A match plate made in heaven - My first 3d printer related "casting".

[Dan Dubeau]

Just thought I share the result when a few hobbies and professions meet.

Couple weeks back I shared a new lure design I came up with and printed on my FDM anet a6.

Since then I got an elegoo mars resin printer. The detail with that thing is pretty incredible. I liked the design, but made a few changes, mainly to the back tube flange, and figured out hook and line tie placement. Then I drew up a match plate and printed it. As well as some mold box ends. I printed it hollow with 1.2mm walls, and a 3d grid structure inside with a couple drain holes at the top (visible) and some on the bottom. The plate is 0.25" thick. The gunky looking dark spots around the parting lines is mold release, match plate pics are after pouring the silicone (too excited to take before pics ).






A few air bubbles highlight the fact that I need a vaccum pump to degass the silicone, but I'm pretty happy with the results of my first 3d printer related "casting". I'll have to wait a couple months to try it out with anything metal related (supplies to build a furnace are on the slow boat right now) but I'm really looking forward to it. I've got a couple months worth of ideas already.....

And last but not least, the maiden lure cast with alumilite resin. Missing the tube trailer, but I'm going to make those tonight maybe if I get some time. The internal wire is pretty rough, but I plan on making a few like this and if they work as good as I hope they do, I'll make an aluminum lead mold to cast the internal wire form. I'm also going to switch to a longer hook for a bit more throat. The back eye is for a stinger hook.



I had to go into the city today, so I worked a side trip to a 3d printing store to pick up some flexible resin to try. I'd like to try direct printing the molds to shorten lead times, and lower the cost per cavity a bit. I have a few ideas on how to print a cavity insert from flex, backed up with an fdm printed form with registration keys. Should be able to get away with a minimum volume of expensive flex that way. All in all the match plate idea worked pretty good though, and although I'd do some things a bit different next time, I'm pretty happy about the initial results. Even the venting worked great.

Hopefully I'll be able to test it out next weekend.

I know fishing lures isn't really that well aligned to the topic matter of this board....but I thought I'd share how a 3d printer can be used to make useful things and tooling, not just trinkets and benchy boats. I'm pretty excited to try the flex resin, and some burnable resin in the future when I get setup for casting metal.

[chipmaker4130]

Fascinating. Thanks for taking time to share it.

[Tom S]

Very cool, great to see the fantastic detail from that printing carried through the casting.

My thoughts on the hook - the one you are currently using it to short, especially for a vertical presentation. I think you recognize that - the throat is to small and there is a chance the fish will hit the line with it's mouth and move the hook point outside of it's mouth, you should be able to see if this is happening after a couple hits. A longer hook will help, but will also give the fish more leverage to work the hook out during the fight. Some longer streamer flies have this problem, so what they do is eliminate the hook and tie on a shank, to which a trailer hook is attached while fishing. The trailer becomes the main hook, and because the fly is jointed in the middle it greatly reduces the leverage advantage for the fish. Look up an Intruder Fly to see what I'm talking about. Might be an idea for you - just throw a spit ring with a trailer on there instead of a long hook.

[Dan Dubeau]

Very cool, great to see the fantastic detail from that printing carried through the casting.

My thoughts on the hook - the one you are currently using it to short, especially for a vertical presentation. I think you recognize that - the throat is to small and there is a chance the fish will hit the line with it's mouth and move the hook point outside of it's mouth, you should be able to see if this is happening after a couple hits. A longer hook will help, but will also give the fish more leverage to work the hook out during the fight. Some longer streamer flies have this problem, so what they do is eliminate the hook and tie on a shank, to which a trailer hook is attached while fishing. The trailer becomes the main hook, and because the fly is jointed in the middle it greatly reduces the leverage advantage for the fish. Look up an Intruder Fly to see what I'm talking about. Might be an idea for you - just throw a spit ring with a trailer on there instead of a long hook.

Thanks Tom, Yeah I'm not sold on the hook either. It looked a lot bigger in the pack on the shelf.... Gotta search for something longer with a bigger gap, or like you say eliminate it altogether. About 80% of the lake trout I've ever caught ice fishing have been on the stinger, or trailer hook anyway. If I can get them on the chase up the water column it will open up that gap to the line a bit, but I still figure I'll hook most on the trailer.

After the first post I put the kids to bed, and headed out to the garage to turn a tube mandrel (machining content finally... ). Being this was my first time working with soft plastics, and first time dipping a tube, I'm happy with the results. First one came out terrible, second was much better, and third was almost perfect . Fourth was worse than the first lol, so I just quit for the night. Made up some quick eyes, and cut up the tube with some scissors. It's not perfect but it's fishable I think. Going to make up some trailer hooks tomorrow, and start hoping for a cold snap.







It's a start. Not entirely happy with a few things, but I figure I'll make about 10 more and fish with them this winter and see how they work, then adjust from there. The one lake we go to for lake trout all the time is very productive in the winter with a white tube jig. My whole goal with this design was to mimic the herring baitfish the lake trout chase, and take the 3" tube jig to the next level. And also to see how I could integrate my printers into lure building while having a bit of fun and learning new stuff.

[ikdor]

That's pretty neatly done. Thanks for sharing.

[RB211]

Did you use a vacuum chamber for the silicone mold? I always had air bubble issues.

[Mcgyver]

very neat stuff....keep 'em coming.

On the furnace, I bought a china pid to replace my fuji on my burn out furnace. The thing was less than $20 on amazon and to my surprise arrived with an SCR and thermocoupler!

[Dan Dubeau]

Did you use a vacuum chamber for the silicone mold? I always had air bubble issues.

No, but I need to. Lots of little bubbles on the cavity surface, but funny enough, none on any of the others. Didn't really seem to affect the casting that much, and for this purpose it probably doesn't matter much, but I'd like to get a vacuum pump for future use.

I salvaged a pump from a dehumidifier a few months back with the plan of building a little airbrush compressor, and vaccum pump unit all in one.

[Dan Dubeau]

very neat stuff....keep 'em coming.

On the furnace, I bought a china pid to replace my fuji on my burn out furnace. The thing was less than $20 on amazon and to my surprise arrived with an SCR and thermocoupler!

Thanks, I ordered a couple pid's from banggood with scrs and some thermocouples, and a 3kg crucible. Still need some firebrick and castable refractory but that can be bought locally when the other stuff arrives. I want to play around with using an arduino as well to see if I can control the ramp up and hold temps a little better. Mainly as a reason to learn how to program and use an arduino.

[mattthemuppet]

very cool, thanks for sharing!

[Noitoen]

Do you really need the silicone mold? Couldn't you directly print the negative mold in 2 or more parts using regular hard resin?

[epicfail48]

No, but I need to. Lots of little bubbles on the cavity surface, but funny enough, none on any of the others. Didn't really seem to affect the casting that much, and for this purpose it probably doesn't matter much, but I'd like to get a vacuum pump for future use.

I salvaged a pump from a dehumidifier a few months back with the plan of building a little airbrush compressor, and vaccum pump unit all in one.

Vacuum pumps save a lot of headaches in the long run, as I found out the hard way. No trapped air spoiling the surface of a mold with $20 worth of silicone in it, no sub-surface bubbles that only show themselves when pressure casting, degassing the resin prevents scrapping parts cause of air bubbles in detailed areas, life's just a lot easier.

A Harbor Freight pressure pot, couple fittings, a sheet of 1/2" acrylic and you can make a chamber for both vacuum degassing and pressure casting. Not horribly expensive when all's done either

[Dan Dubeau]

Do you really need the silicone mold? Couldn't you directly print the negative mold in 2 or more parts using regular hard resin?

I'm going to try it on future designs. I didn't really think about that when I came up with this one, and there's a few undercuts that wouldn't demold. Having never work with any of these materials before I didn't really know what to expect, so I just stuck with the workflow I've watched many on youtube have success with. Next designs I'll pay more attention to draft angles around the gill plates, and eye sockets etc. The alumilite resin is actually a bit pliable still after 10 minutes so it might actually release from the small undercuts on this model.

I picked up some flex resin to try printing the cavities directly too.

I'm really interested in trying to direct print a mold for injecting soft plastics. The working temp of plastisol is a bit higher than the max temp of printing resins, but I'm going to try it anyway .

Vacuum pumps save a lot of headaches in the long run, as I found out the hard way. No trapped air spoiling the surface of a mold with $20 worth of silicone in it, no sub-surface bubbles that only show themselves when pressure casting, degassing the resin prevents scrapping parts cause of air bubbles in detailed areas, life's just a lot easier.

A Harbor Freight pressure pot, couple fittings, a sheet of 1/2" acrylic and you can make a chamber for both vacuum degassing and pressure casting. Not horribly expensive when all's done either

I've got the 1/2" poly carbonate, the vacuum gauge, and a pressure pot (bought all a couple months ago). Just need to put it all together, with a pump. I accumulate parts for my various projects all the time, and sometimes feel like I'm juggling chainsaws with all the projects I have on the go at one time, but every once in a while I actually finish one lol. I sometimes bite off more than I can chew, but my eyes have always been bigger than my stomach.....

[epicfail48]

Sounds like youre ahead of the curve then Dan. Seriously though, jump on getting the chamber set up before you go too far into casting, degassing the silicone used in molds is one of those things thats only technically not necessary. In reality, skipping it leads to scrapped parts for little benefit, even the molding compounds that claim they dont need degassing have issues with air bubbles

If you hadnt guessed by now, ive been there. Dont be me.

[Dan Dubeau]

Sounds like youre ahead of the curve then Dan. Seriously though, jump on getting the chamber set up before you go too far into casting, degassing the silicone used in molds is one of those things thats only technically not necessary. In reality, skipping it leads to scrapped parts for little benefit, even the molding compounds that claim they dont need degassing have issues with air bubbles

If you hadnt guessed by now, ive been there. Dont be me.

Is that how you got your name . Unfortunately it seems the best teacher for me has always been failure as well.

One thing I noticed in a few videos of guys casting molds without degassing is they brush a thin layer of silicone on the surface first before pouring the back fill in. I had planned on doing that, but completely forgot about it when I got caught up in the moment. Not sure if that might have eliminated some bubbles on the surface, but it probably wouldn't have hurt. The resin I'm using seems to be fine without degassing, and for my purposes is probably fine. Fish probably wouldn't notice anyway . I'll finish the vac chamber before making another silicone mold though.