Injection molds made on the B9

[Metalcaster]

Hi Guys,
I am always testing ... Here is a picture of an injection mold I made today on my B91.2 HD machine. Perfect fit and it works well.
I repeated the Process on my 1.1 machine and had no problems.This was done on PDMS Using some of Made solid Material. It also works perfectly fine using straight B9 cherry... Who needs a model when you can make the mold

[jimbit22]

Nice, im working on a similar process for 2+ part RTV molds for impossible castings..

[Robert Howle]

Yes and zero shrinkage. What kind of pressures are u using to inject?

Daniel, the ladies loved the broach u cast and finished in silver. Many thanks for the quick turn around.

Really great casting on the "Dog Tags" that were between 85 and 100 grams each. Again many thanks.

Also many thanks to Matt at Golden Sun for the overnight Job on the "Dog Tag" milling. Smooth as silk. They were just too large for me to print at 30 xy. I really dont' want to change my machine, stay to busy printing for myself and others at 30 xy and 30 z.

Robert Howle

[Metalcaster]

Hi Robert,
For excellent results on a mold like this , I normally use my metal mold Injector. Around 150 PSI.
If you spray lightly and apply a fine amount of Talc, you can get them to fill on a regular wax pot at around 12 PSI.
This piece does not require a metal mold... works perfect in a rubber mold...This is to show some of the B9 machines Potential.
Thanks for sending me your silver castings to do. Excellent Machined wax.

Jim,
Post a Pict of yours if you can . Would be nice to see.

A difficult mold you were saying... Molds are my specialty, so if you need help, let me know.

[jimbit22]

I don't have any yet. Imagine that instead of printing the prototype, im printing mods for the actual rtv molds.

[danmr]

@Metalcaster was this using Made solid Firecast or MS resin?

[Metalcaster]

Have printed it in Ms blue resin , voreg and b9 . The strongest is voreg from made solid..

[kai]

@Metalcaster, great idea!
Does the mold seal to use it for a vacuum wax injector ? I imagine the PDMS suffers a bit from the mold.

[Metalcaster]

These type of molds in metal (or Plastic!)were never designed for Vacuum Injection wax pots.
They were designed for High pressure Hydrolic Ram injectors.We built our own using a Drill press for the Ram part( removing the motor)A wax pot with an added on digital temperature controller accurate to less then 1/2 a degree at the low temperature of 157.( This wax is Liquid at 165)
The wax is set at a sludge temperature, So you need the high pressure to inject. The result is a very low shrink wax injection due to the high pressure and extreme detail... Perfect for college and school rings ( if you know how to make the metal molds) with very high lettering and detail. Very tough to get that type of detail using any type of regular wax injector including Vacuum wax injectors which are the next best thing.

Using a drill press / wax injector in this manner gives you approx 300 pounds per square inch of Pressure.

[kai]

Metalcaster, thanks for sharing your knowledge! Indeed letters etc are a problem with wax injectors (vacuum or not).
Even though talcum powder is not needed anymore with silicone rubber, I still use it in these cases as it seems to make the wax flow easier/faster and entering better in the detailed bits (sharp angles, etc).

[Metalcaster]

Powder helps, even using metal molds. sometimes on metal molds, we have to combine Spray release, then add a tiny amount of powder... rare, but sometimes.
Venting the letters to the outside of the rubber mold helps tremendously

[akgold]

Powder helps, even using metal molds. sometimes on metal molds, we have to combine Spray release, then add a tiny amount of powder... rare, but sometimes.
Venting the letters to the outside of the rubber mold helps tremendously

Venting is a must for most intricate molds but the reason they are there is to allow air to escape so make sure you powder those vents liberally to allow air flow.

[InnovoParts]

Hi Guys,
I am always testing ... Here is a picture of an injection mold I made today on my B91.2 HD machine. Perfect fit and it works well.
I repeated the Process on my 1.1 machine and had no problems.This was done on PDMS Using some of Made solid Material. It also works perfectly fine using straight B9 cherry... Who needs a model when you can make the mold

Hi, first post. Picked up a b9 1.2 a few weeks ago and have been overall impressed with the prints and quality of the printer. However, even the B9 black is not tough enough for some of the parts I'm making (snap fit assemblies). Also I am wanting to print a mold for some silicon parts and have the Made solid Vorex resin on hand to do so.

I was hoping you could help with the settings you are using to successfully print with the Vorex, so far I have not had any luck, although I have only attempted using the B9 setting for the B9 black resin with the Vorex black resin.

I am wanting to print at 30um, I have a v1.2 machine and am running the v1.8 software.

Much appreciated, thank you!

[alex42]

Hi Guys,
I am always testing ... Here is a picture of an injection mold I made today on my B91.2 HD machine. Perfect fit and it works well.
I repeated the Process on my 1.1 machine and had no problems.This was done on PDMS Using some of Made solid Material. It also works perfectly fine using straight B9 cherry... Who needs a model when you can make the mold

Hi, first post. Picked up a b9 1.2 a few weeks ago and have been overall impressed with the prints and quality of the printer. However, even the B9 black is not tough enough for some of the parts I'm making (snap fit assemblies). Also I am wanting to print a mold for some silicon parts and have the Made solid Vorex resin on hand to do so.

I was hoping you could help with the settings you are using to successfully print with the Vorex, so far I have not had any luck, although I have only attempted using the B9 setting for the B9 black resin with the Vorex black resin.

I am wanting to print at 30um, I have a v1.2 machine and am running the v1.8 software.

Much appreciated, thank you!

I would also like to know if someone can post their settings and experience with MS' Vorex. I would love to try printing some snap-fit parts.

[form3d]

Absolutely agree. @Metalcaster your settings for the vorex would be greatly appreciated!

[Metalcaster]

I used their settings which are posted on their site.You have to tune the machine to work with their resins... in otherwords calibrate the machine to the resin. Back when I first tried the Vorex, it was on the older software. I have not tried it since on the new software.

[form3d]

How do you get the entire slab to print without warping? I'm trying to print it using 70 xy and 70 z but after about 15 or so layers, it always warps. I guess it's because it is such a large slab that is curing and then it is all shrinking together causing the warp.
Please see pics of the warping and the alignment. I'm using v1.2 with FTD IB Black resin.
How do you manage to prevent warping on such a large thick area?

[mikej]

Put a thin (.5mm) foundation on, that will create suction around the edges to keep the peel from starting. Might not be possible if the print takes up the entire build area, in that case, you'll need to offset it and use a lot of small supports (at least 10 mm tall).

[Metalcaster]

I have made injection molds similar to that on my B9. Pictures on the forum somewhere...
You have to make sure your platform is dead flat.... That is the first. Then I sand the platform and the Material sticks to the platform much better.
For printing molds,a perfectly Flat platform is critical.
I modified Larry Watsons Platform and he really likes how well that works.
If you check some of my older posts, I explain exactly how to reinforce the platform AND make it perfectly flat.

[form3d]

@Mike I tried adding a foundation but that didn't work (it still warped). Instead of adding supports, I created a fine mesh (with 1mm2 gaps in the middle) as a base hoping that any shrinkage would be take care by this mesh but it didn't work either. Maybe I need to make it a bit thicker because at 0.5mm thick, the print felt really smooth from the bottom.
@Metalcaster I think my build platform is quite flat because when checking after about 10-15 layers, there is no warping at all. Warping starts only towards the end of the print, and I guess that's because of contraction but I will try to add a flat piece of glass to my build table and paste it with epoxy and sand it for adhesion.

I get the same problem (warping) when creating large prints on my FDM printers using ABS. What I try to do is avoid sharp edges because that's where most of the warping happened. I tried it with this print by making it circular for the most part, and it didn't warp! It still isn't a long term solution but I'll continue to experiment. Any more suggestions would be appreciated!