I just began renovating and refreshing an outdoor patio set with a glass table - and found a bunch of broken connectors between the table and the legs. The table was fairly old and replacement parts are not available. Apparently though, a lot of people must also need the replacement parts because I found a full program and plan to replicate them on a 3-D printer. Unfortunately, no 3-D printer in my shop, nor any planned funds to buy one.
So, I tried something I sort of already know - casting new parts with a resin from Alumilite. And it worked! I had to do the mold twice, once thinking I could cast the whole thing in a one piece mold, but that proved wrong - I couldn't get the piece out without wrecking it. So, instead I made a two piece mold. I used a material from Alumilite called Amazing Mold Maker to do the casting. SImple to use, mix equal parts of 'A" and "B" together, stir and mold away!
To create the mold, I suspended the part to be copied in a red solo cup, mixed and poured enough to cover half of the object, then set it aside to cure. Next day I did the same thing to the other half of the part. You have to coat the joining line of the mold with Vaseline to keep them separated, but once I spread the Vaseline, I simply poured the second half of the mold right on top of the cured first one. Once cured, I marked some registration lines on the side, since the top and bottom needed to be oriented correctly for the resin pour.
I drilled a hole into the mold to allow me to fill it with resin. I then used metallic duct tape to keep the top and bottom molds tight together and seal them as best I could to keep the resin in and poured Alumilite Amazing Resin (2 minute set time) into the mold. Here is the original broken part and my replacement from the mold. I think it came pretty good.
My next project with this method is to cast some handles for some of my jigs - the mold and the resin should make it pretty easy to replicate a knurled knob or thumbscrew for a jig. We shall see!
Kevin