Resin casting, anyone?

[JW_Halverson]

Raptors in captivity often suffer from overgrown beaks. The longer that narrow tip becomes, the more the leverage increases until it breaks or cracks.  It can break all the way back to the "quick" just like fingernails.  Except this is something that kills the bird if not treated aggressively and properly!

I want to cast some replicas of badly overgrown hawk beaks.  I have a high quality cast resin redtail hawk skull from Bone Clones that I intend to build up and shape the beak so that it looks like an overgrown beak in need of "coping".  From this bad model, I want to cast a bunch of overgrown beaks so that I can use them to teach other volunteers how to properly re-shape them.  That means I need to make a series of molds and how to mix and cast resin. 

Does anyone have experience in doing this?  I don't even know what questions to ask and I could really use someone with experience to help with this. 

[willie]

usually resin is cast in a female mold that is polished and waxed prior to use. the waxing is maintaned as a release agent, and molds are often expensive and difficult to maintan

In your application, I would try to see if I could take your beak plug and impress a series of molds into a block of wax.

toilet bowl seal wax is cheap and impressable at the right temp, maybe reusable too. If it is too sticky to make a good impression, you might coat the plug with  oil or some such first.

If it turns out that you need a firmer or softer molding agent the wax can be blended in a warm pan with either hard parrifin like for canning or liquid parrifin  for lamp oil

[Marc St Louis]

Or you could make a mould out of plaster and wax it before casting

[Adam]

Sounds to me like someone's working on the prequel to "The Maltese Falcon!" I'm afraid I'm of no help, but I would be interested in seeing pictures when you get it figured out.

[DC]

Could you make a silicone mold? The stuff is expensive but it might be the way to go. Smooth On has a ton of stuff for molding. Take a look at their site.

[paoliguy]

I used to be really into model railroading and there are a lot of folks there that do resin casting. You might check out a company like Micro-Mark they have a helpful staff and a lot of unique products.

[mullet]

Any chance of taking a mold off a deceased bird? You could wax the beak and put a couple of layers of glass cloth and resin, lift  it off and then repeat the process on the smooth side of the first mold.

[Hawkdancer]

JW,
Polytech(?)also has mold making stuff.  I just made a couple of molds using SmoothOn 744(?), pretty easy to work with.  Both outfits have a sampler pack and offer tech assistance.  Might be a mold maker in that area to provide some assistance to an npo,  pro bono.
Hawkdancer

[Dakota Kid]

JW, I think I have everything you would need to make your molds. I acquired most of the stuff when I was hired to clean out a denture making business that went under. They had left a majority of equipment and material there after the owners were arrested. Being a pack rat and an artist, I couldn't put it in the dumpster. I've used some of it for various things, but have plenty left. If you'd like a small sampling of stuff to try out send me a PM with your address. I could also make the molds for you if you prefer,  I'd just need you to send me your sample skull with the altered beak.

I'd probably make the molds out of plaster and do the castings with the denture resin. The only thing I don't have is a vacuum bell to remove air bubbles from the resin after pouring. I might be able to rig up something sufficient with a shop vac and some tupperware. Let me know if I can be of any help. 

[caveman2533]

Freeman supply is where I get my material for patternwork here where I work.  They also have some great videos on how to do the molding. I think if you want a mold that is reusable you will want to use a silicone rubber that is flexible.

https://www.freemansupply.com/

[TrevorM]

Check out polymorph mouldable plastic pellets. You just put them in hot water until the go clear, mold them and let them cool (it turns back to white when cool).

[JW_Halverson]

Lot of great help, folks, thanks! 

I will get to work researching the companies and websites mentioned right away and I might follow up with some of you with further questions in private messages. 

I think this idea of learning how to cope a hawk's beak by practicing on plastic castings is a while lot less stress inducing than how I learned....ON A LIVE AND VISIBLY UPSET HAWK! 

[JoJoDapyro]

3d printing? Maybe a local company would do it for a donation?

[Stoner]

https://www.sculpturehouse.com/

http://stonesculptorssupplies.com/

http://www.sculpt.com/

https://www.smooth-on.com/?gclid=CjwKEAiAoaXFBRCNhautiPvnqzoSJABzHd6hsEyz43k2KVdUYRmFtkSuNeMKvZl2HQrMwApwgApkTxoCXsnw_wcB

These are some of the companies I have dealt with to make molds for duplicating stone on restoration of old buildings. I think you will find the Smooth On Company to be the most informative. Always wanted to make a death mask and carve in stone. I began as a wildfowl carver before stone. Anyway hope this helps, John