Actually, can you? This is a legitimate question. Right now I’m throwing the off fall from my models in the trash because pewter isn’t recyclable in my community recycling plan. Can the off fall from these models be included with my plastic recycling? How is it coded for that purpose? Let me add on to that. What is the takt time for production compared to metal? In a standard workday, can you produce more product with the new material? Less product? The same? I didn’t see anything about it in the siocast advertising. I ask because I’m curious how quickly the supply chain will replenish. If it sells out, will I be waiting a longer time to get restock? How do I deal with bent/malformed parts? Metal bends right back at the cost of material stress. Resin I put on the lid of my grill while cooking, but it still has memory of its previous state. Is it like one of those two? More/less extreme? Thank you.
If you watch the video on page 8 of this thread (post 143), you will see them cast two sets of models. It's very quick. The most time is spent letting it cool, but it's not very long. It is my understanding that spin casting metal takes longer in all respects, particularly the cooling. So I think it's safe to say that this siocast system allows for much faster production. How much faster I can't say.
If your local authority has the contracts/facilities. We can only recycle type 1 and 2 plastics here, so nylon has to go in general waste (as well as yoghurt pots, annoyingly).
Yep, mold freeze is a huge consideration in mold design and is probably something that CB didn't have to worry about as much with metal casting since the metal has a higher thermal mass. Cast/injection materials always cool from the outside in, so areas where flow is restricted have the effect of cooling faster and also causing a drop in packing pressure as the entrance to a cavity can freeze before its fully filled. To fix it, you either need to have the part multi-gated so that there are no major restrictions between the gate and the cavities or you change your design rules to mandate minimum opening sizes that are large enough not to freeze until the cavity is fully packed. Nylons are an engineering plastic and since they have lots of different grades, you really only see them recycled as post-industrial waste (ie. manufacturing scrap and sprues) and not post-consumer waste. Its just too hard to separate and identify all the different nylon grades once they leave the production facility. Don't know about the rest of the world, but here in the US even commonly recycled plastics like polypropylene and PET are often landfilled due to contamination and separation difficulties, particularly if they aren't plastic bottles.
Same thing in many places in Europe. Which is why campaigns that would otherwise sound funny like "Let's collect bottle caps and donate them for X" have way bigger impact than one would expect.
Thanks for pointing that out. It's not the whole story with production time, but that was very interesting. The machinery is such that, had I the artistic ability to actually make miniatures, I feel like I could produce with this nylon in my garage.
This is the sort of thing that I think is relevant when people talk about there being room for CB's production of these plastics to improve over time. Does it suck for the first few items out the door? Sure. But it does mean that the quality should gradually start increasing as they become more familiar with the material and its particular requirements.
Oh, yeah. It certainly seems very easy. Almost like a replicator out of Star Trek. Insert mold. Press green button. Wait for the beep. Remove mold. Wait 2 minutes. Separate mold and remove the casts. But what's not shown is the process of making the molds. Does that machine make the molds too? How long does that take? How do the metal pins and slots get embedded in that silicon and what ensures that they're aligned? What's the material costs for those molds?
I recycle the metal bits cut off my figures - but I have a crucible to do so, and a bunch of moulds for the casting of metal models (heat resistant rtv). Takes a lot of miniatures to produce any decent quantity, though - so I collect the bits until I get a couple of kg of them, which has taken close to 10 years for me so far. (I don't buy entire factions at a time, and I'm lucky to find a couple of boxes per year of figures I like enough to want to paint).
Because the typical resins attacks the silicone, chemically and thermically, and it it's not the same kind of silicone. Some brands are going with resins that are rather mild, and promote them as more eco friendly production because they can use the molds more than 50 times. Siocast rubber looks a lot like the one used for pewter, and so both must be "high" temps capable and rather tough. Maybe @Muad'dib can talk about any chemical reactions with molds (nylon vs vulcanized rubber). At first I tought CB had decided to go with the brand they already own (with whatever resins they provide), until I a saw the rectangular molds. You say that like if the Nicem machines used for pewter were dime a dozen. Someone noticed Mar 2011 was the last spike in tin prices. 1980 was another. The question is if the prices are in inflation adjusted dollars, or whatever the contracts said each day. Maybe the past spikes were even worse, but weaker currency hides that. Except the demostration of other brands shows it is possible to pass the cost savings to the final price, and not just say 5% but nearly 50%. They are not giving away storage, shipping or any other cost that we know of (do they have bankruptcy as a plan?), just passing the savings from the material change. There is a lot of artificiallity, like big HI & TAGs having to be in boxes "because they do not fit" until they do (CB special edition TGA packed in a blister). From customer's budget point of view, it could compensate the other (metal) minis going up, and soften the "but" (mold slip, weightless, etc) seen so far. I read "1-2%" as the part that is poluted and useless (and no idea if that was about plastic or metal). The sprues are clearly way more than that. Put other way, with your number, sprue at the fabrication point must be below 1/5 - 1/3 of the total injected plastic or some quantity will have to be discarded even if still recyclable. So picky and Nuada has not investigated the mold production? Check some videos, look for the different colors and the bumps. It can also be seen in some cases of pewter molds. The issue seems to be extra material, not lack of it, or failure to properly follow the master's surface, so the "bubbles" would be in the mold. Some rubber is hand-pushed into and around the masters. The errors appear in depressions (arm/shield) and vertical zones (hexagons in neck) or both (side port, face holes), like if the silicone was not properly applied, and the compression during vulcanization was not enough to remove gaps fully. (Page 10 for the pictures) (@Muad'dib is going to regret mentioning expertise...) any comment about the horizontal flow of the silicone under vertical pressure? How hard for trapped air to get out or be compressed so silicone touches master surface completly? Some kind of random give away would have been nice. But PR departments do not like that, imagine a sample ends who knows where... Pewter spin casting is also fast, check info from machine specs. Just one example said 50-90 spins per hour. You do not have to wait for each mold to cool, like any assembly line: if cast is 1 minute and cooling 10, you keep 11 molds in the cycle.
Regarding the giveaway thing, so that people can test the material... The scenic bases sort of work like that, as they are probably going to be rather cheap and army-independent. So one can just grab a pack and see for himself.
Polyurethanes and silicones are not my area of focus, so I can't speak much to any reactivity issues when casting resin. Nylon shouldn't have any reaction with silicone though, so I don't think there should be a concern about mold life beyond wear from demolding. I can't think of anything off the top of my head that would cause contamination of 1-2% of the material during metal casting. If I recall correctly, spun cast metals don't have the same amount of sprue length as an injection molded plastic. My comment regarding 20-30% recycled content also does not mean that you would use that amount of material in every run, only that you could run up to that amount without causing any issues. You might have 3-5% sprue waste from each injection, but you could chose to either regrind a small amount in every run or save it up and run a batch with a higher amount of recycled content. I also thought the silicone molds looked a little crude in the photo - there were clear finger imprints. I don't work with silicone molds (machined metal molds are the standard for high volume production), so I can't speak to the silicone mold forming process beyond a general understanding of how it works. Silicone casting involves mixing precursors to cause a chemical reaction, which means you have to degas it before you pour or else you might trap bubbles created during mixing. I believe vibration tables can also be used to force bubbles to the surface during the curing process. Any sort of bubble or defect in the mold would transfer into the final part.
Once again, CB must conform to your entitlement or they’re wrong. How about this: CB owes you nothing, has no obligation to listen to you, nor to give you an avenue to express yourself. CB is absolutely obliged to make the decisions that they think best. You have no obligation to buy what they’re selling nor to pay the prices they offer products at. So, now you know how things are and everyone can relax.
Oh no. Not exactly that. This is very simple points, but it is a little more complicated in fact. Of course CB doing what they think would be the best. And they are working with us as community. It was expected, that some of us get this changes not easy, but by talking here and receiving answers we are getting less worried. I think, CB was ready for that, and it is good, that some people let the steam goes from boiling pot. I mean, don’t be mad for people complaining here. I am skeptical, but I want to see final product irl and may be give it a chance. And thanks to other skeptics, who asked questions. I’ve got some answers and not in first frustration
