Post date: Jul 27, 2012 10:02:56 PM
Creating the mold around the PVC pipes turned out to be much more challenging than both Kristin and I thought. Complications included: the thickness, the durability, and the hardening. 4 days passed, and the purple mold still appeared to be goopy. After what seemed like a week, the molds finally hardened enough to pour in acrylic. Kristin and I mixed together DDSA, Araldite, and BDMA to make 21.5 ml of acrylic liquid and poured it into 4 of our best molds. We allowed the acrylic at least 3 days to solidify, while I documented more rocks from the Lunar Compendium.
After 3 days, the acrylic became tacky instead of solid. In addition, one of the molds I specifically made completely failed and spilled most of the acrylic out. The 3 other molds held out satisfactorily, but were not too great either. Kristin and I trashed the purple molds and came up with a better idea: using plastic reusable molds, double sided tape, and a glass plate. With these three materials stacked ontop of each other, the acrylic would be held much more effectively and have no chance of leaking out. We tried this method, using more BDMA in hopes of the acrylic hardening faster. Unfortunately that was a BIG mistake. Our new plastic molds held just fine, however, removing the acrylic from the mold was incredibly difficult. In turned out that the added BDMA hardened the acrylic too much and made the substance brittle.
Today, using the same method, I created 4 new molds; 2 of which contain a piece of pumice and the other 2 contain a piece of scoria. For both of the pumice and scoria molds, I added 0.6 mL BDMA to 2 and 0.5 mL BDMA to the other 2. Finally, I put all 4 samples into a vaccum seal to drain out the air forming in the acrylic. Hopefully, with less BDMA, the molds will not be too brittle, yet not too tacky either. Kristin and I await results next week.