Rotocasting Machine

CGClone

Sr Member
After searching for hours and not having $3,500 to lay down on a rotocasting machine, I am coming here.

I searched and found some topics on the subject, but I would love to construct a small, hand-crank, rotocasting machine.

I saw Clone6 had drawn up some preliminary plans, but the image is no longer there. I am not afraid of tackling it myself, but just wanted to see if anyone had knowledge to share?

Thanks gang as always.
 
I don't have any pictures of one sitting on my work computer, so no help there.

Is it possible to take your mold to a casting business and ask them to rum parts for you? They will charge you a nominal fee, but I am sure that it would be cheaper than buying one.

Next question: How big are your castings going to be? can you rotate the molds by hand, or with the help of a friend?
 
I just wanted a hand cranked one. I want to rotocast the Kingdom Come Wonder Woman helmet I did here and some projects in the future, so I would love to build one instead of dropping $3,300 on a 2'x2'.

I work in the Distribution area of downtown Memphis, so I will hunt and see if there are any roto/casting/manufacturing places nearby, but would still love my own home-built if you know what I mean.
 
Thought this was quite a bit 'on topic' so I moved it to the main forum.

Interesting question... anyone know how to make one?

-Bryan
 
Here is what I found on the home PC. I hope this works out for you.

roto01.jpg


rotational.jpg
 
At the town festival a few weeks ago, I was eyeballing one of these things, and thinking if someone scaled it down a little, it would be a pretty great rotocasting rig...

gyro.jpg



...You could stick a motor on it without too much hassle I'd think. :)

-Sarge
 
C6, you rock bro! Thank you!

Yes SgtFang, my father inlaw mentioned building a gimbal (the pic you posted) and thought that would work well for the projects.

Thanks guys, I will post what I come up with from these reference.
 
Hey Clonesix,

You wouldn't happen to have any meausrements for the machine you built, or know where one might find gears like those do you?


I didn't build the wooden machine above. I found that picture on the web somewhere, and have had it on my hard drive for a while.

Those gears wear most likely CNC cut. If you were to cut those by hand, you would never get all the teeth identically even and meshing. But if you try it, be sure to post pics.

When I envisioned building something along these lines, I thought pulleys and belts would work fine.

In the end, if I had to do that much roto-casting, I would buy the $3500 machine. So far, all the hollow casting I have done, I have done by hand rotating the mold for 5 minutes while the resin sets. I can do this because I made fiberglass jacketed mother molds. If I had made plaster jacketed mother mold, this thread would be detailing my hernia surgery.
 
[URL="http://www.j6x2.com]HERE's[/URL] my friends rotocaster. I made a few toys with it and it worked great.

I can get some pics if your interested.

FB
 
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Ive done my fair share of slush/hand roto casting, just would love to have a home built (be it crank or motor) to have to do nice casts of future projects.

Franz, I love the machine, did he make it or buy it?
 
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Your friends machine looks like it would not take up to much space
and Yes plans would be cool, I would like to get a set as well
As I hate to hand roto cast, I always make a mess no matter how careful
I am.

Thanks

Andrew/TK648
 
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