Author Topic: Trying to make a thing... (custom caps)  (Read 3891 times)

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Offline comdata55

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Trying to make a thing... (custom caps)
« on: Thu, 05 July 2018, 21:20:41 »
Hey All, new guy here trying his hand at fumbling through making some custom caps. Ordered my oomoo and 325 and wanted to get some feedback on my first sculpt. Not even going to dare call it an artisan. The art and craftsmanship of the big boys in the field blow me away on a daily basis and the skill of some of the newbies like SludgeKidd are amazing. I have some ideas for additional caps but wanted to start out with something relatively simple. Would love to hear some feedback.

Thanks!











Next to some SA1s

Offline starhacker

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Re: Trying to make a thing... (custom caps)
« Reply #1 on: Sat, 14 July 2018, 19:04:21 »
That is pretty good! What was your inspiration for the design?

I also wanted to try out and make custom caps by either sculpting or 3d print.

What is that base metal plate? Is supposed to help get the underlying key cap shape?

Offline comdata55

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Re: Trying to make a thing... (custom caps)
« Reply #2 on: Wed, 18 July 2018, 20:47:23 »
So my inspiration were old school cyclops from stories like The Odyssey.


The plate I'm using is called the $ynth and it was created by binge @ hungerwork. You can get it here: https://techkeys.us/products/synth


Excited for this weekend. Will finally be trying to make my first mold and hopefully my first cast! I will post the results as soon as I can.

Offline Edge.d

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Re: Trying to make a thing... (custom caps)
« Reply #3 on: Fri, 20 July 2018, 20:46:37 »
Hey this is pretty cool! I dig the design and inspiration, are you planning on adding more elements to it in the future?

Keep it up  :thumb:
Science must begin with myths, and with the criticism of myths.

Offline comdata55

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Re: Trying to make a thing... (custom caps)
« Reply #4 on: Sun, 22 July 2018, 17:45:19 »
Hey this is pretty cool! I dig the design and inspiration, are you planning on adding more elements to it in the future?

Keep it up  :thumb:


Thank you so much man, I appreciate the feedback. btw, Leshy is looking awesome!


Yes, my plan, once I have the process down, is to do custom pupils for each cap. Eventually I'd like to evolve the design to a two-part mold so that I can do shine-throughs on the pupil with the skin color being opaque.

Offline comdata55

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Re: Trying to make a thing... (custom caps)
« Reply #5 on: Sun, 22 July 2018, 18:33:36 »
RESULTS!!!!


First weekend of molding and casting was a success. Here are the results:



First Cast!









First butt!


\
First 3 caps



Butts! Ran outo f resin on the purple cap, gaps in the walls.



Tight but there is clearance with Cherry profile.









Back-end clearance is tight.



Slight rubbing on SA neighbors.


To-Do:
- Figure out how to adjust back-end and side clearance.
- Learn how to cast multi-shots.
- determine how much humidity is playing a factor in curing times - not sure if pot-life of 326 is longer than stated or if humidity is a factor (i'm pretty sure it is) - after 1:30 hours, I am removing casts from the pot and they are still semi-soft. I live in NJ and am casting in my garage, which is not climate-controlled. Temps today were in the 80s but humidity was high so I'm guessing this will affect the casts.


Overall I am extremely happy with my first weekend's worth of work. I've noticed that while the caps cure hard and thick after 5-6 hours, the front wall of the cap is thin-enough that there is a color difference when casting semi-opaque colors.


I also took pictures of my process and setup, not sure if there is any interest in seeing those along with a listing of products I used, if anyone wants to know, let me know and I will add another post. Trying to complete a few more casts tonight, will post if I can.


Last pic of the day:



Short-Term Goals: Hoping to be able to cast sans-humidity soon, if the weather permits. Next step is to make two-part molds so I'm not bottle-necked by my single $synth. Also looking to start trying multi-shots ASAP.
« Last Edit: Sun, 22 July 2018, 21:21:49 by comdata55 »

Offline comdata55

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Re: Trying to make a thing... (custom caps)
« Reply #6 on: Tue, 24 July 2018, 21:24:10 »
Tried my first color mix tonight. Came out alright but a little too subtle. Need to figure out how to thicken resin enough so that the colors don't blend as much. Reminds me of something like tie dye.









Offline TomBodet

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  • Location: VA, USA
Re: Trying to make a thing... (custom caps)
« Reply #7 on: Wed, 25 July 2018, 07:18:17 »
Need to figure out how to thicken resin enough so that the colors don't blend as much.

I'd love to hear about findings on that.

Otherwise the details came out pretty good!

Offline redleaf

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Re: Trying to make a thing... (custom caps)
« Reply #8 on: Wed, 25 July 2018, 17:27:22 »
The casting looks good

Offline comdata55

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Re: Trying to make a thing... (custom caps)
« Reply #9 on: Mon, 30 July 2018, 22:50:54 »
First attempt at double-shot eyeball was a failure. Second attempt using a Miami color-scheme didn't turn out so bad. I need to place the pupil better next time and use more saturated colors but I'm pretty happy with the attempt:











Offline comdata55

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Re: Trying to make a thing... (custom caps)
« Reply #10 on: Thu, 09 August 2018, 20:33:03 »
Lol, so a couple of co-workers told me that the sculpt looks like the tip of a sex organ and now I can't unsee it so I guess it's back to the drawing board with this one.  :-[  Good learning experience though.

Offline FenixtheCorgi

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Re: Trying to make a thing... (custom caps)
« Reply #11 on: Mon, 13 August 2018, 02:33:28 »
Lol, so a couple of co-workers told me that the sculpt looks like the tip of a sex organ and now I can't unsee it so I guess it's back to the drawing board with this one.  :-[  Good learning experience though.
i didn't want to say anything, but yeah. The quality of the cap itself is amazing though! It just needs for either the pupil to be larger and the "skin" to not be a perfect circle and less deep. That would make it look less.. like one of those.
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