Anyone messed about making plastic castings?

Richard,

Could possibly cast it using a resin / catylist system but probably best done with an injection system. Either way the hard bit is making the mould cavity.

I have a bench top injection one that I've sucessfully made replacement washing machine push buttons that were otherwise obsolete / unobtainable but the vandals don't care about that and love to put a cigarette lighter to them in my shops !

Andrew Mawson

What frequency are you working at? I've found that pretty much anything you can cast will be absorbtive at VHF and above. You may be better off machining from nylon, acrylic or PTFE stock.

Chris

Just had two moulds made for old-fashioned switchboard fuseholders, product is made from a casting resin. Moulds are also resin...

Peter

Details here for casting, might be of interest. They used to do a good series of How To booklets.

Lionel

There was an article back in the summer in MEW (not that I'd own up to reading that) on DIY plastic injection molding small items - I can send you a scan if your interested.

Steve

---------------------------------------------------------- Steve Randall G8KHW snipped-for-privacy@btinternet.com UKRA #1072 Level 2

Depends on resin grade and loading. Properly loaded casting resins have negligible losses at 60 MHz and scarcely get warm in the microwave.