A look under the hood

Conversion

No, I'm not making reference to the conversion figure I'm working on.

I'm referring to the "cubic inches-to-US fluid ounces" conversion calculator now located on the bottom-left section of this blog (courtesy of Metric Conversions). I wanted to keep the calculator handy so I put it where I'd be sure to find it again.

I needed to make the conversion to calculate the correct amount of liquid plastic resin to pour into my hand molds. I measured the length, width and depth of the hand models in inches, multiplied those measurements to get the cubic inches, entered the amount into the top box of the conversion calculator, and the calculator came up with the US fluid ounces needed to make the hands. The reason I needed the US fluid ounces calculation was that the Dixie cups I used as mixing receptacles are measured in US fluid ounces.

If ever you need to make a similar conversion, now you know where to find a calculator.

A show of hands

Merry Christmas from Kenny & Joyce Croes

Chester cracks more corny Christmas jokes

Talkin' dummies

Chester sings a holiday song

Chester says hello

I love my new webcam

Look ma... hands

I still have to pick off the little bits of clay, but the first halves of my hand molds seemed to have worked out fine. The next step is to cover the silicone rubber with a layer of vaseline (avoiding the model), and then covering the hand models with more silicone rubber. The vaseline prevents the silicone rubber from bonding to itself.

It's a mother

After reading about Al Stevens' safety casting of Chuck Norwood, I learned I could make a mothermold using plaster bandages. To me, that technique seems safer than using liquid plastic, mostly because of fumes. That's the method I've used for these hand molds. It was time consuming, but kinda fun. Now I'm waiting for them to dry and harden completely.

The frustrating part of the process is that I won't get a glimpse of my handiwork until I've already invested hours of work. While I've learned a lot, I won't be happy if I have to start over again.

The rubber meets the road

I finally did it. I mixed and brushed platinum-based silicone rubber over the two hand models. I used Smooth-On's product REBOUND-25 which comes with their brush-on starter kit.

The next step is to make a mothermold. I'll use plaster bandages, the material used to make plaster casts (like for a broken arm). After the mothermold hardens, I'll flip it over, remove the clay bed, and brush on more silicone rubber to mold the other half of the hand models.