I am restoring a boat and have not been able to find replacements for the original plastic nameplates. I do have enough from the two (Port/Starboard) nameplates to create a mold with. These are about 1/8" thick and I am hoping to mold two new ones.
I would appreciate any advice as to how best to do this and the materials of choice.
TIA.
There are mny sources of casting resin and RTV rubber mold material.
Try
Peteski
"Lloyd Cimprich" wrote in message news:...
Usually, I'd say get some RTV rubber and PU resin, make a mould, and cast all you need. This sounds like a one-shot project though, so let me suggest a different trick. Get some plasticine clay, roll a nice flat slab of it, and press the original into it (you might want to roll the clay onto the nameplate lying on a flat surface instead). Then, with the original still in the clay, put the clay into a freezer until it is realy hard. Pick out the original, and you're looking at a slightly damaged negative. This damage from picking out the original will show on the copy, but should be easily corrected. Once you have this mould, pour in just about any type of fast setting resin. You don't want massive spills, so dribbling it into the mould cavity with a toothpick might be best. Do no try to mix up a very small amount of resin; it is difficut to get the mixture right that way. A bit of waste material is better than a mixture that won't set. Now for the easy bit: ignore the whole thing for a day or so to make sure the resin has set completely. This may sound strange because I said 'fast setting resin' earlier on, but small amounts actualy take longer to set, and you don't want to deal with any sticky bits. At the end of that, pick the copied plate out of the clay. Since the clay is now at room temperature, quite a bit of it will stick to the plate, but is is soft, and can be cleaned out easily. Remove the last bits with a bit of thinner, white spirits, whatever. Resin can be found at any DIY store. This isn't the best quality material you'll ever find, but it should do for the job at hand. Note that the mould will not survive the first casting, so you'll have to repeat this for the second plate. Fortunately, making moulds like this can be done in five minutes (not counting freezing), so this shouldn't be a problem. On the whole, this procedure will not create the best possible result, nor does it employ the finest materials. However, it will, with some effort, produce good quality nameplates, and will cost only a fraction of going the RTV rubber and PU resin approach.
Rob
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