Guardian Lion Concrete Mold

thingiverse

Work in progress - things will change. First of all, let me do the legal stuff. I am not a mold maker, this project was to see if I could create a concrete mold with a 3D printer using free software (OpenSCAD, Blender). It was a proof of concept and I successfully created bookends from it. I produced three versions and I included them - Version 1 is basic, but did not handle the overhang details well. Files for this are named LeftLionMold* Version 2 & 3 splits into multiple pieces to account for the overhangs - much better success! Version 2: side1.stl,side2.stl,center1.stl,center1a.stl,center2.stl,center2a.stl,legcutout.stl,feetcutout.stl Version 3: side1.stl,side2.stl,center1.stl,center1a.stl,center2.stl,center2a.stl, all the stls labelled right*.stl I published this as a way to pay back to the community since I got lots of information from the community when I started. When I published this, a lot of suggestions came forth and I will try a few to improve. This is not perfect, but is useable with patience. You will need: 4 6" 5/16" bolts, 8 washers, 4 nuts and a clamp, olive oil (use as mold release), some pieces of wood to enhance the clamping effect. Soft PLA or TPU/TPE to print. I used soft PLA because it was clearance item at the shop I use. Files are attached to this folder: V1: LeftLionMold*.stl V2: Side1: outside piece Side2: outside piece center1, 1A, 2,2A-> these parts are the center portion of the body of the lion Leg cutout, feetcutout -> for the legs and feet - these will work if you combine and print together as well. V3: Side1: outside piece Side2: outside piece center1, 1A, 2,2A-> these parts are the center portion of the body of the lion separated the feet and legs for easier demolding --> all files labelled right*.stl I split the lion into a number of parts to make the mold release easier. I chose concrete because it was cheap and readily available at hardware stores. A suggestion has been made to use a plaster - I may try this as I get time I have included the cad file (OpenSCAD, Blender) if anyone wants to play with this and do improvements - I would appreciate constructive feedback since I will be doing improvements as I get time to do so. Best way that I found: Print all the parts. Preassemble them onto four bolts to get the order correct. Put together all parts in order leaving one side off. Apply olive oil to the mold surfaces. Fill and pack with the wet concrete to the side and the assembled pile of mold parts. (The concrete should have the consistency of soft ice cream. Overfill the molds slightly.) Bolt it all together, add a clamp and wait for it to cure. (24 hours min) Bolting will force out the overfill - it will be messy. It has been suggested to vibrate the mold to force out bubbles. Unbolt and remove one side. Remove each piece carefully. If you used a flexible filament, the pieces should bend and pop off. At this point you will have a lion. Finish as desired. Have fun with this. For those interested: 1. Create part desired in cad (OpenSCAD will read in an stl with the import function) 2. Create bounding box to hold the part - the part desired should fit completely in the box. 3. Put the part into the box with a boolean subtract to create the mold (difference command in OpenSCAD will do this) 4. Have a lot of fun slicing the mold into pieces for effective release. Choose slicing to allow removal without damage overhangs - easier said than done though. I used OpenScad to pick the points to create the slices. I sliced them in place so I could just assemble it in OPenSCAD to verify the slices. 5. Why do this over using silicon mold: - When u have a hammer, all problems look like nails: I wanted to see if I could do this with a 3Dprinter vs. creating a silicon mold.