Dang, all the stuff in this thread is looking so good.
So, I've started building the master copy of the staff, and I've got a little good news and a little bad news.
The good news is that after working out a few kinks in the process, making the master is going great. I hope to have everything turned by the end of tomorrow.
The bad news is that, as you can kind of see in the picture, the 3/4" pipe itself and the resin shapes I'm turning around them are nearly the same diameter. That means that when I do the casting and put the pvc in there to hold the negative shape I'm going to end up with a very, very thin cast. 0.08" seems to be about the average, and I'm very nervous to try and pull that from the mold and also to ship something that fragile.
What I'm thinking now is that instead of trying to lube the pvc and eventually pull it out, I'm going to leave it in. That means that from the outside it won't look any different, but the hole inside will now be the inner diameter of the pipe instead of the outside. I'm using 3/4" ID pvc, so that means instead of going out and buying that pipe to thread the parts over you'd be threading that pipe over something else. I think a 3/4" wooden dowel seems like the most cheap and sensible thing, and they come pretty standard in 36" and 48" lengths, both of which should be able to be staggered inside the staff to keep it stable. That also means that the smooth parts on the staff would still need to be 3/4" pvc, but you'd literally just be cutting a section and slipping it over the wood. I know that's confusing, hopefully this diagram helps.
Pink is the hollow pvc, blue is the wooden dowel that would need to be slid inside. The green is the sculpted shape, which as you can see is very thin. This wouldn't change the price of the kits or anything, but it would require a few more dollars and a little more effort on the buyers side. Unfortunately I can't think of any other way to do this, but if anyone's got any great idea before I make the first mold this afternoon please let me know.
Apologies for the kind of rambly post.
EDIT: also, I hope to have to etsy link up soon. Apologies that that's taking so long, I just really want to calculate the price as fairly as possible before I take any money.
