My biggest plug/mold yet...

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#1

Spent the first half of the day today filleting putty around the flange and other 90 deg. areas.

The last 4 hours of the day was spent spraying tooling gel…48 pounds of it!

Its 9’x 4.5’x 3’

Eventually the finished part will be going to disney. Not sure Im allowed to say what it is…so I wont.

Heres the bare plug, before putty. Theres 5 pieces total. All edges were routed with a 3/8" bit. And the orange bellows were left unglued to ease demolding (there held in place by plasticine). There isnt a single screw in the entire plug. Its made of: MDF, gelcoated panels, epoxy, liquid nails.

Note: Dont use liquid nails in a plug. We had a minor reaction with it. Easy fix though.

Coated:

#2

GOOD LORD. what is that a plug of?

#3

:slight_smile:
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#4

Haha!

Actually I dont believe Ill get into trouble if I say what it is.

Its a Lego race track. I guess a drag strip? Two pieces will be pulled from the mold and then joined at the flat edge. The bellows will hold the cars that I guess will be made of legos. Each bellow recieves a clear acrylic insert.

#5

man, the csm to make that mold + the weight. OMG . looks great thou

#6

We chopper gunned it and reinforced areas with 24oz woven roving.

We also glassed in severall wooden mounting points for wheels, and eye hooks. Gonna lift it with a ball and chain when we demold.

Its probably gonna shrink like hell. But hey its not my choice to lay it up in 2 days. Money/time is king!

#7

Heres the finished mold. Still need to wet sand and polish the seams and edges.

Thats me in the background working on a plug for the back half of a plasma TV display case.

#8

Hey JRL…what the hell did you guys use for the half balls?

Id be really interested in seeing your ideas on the plasma case.

I just bought a couple of them for the house and I hate how impersonal they look hanging on the wall without anything…maybe a nice carbon fiber surround will help fill the void? hahahaha.

#9

The contractor gave us one of the production acylic inserts to use as a mold. We needed a slight amount of clearance so I sprayed/wetsanded duratec primer over the original bulb. I then pulled 4 parts off the durateced acrylic bulb. It might have been easier to use PVA to build clearance, but, I wanted all 4 bulbs to have identical surfaces.

The plasma case Im working on is for an order going to educational institution/business type locations. More as a teaching/presentation aid vs. watching TV.

From it however I have came up with some good ideas for a home brew type case. Like building a frame with integrated suround sound speakers, and controls. Fans for cooling the TV if your into gaming. A cut out for the external eye if you cover up the internal sensor with the frame. Slots/holders for spare remotes or DVD’s/games.

#10

well dont be a chode…show us your drawings!

Im thinking the same thing…but Ill probably build mine to just bolt over the top of the TV and it will be out of MDF overlayed with carbon for looks.

#11

The drawings…that I could get sued for. I will say that they are nothing special.

My boss gave me about 5 separate drawings to build the plug from. Most of them ended up getting soaked, torn, or stepped on (after I got the info from them).

MDF is the way to go to build a frame. I think it would be worth it to pull a quick mold vs. an overlay. Having gelcoated fiberglass panels around also helps. Kind of eliminates the spraying/wet sanding/polishing steps…all the labor intensive stuff.

#12

:eek: Very good stuff, more photos…:smiley: