Plaster Mold and Slip Cast Object

Now that I have the final design for my plate done on Rhino, it's time to export my mold positive as a .STL file. This file will then be imported into Fusion 360 to generate the toolpaths for the milling process on the CNC.

Now that the .STL file is in Fusion 360, the first thing we did was setup file for our purposes. This is done in the Manufacturing window. In this case, it's milling. We also changed the origin in the WCS to coincide with where we want the end mill to start.

 

Next, we input the dimensions of our stock so the CNC knows what we're milling. It's also to make sure our object is within bounds.

Once our setup is finished, we input the specs for the end mill we'll be using and set it as the tool.

Finally, we generated the tool path using everything we've input so far, and then simulated the process. This was important to see if our mold positive would mill properly or if there were any errors.

When my simulation didn't show any glaring errors, I used the post processing file from the class site and exported my file, ready to be milled. My mold positive came out just like how I modeled it, which was exciting to me as this was my first time using the CNC to mill something. 

The rips in my mold actually came from taping it too much onto an acrylic sheet when I was prepping it for the plaster pour. 

Because of how tall and wide my object was, which came from my own confusion on the dimensions of the stock (oops), I ended up using over 5kg of plaster to fully cover my mold positive. But otherwise, I'm very pleased with how the mold negative came out. It does have the marks from the milling process, but I think it gives it an interesting texture.

 

Finally, after two attempts at slipcasting, I got a plate that didn't rip when I pulled it out. It was also an appropriate thickness for a plate. The only caveat is that after we had unmolded it onto a foam sheet, we might have been too hasty flipping it over onto its base because it sagged. 

In hindsight, it would also have been ideal to create a more angled base. I only realized this at the end, after crit, that I ended up with a 90-degree angle from the base and the next layer of the plate. That's definitely something I'll need to be mindful of, for next time.

Otherwise, I think it's a good first attempt at ceramics, and I'm happy with my funky little plate. I'm also really excited with how much more I understand about mold logic and using a CNC now, and look forward to utilizing these processes in future projects.