Vibration for Casting

[vtgaryw]

I told my wife I needed a vibrator, and she laughed, so I figured I'd ask here. I've been doing some castings (PR) the last few days. I've done a lot, and mostly have good luck, but every now and then I have a design that has little "micro" bubbles on the surface of the blank.

I seem to recall some threads about using vibration, but I didn't turn up much. For those of you of a certain age, remember those metal football games that vibrated and moved the men randomly around the field? I'm thinking something like that (or maybe the vibration mechanism off of one.)

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Gary

 

[3Peake]

Can you not place it on a scrollsaw or fretsaw that's switched on or use a detail sander without a sanding pad on it to massage the mould sides

 

[jttheclockman]

Can't use my scrollsaws. They do not vibrate. They make shaker tables. Or as mention a sander would work. They make massage gizmos.

 

[Edward Cypher]

Dental vibrator works great about 90 bucks on ebay. Variable speed.

 

[RBcarving]

try a Goodwill and find an old back massager. They do pretty well and usually can be picked up for $3-$5.

 

[BeeAMaker]

If you can enclose it with a small heater, that helps too, unless it is very fast curing. Some epoxies I have heated before missing. Makes them very "runny" the bubbles can move easier and escape.

 

[CrashmanS]

When I need to, I use an oscillating sander to vibrate.

Sent from my SM-N920P using Tapatalk

 

[Terredax]

Although not this brand, we used something like these with specific made attachments for the table to hold our molds.
Our molds were much larger than anything used for pens. They required several vents to help eliminate any air inclusions from the peaks and under-cuts of the molds. Vibration expedited the process.

VIBCO Vibrating Tables Densification Decks

 

[luckyscroller788]

Sounds like an idea for an app on the smartphone! A way to set it on auto-vibrate, then put your molds on the phone and let it shake away!!! :biggrin:

 

[vtgaryw]

Sounds like an idea for an app on the smartphone! A way to set it on auto-vibrate, then put your molds on the phone and let it shake away!!! :biggrin:

You know, when I had searched eBay for vibration devices, once I figured out how to eliminate the sex toys from my search, I found some smart phone vibrator modules really cheap.

I remember a guy on Shark Tank a while ago who had written an App that used the phone's vibrator to spin the phone 360 degrees to take panoramic videos. Pretty cool.

Although simplest would be the oscillating sander... but that's no fun. I might buy a phone module and see how it does.

Gary

 

[Gary Beasley]

I made a little vibrating table by mounting a bathroom exhaust fan to the bottom of a small platform, with two adjacent blades cut off. I put some flexible rubber feet on it to help the table shake easier.

 

[eharri446]

Have you tried and ultrasonic jewelry cleaner. They have been mentioned on several posts before.