So this weekend was for experimenting with silicone and plastics...
I have a G104 board which I got from Ebay once. It was defective and the
handles were taken off... I bought it for spare parts but I fixed the board instead...
Since I'm busy making the M993 card for my RK05 drive I also need a few handles.
So I removed a blank handle from a W967 wire wrap board to make a PU (poly Urethane) copy of that.
First I made a silicon negative of the handle. The handle needs to be free
in the silicone. So I glued a few pieces of a pencil underneath the handle.
The little bit's of glue will be the filling opening in the negative.
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After mixing the silicone I put it in a vacuum chamber to let all the air out.
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The handle is glued to the bottom of this little tub so it won't float in the silicone.
Now I can pour the silicone in...
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After putting it in vacuum I got all air out of the silicone. One thing I didn't realise before
and that is that there is a lot of air in the wood of the pencil. So the next time I will use
some sort of plastic or a piece of wire... But the result is okay after a while in the vacuum chamber.
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And since I'm missing one switch on my PDP8/m I thought it will be nice to make a silicone negative from those too.
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After a few hours of drying I can take the originals out...
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Time for making the A part of the PU with a little bit of colour.
Making only the A part on colour gives the advantage to mix
a next piece of plastic in the same colour.
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Then mixing the A and B component and fill up the negatives.
While I have way to much I put in the green into the know negative as well.
Just to see how the results would be...
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Hello Digital
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Not to bad I think... But it seems I need a better vacuum pump.
At some knobs very small details disappeared. So I need to optimise the process.
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Well not exactly the right colour. I have to optimise that too.
And I have to determine the right colours for the knobs as well..
And I need to mix the magenta for the M993 as well...
But hey, for a first attempt I think it's nice
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Regards, Roland
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