Re: Adam Savage/Tested: resin hacks: tungsten powder & UV techniques

[Weaver]

What-Ifs on Tested! This model group had a challenge to build something alternative out of the new-tool Aoshima Back To The Future De Lorean:

[Diamondback]

Well you can't avoid working on it, but NEVER take it for granted. I had it drummed into me by two engineering uncles from when I was old enough to toddle into their workshops that lathes and pillar drills are ****ing lethal.

Apologies for the necro catching up on this thread, but...

One of the very first things my grandfather told me the first time I joined him out in his machine shop as a wee'un.... "Never forget, son, that every little thing in here has one very big thing in common, and that is that the second you don't respect it it kills you." A steak through the bandsaw made that point crystal clear...

And I had to forward that WWI dogfight video to the Wings of War crowd.

[Weaver]

Here's one for all you 3D printer freaks: the maker of this amazing model is making all of the print files available for free, to use/modify/translate to your hearts' content:

[Rick Lowe]

Cool, thanks - have passed it on... 

[Weaver]

Couple of good videos here about resin techniques, and a new Youtube channel to follow.

I think the most interesting thing from the first one is the use of tungsten powder in resin to make moldable heavy weights. I could see that being potentially useful for making nose weights for models where it's difficult to fit enough conventinal weight in, such as helicopters or glass-nosed types.

The second one covers UV resin techniques:

[Mossie]

The tungsten resin is similar to something I've thought about but never done. In my teens and 20's, I worked at a firm that made medical dressings. To make X-Ray detectable dressings for operations, we'd add tungsten powder to adhesive 50-50 and it retained its sticky properties.*

My thought was to add it to epoxy putty so you could mould it exactly to the shape you wanted. I never got around to it as tungsten powder isn't cheap, you'd probaly want to usebit many weights to make it worth your while.

* You had to watch yourself around the guys who worked on the process, they had a mischievous streak.  They'd wait for you in hidey holes and flick balls of the stuff at the back of your neck, you knew you'd been hit by the stuff! 

[Weaver]

Yeah, 1kg of Tungsten Carbide powder is £62 on ebay. You can get smaller quantities, but the price/gram goes down significantly the more you order.