For my magnificent garden wall I'm making some garden light fittings. I have the wax model mostly where I need it. And found some random waterproof 12v LED lights for cheap from ebay. Here is a quick test run with the lights inside the wax model. I also got some of that plasti-paste II stuff to try out as a mold backing instead of fiber glass (yuck). I'll be molding it all up soon and will post some pics.
Took another baby step towards the actual casting. Sorted out the clay walls for the silicone rubber molding process. Will hopefully make the rubber molding soon so I can pop out some copies and get to ceramic shell.
I'm gonna mold it probably Monday when I have some time to do multiple coats. The old watch and wait for the perfect window of time to apply the next coat when the prior one hasn't completely set yet... I'm excited to try the plasti paste. I hope a little goes a long way since I am molding a few other projects too.
True though its only 30 to 40% more expensive by volume with resin and fiberglass. Except you don't need to deal with fiber glass and that is truly priceless. I still haven't had a chance to mold it. I've been binging on gardening. Its been so nice outside this week up here. I've been doing a lot.
An alternative to single-purpose Plasti Paste (which looks like a really finely tuned product) might be West System epoxy plus one of their fillers. The advantage being that you have the basic 2-part West Epoxy that can be used for a variety of tasks. I do have a gallon of their epoxy and use it frequently. It is a great product. Adding in 403 microfibers or 406 colloidal silica could thicken it nicely for a similar consistency to the paste. I have and use both the microfibers and colloidal silica. The down side would be the cure time. The Plasti Paste is cured in 90 mins where the West will take on the order of 8 to 12 hours depending on ambient temps. It could also be more expensive to use the West if large amounts of product are needed. But, the clincher for me is that I usually need small quantities of thickened epoxy so I just pump out some A and B and mix in the appropriate thickener. That said, I am curious about the Paste and would love to give it a test run. Denis
Thanks! I really need to kick my own ass into gear and finish it up. I've been distracted by other projects and gardening. The wall where the lights will go in got covered up by bags of mulch while I'm putting in brick paths. So its been out of mind out of sight. But I can easily do the silicone plastic molds before the wall is finished. The wall is bottom right of the photo.
