ShockSlayer
Probably SS
Aww yeah. EVERYONE BETTER SHOW UP.Ashen said:
This is probably the most excited I've ever been for a portable, I'm super hyped just for the case. It's gonna be amazing.public-pervert said:Excited!
SS
GameCube Fusion, rev 4.
- Thread starter Ashen
- Start date
SS
public-pervert
Well-Known Member
ShockSlayer said:Aww yeah. EVERYONE BETTER SHOW UP.Ashen said:
This is probably the most excited I've ever been for a portable, I'm super hyped just for the case. It's gonna be amazing.public-pervert said:Excited!
SS
I'll be watching, SS!
I'm obsessively watching this worklog now. I don't feel like that since the Fusion Micro
Ashen
GameCube Révolutionary
I've gotten everything all sculpted in the front of the case like I wanted, This should sturdy things up a good deal:
Then added a crapton of vents and two pour spouts:
Hopefully I'll get to box this up tonight after work and pour some silicone.
Also I de-boxed the back case half:
More soonish!
Then added a crapton of vents and two pour spouts:
Hopefully I'll get to box this up tonight after work and pour some silicone.
Also I de-boxed the back case half:
More soonish!
Ashen
GameCube Révolutionary
Last night I re-boxed up the front case half, sealed off all the seams and painted all the exposed silicone with a thin layer of petroleum jelly:
Mixed up a pretty large batch of silicone and poured it all in:
We'll see what kind of mess I've made tomorrow during the stream.
I also started sculpting in the clay on the back half of the case to increase the wall thickness:
Still a ton of work to do on this side. This is the most critical part because most of my main components go in this side and I want to make sure everything is still going to fit nicely. This is the reason I increased the size of the vac form mold by a few mm:
Tomorrow. Stream. Be there.
Mixed up a pretty large batch of silicone and poured it all in:
We'll see what kind of mess I've made tomorrow during the stream.
I also started sculpting in the clay on the back half of the case to increase the wall thickness:
Still a ton of work to do on this side. This is the most critical part because most of my main components go in this side and I want to make sure everything is still going to fit nicely. This is the reason I increased the size of the vac form mold by a few mm:
Tomorrow. Stream. Be there.
ShockSlayer
Probably SS
Ashen said:
ASHEN STREAM: Guest appearances by ShockSlayer, Aux and maybe Downing and ttsgeb!
SS
Ashen
GameCube Révolutionary
Been a bit since an update. Though if you watched the stream yesterday you've already seen some of this. 
After waiting 18+hrs for the second pour of silicone on the front case half to cure I de-boxed the whole thing and pried the two parts of the mold apart and removed the original. Then I proceeded to clean up both halves as best I could. Things looked really well, unfortunately I didn't have time to do a test pour right away:
I built this little "vibrator table" thing to put my silicon molds on when I pour the plastic, in theory it should help little nooks and crannies fill correctly and help force out any trapped air inside the mold as the liquid plastic is poured in. This has seemed to work well in practice so far, though there are so many factors to consider I don't want to say how much it really helps:
I've done alot of reading up on casting this stuff the past few days and apparently its recommended to heat up the silicone molds before you cast. So I brought a little toaster oven up to my modding room and rigged it up for heating my silicone molds. The recommended temp to cook them at is roughly 120-140 degrees F for like 25mins. The time required can vary depending on your mold size though.
At any rate, with my nice new silicone mold halves heated up in my oven I got the rest of everything all ready and did a test pour:
This "Alumilite White" requires about 10-15mins to set up after its poured, though I recoomend to do a post cure also. This is where you take the filled mold and stick it back in the oven for an additional 20-30mins after the initial casting and curing is done. This helps to harden the plastic even more, which is kind of critical in this case, with such thin walls.
After cooking for roughly 25mins more I took the mold out of the oven and let it cool to room temperature (like 40mins). Then I pulled the two mold halves apart:
Aside from a few small sections where I'm getting voids or little air bubbles the whole process has gone alot smoother than I thought it would. I still have a few more tricks I can try to eliminate these during the pour:
These little imperfections can always be filled and the cases painted. not what I was hoping for, but still acceptable in my book.
At any rate, after this its time to de-mold the case, prying out carefully and flexing the silicone mold:
You can see the massive flash there is after the pour. This stuff is easily trimmed off though. It looks alot worse than it really is.
Here is a pic of the back half, where all of the vents and pour spouts are. you can see these need to be trimmed off and some parts dremeled out after de-molding:
Here are the few I've cast so far. Doing a bit of experimentation each time has seemed to improve the quality a little bit each pour:
And here are some close ups of the tiny detail inside, this stuff really fills nicely:
More soon!
After waiting 18+hrs for the second pour of silicone on the front case half to cure I de-boxed the whole thing and pried the two parts of the mold apart and removed the original. Then I proceeded to clean up both halves as best I could. Things looked really well, unfortunately I didn't have time to do a test pour right away:
I built this little "vibrator table" thing to put my silicon molds on when I pour the plastic, in theory it should help little nooks and crannies fill correctly and help force out any trapped air inside the mold as the liquid plastic is poured in. This has seemed to work well in practice so far, though there are so many factors to consider I don't want to say how much it really helps:
I've done alot of reading up on casting this stuff the past few days and apparently its recommended to heat up the silicone molds before you cast. So I brought a little toaster oven up to my modding room and rigged it up for heating my silicone molds. The recommended temp to cook them at is roughly 120-140 degrees F for like 25mins. The time required can vary depending on your mold size though.
At any rate, with my nice new silicone mold halves heated up in my oven I got the rest of everything all ready and did a test pour:
This "Alumilite White" requires about 10-15mins to set up after its poured, though I recoomend to do a post cure also. This is where you take the filled mold and stick it back in the oven for an additional 20-30mins after the initial casting and curing is done. This helps to harden the plastic even more, which is kind of critical in this case, with such thin walls.
After cooking for roughly 25mins more I took the mold out of the oven and let it cool to room temperature (like 40mins). Then I pulled the two mold halves apart:
Aside from a few small sections where I'm getting voids or little air bubbles the whole process has gone alot smoother than I thought it would. I still have a few more tricks I can try to eliminate these during the pour:
These little imperfections can always be filled and the cases painted. not what I was hoping for, but still acceptable in my book.
At any rate, after this its time to de-mold the case, prying out carefully and flexing the silicone mold:
You can see the massive flash there is after the pour. This stuff is easily trimmed off though. It looks alot worse than it really is.
Here is a pic of the back half, where all of the vents and pour spouts are. you can see these need to be trimmed off and some parts dremeled out after de-molding:
Here are the few I've cast so far. Doing a bit of experimentation each time has seemed to improve the quality a little bit each pour:
And here are some close ups of the tiny detail inside, this stuff really fills nicely:
More soon!
public-pervert
Well-Known Member
Impressive work dude! 
Ashen
GameCube Révolutionary
Unfortunately sucking the air out is just not feasible. The "air bubbles" are trapped inside the mold with the liquid plastic surrounding them. So trying to suck them out would just result in sucking out the liquid plastic too. The only surefire way to eliminate these completely is with a pressure pot. Which is an enclosure that you sit your filled mold inside of right after you pour the plastic and then pump it full of air pressure. These are pretty expensive though.
After its cured the polyurethane plastic is on par with vac forming plastics in hardness and strength. Its at least as strong as polystyrene if not stronger. Certainly much less brittle.
After its cured the polyurethane plastic is on par with vac forming plastics in hardness and strength. Its at least as strong as polystyrene if not stronger. Certainly much less brittle.
Monstercrunch
Active Member
Do you already know how much you are going to sell them ? (untrimmed and with no added color)
Whatever, very nice work ! I love the design
Whatever, very nice work ! I love the design
Ashen
GameCube Révolutionary
Thanks man! Not sure how much I'll sell these for yet to be honest, first I have to be sure everything is going to work out anyway.
Got the rest of the back half of the case sculpting done last night. This part s around the shoulder buttons were especially a pain in the ass:
Added some pour spouts:
And another crapton of vents:
Then pour:
This is the part of this that has had me most worried. Because of the thin and high walls on the back of the case. i should be able to do a test pour sometime later and see how badly I've screwed things up. /Crosses fingers.
Got the rest of the back half of the case sculpting done last night. This part s around the shoulder buttons were especially a pain in the ass:
Added some pour spouts:
And another crapton of vents:
Then pour:
This is the part of this that has had me most worried. Because of the thin and high walls on the back of the case. i should be able to do a test pour sometime later and see how badly I've screwed things up. /Crosses fingers.
Ashen
GameCube Révolutionary
This morning I de-boxed my back half mold halves and cleaned them all up:
Everything seemed to have turned out pretty good, so I did a test pour in the little bit of free time I had today:
Everything filled pretty well except the N64 vents, which have a bit of non-fil/void in that area. I'll have to mess around a bit to try and get a better fill here:
Everything else filled very nicely, including the hinge area's for the shoulder buttons:
I'll have a bit of flash trimming to do after each pour, but so far I couldn't be happier with the results I'm getting!
Everything seemed to have turned out pretty good, so I did a test pour in the little bit of free time I had today:
Everything filled pretty well except the N64 vents, which have a bit of non-fil/void in that area. I'll have to mess around a bit to try and get a better fill here:
Everything else filled very nicely, including the hinge area's for the shoulder buttons:
I'll have a bit of flash trimming to do after each pour, but so far I couldn't be happier with the results I'm getting!
Ashen
GameCube Révolutionary
So I think I've pretty much solved my problem with air entrapment in the back case half. I had to do a little mold modification to get here, but it works! What I had to do was add more vents in the problem area. Specifically where the air was getting trapped. I did this by jamming a sharpened hollow metal rod through the silicone molds in the problem areas:
Here's the result:
Perfect form on the first try. I'm still having a bit of trouble getting the area around the 3DS sliders on the front half to fill correctly. I think I have it solved now, but I wont have time to do another pour until later tonight.
Also here's a little teaser for now:
Here's the result:
Perfect form on the first try. I'm still having a bit of trouble getting the area around the 3DS sliders on the front half to fill correctly. I think I have it solved now, but I wont have time to do another pour until later tonight.
Also here's a little teaser for now:
Ashen
GameCube Révolutionary
Just the shoulder buttons for now Geb. I'd like to make up a small mold to make the slider caps too. Unfortunately I've exhasted my supply of the ones I normally use. If anyone has a few of the ones I've used on the past fusion 3's I'd be eternally greatful if you'd let me borrow them long enough to make a mold out of em.
All the rest of the buttons are still readily available for fairly cheap on the web. If they ever aren't, i'll cross that bridge when I get there.
All the rest of the buttons are still readily available for fairly cheap on the web. If they ever aren't, i'll cross that bridge when I get there.
I think these r the ones u use? I've got them too. Which one do you want?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/PSP-8-X-2-Repla ... 2eba5c6c59
http://www.ebay.com/itm/PSP-8-X-2-Repla ... 2eba5c6c59
