth-on.com;
they do for their products).
-O.-