Many older buildings feature beautiful and historical designs but require updates and restoration. To restore and preserve these fetatures and designs can be performed with our Re-usable Molding Materials.
We were asked to support the historical renovations of some columns for a historical building nearby. Initially, the forms were going to be 3-D printed, but there was a fear that the polymers used in the 3D printer would not be able to handle long term exposure to the cold of a Northern (Maine) climate year after year. The other alternative was to remake the wooden components from scratch, but that would require a different level of effort.
So the simple solution was to mold the pieces. Two different pieces made up the bottom of the column. A total of 32 pieces were needed to fit around 3 columns. Ten pounds of ImPRESSive Re-usable Molding Putty was used for these two components to make 4 molds. The advantages of the ImPRESSive Putty is that it is re-usable. So like any other tool that the carpenter uses for the construction or reconstruction of a room or a building or a porch, the Putty is used when you need it. The ImPRESSive Putty melts in a microwave, low temperature oven, convection oven, or slow cooker. When it is melted it is a soft putty that is PRESSed (thus the name :)) over the part.
The ImPRESSive Putty cools to solidify, so an hour in the freezer gave us a mold. Several times we decided we did not like how the mold came out, so we re-melted the mold and made it again.
We used ComposiCast resin with joint compound and plaster as fillers. ComposiCast is an epoxy resin that has reasonable strength. We also added a UV inhibitor. The resin ratio is 1:1 by weight or volume. ComposiCast also has a very wide range so you don't have to be that accurate with the ratios. The filler helped reduced the cost and the exothermic reaction. We added 50% filler to the resin mixture by weight.
We planned on 10 hours cure time, but it ended up taking about 7 hours to become cured enough to pull the castings. This allowed us to do 2 pours per day.
After this construction project was complete, the ImPRESSive Putty can be used for the next project just be re-melting and re-using. It is also excellent for fixing fixture on walls and ceilings by pressing over the fixture anytime you need to duplicate a shape.
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