Disolvable mold materieal

[Matt]

I am looking to make a one piece mold and I want to use a disolvable mold. Any suggestions besides blue foam? Im looking for something I can pour into our existing part.

let me know

matt_bug@yahoo.com

[Matt]

I am looking to make a one piece mold and I want to use a disolvable mold. Any suggestions besides blue foam? Im looking for something I can pour into our existing part.

let me know

matt_bug@yahoo.com

[MikeWaggoner at UW]

Whatcha makin'?

You can use styrofoam pellets and wax.

[Brent Howard]

What about meltable instead of disolvable. Try plain candle wax...or there is a machinable type of wax too, but it is very expensive. We tried to use wax last year for our carbon fiber intake. It worked ok, but you will have to pre-heat your piece so that you don't get uneven cooling and end up with voids like in some casting. A better method might be to pack in small pieces of solid wax and then heat the whole thing in an oven at a low temperature for a while. You would have to repeat this a few times though.

Brent

[Matt]

It is an intake as well. I seem to remember teams using some kind of bakingpowder water/ disolvable in water solutions? Any ideas?

How does that styrafoam and wax work?

[Brent]

One of the guys on our team found Aquacore.
http://www.acrtucson.com/products/Aquacore/index.htm
We haven't used it but it sounds like one hell of a product. It is expensive but in many cases its worth it if it means saving your mold or finished product.

[Brent Howard]

Matt,

We did not use wax for our mould, just experimented with it a little. We ended up using MDF and aluminum re-usable moulds. One mould for the plenum (two halves laid up seperatly) and one for the runners. Worked out really well and gave a great interior finish.

As for the wax I think with a bit more evperimentation it would have worked well. It definitly came out of the mould easily. Once you heat it up it will slide right out. Only big issue is the pcokets it can create if the edges of your original mould are cold. That's why I suggest heating it all together in an oven so that it will completly melt and fill in everything. The otehr nice thing about the wax is that you can get a good surface finish if you heat the outside slightly with a lighter or blowdryer. It will start to melt slightly and fill in any sratches.

Brent

[MikeWaggoner at UW]

It doesn't have to be wax. Styrofoam pellets are just nice filler to use since they'll dissolve in almost anything.

One note on plenum design; everyone seems to want the inside of their plenum to be smooth. This may lead to undesirable behavior. The air needs to detach upon exit from the primary runner inlet, and will remain attached to the walls as parts if there is not a clean break. Particularly with a barrel style plenum with the intake in the center, this can lead to uneven distribution...

[Foote]

Mike
It seems like having a clean break at the end of your primary runner would be a bad idea. instead of having attached flow that favors the end cyllinders, you would get turbulence right above your inside cyllinders. I agree that a barrell style plenum with a center intake is a bad design, but i think making the transition from primary runner to plenum as smooth as possible would make it almost a decent setup.
This is just how i picture it in my head, so i might be wrong.

[JConway-UofManitoba]

definately look at the products from Advanced Ceramics Research in Tucson.

Namingly, Aquacore and Aquapour.

I've used both and they are awesome products.

JPC

[Matt]

How easy it it to pour these products? Is much pressure needed to pack tightly? Im trying to figure out how easily it will fill our intake mold really.


Matt