making culverts

Not recently, but m aybe twenty years ago with rubber molds and plaster.  It worked but was not work the trouble.  I bought of the new mold making material (softens in hot water, etc.) and will use resin this time and see: I was thinking of making some culvert ends myself with it.

Chris,

I just purchased a few hot knife products from foam factory. They have a picture on their site showing what you can do with certain tools. (the engraving tool makes the cobblestone effect. Its like a pen tip Here is a link.

 http://hotwirefoamfactory.com/...y/modeling_daveh.htm

Cesar

Chris

     Disregard the naysayers. If you make molds out of layered liquid latex, you will save a ton of money. Use the coupon at Michaels or Hobby Lobby. Plaster of some sort is the cheapest,  easiest to work with and will take paint. Take your time as the latex needs 24 hours for each layer and reenforce with some mesh or screen.  We have made over 50 copies of retaining walls from 2 molds I made. Resin was too expensive and a pain to work with.   

Good Luck

Ray Marion

whats the process of these molds? liquid latex? and did you use a template from a given source like the culvert that I showed?  in your case, the walls. 

thanks

Chris

Chris

     I used an original foam casting. Put the unfinished side down on a smooth surface; in my case I used plexiglass. Latex won't stick well to it. Put thin coats of Liquid Latex on letting each coat dry over night. After about 5 coats you can put some form of mesh on and add more latex layers.

    When you are satisfied with enough layers, you can use silicon to put a flat back on the mold. This will keep it level when you are putting plaster into the mold. Silicon needs time to set also. The portal pic shows what I mean.

Ray Marion

ray, I found a site that sells this stuff.  is that it?

http://www.makeupmedley.com/st...foz7YCFUJN4AodfQgA8A

looks like make up artist stuff.  you can get different sizes.  So Ill buy the items I want to make, then just paint on the liquid latex over the top of this in thin layers, add mesh and keep putting on coats until you have a strong piece.  then you can pull off the foam template wall and you have the mold.  pour in plaster and magic!  did you spray cooking spray on the latex mold prior to pouring in the plaster?

thanks for the great help

chris

thanks

Chris

Chris

     I used wet water instead of oil. You seem to have the idea. Here is the latex I used, don't forget the coupon for 40% off.

http://shop.hobbylobby.com/pro...-liquid-latex-30452/

Ray Marion

I followed you lead and made a couple molds.  I need a lot of retaining walls and rock formations.  I made a large rock wall and a smaller scale rock wall and also found a nice rock that I applied the liquid latex to and mad another mold. I went to the local JoAnne fabric store and purchased a small piece of mosquito netting to uses as the reinforcement.  I painted on about five layers then added the mosquito netting to the latex and covered it with two more layers of latex.  I found a 50 lbs bag of Hydrocal at a building supply center.  Not the typical big box stores.  I had to call around and found a local pick up.  I saved a bunch on shipping. 

I have been experimenting on the mixture.  The stuff I bought dries really quickly, so I have been mixing in more water to get a soupy mixture.  It takes a little while to dry, but the results are worth it.  First thing I do is spray the molds with soapy water then pour in the mix.  The thin mold is hard enough to remove from the mold in about 15 minutes.  The hardest part is cleaning the mixing container after the pour.  I use a bucker and wash the container out in the bucket and whip it out with a wet cloth.  When I’m done I dump the liquid out in the grass.  I wouldn’t recommend putting any of this stuff down your drain.