3d printed molds

[safiq10]

my team is talking about making molds for our wheels. My question is that can I make a mold in inventor and 3d print it on a makerbot replicator 2 and use that mold to make polyurathane wheels?

[Joel Glidden]

I have had good success in my professional work with 3D printed molds for RTV parts. Give it a shot and let us know how it turns out.

[Mike Marandola]

The problem with that is that you would need a flexible mold to get the wheels out. Unless you are printing with a flexible material.

[artdutra04]

Originally Posted by marandola316

The problem with that is that you would need a flexible mold to get the wheels out. Unless you are printing with a flexible material.

Or you 3D print the actual shape of your desired wheel, then cast that into a silicone mold to make a flexible mold, then use that mold to case your final wheel.

[thefro526]

Originally Posted by artdutra04

Or you 3D print the actual shape of your desired wheel, then cast that into a silicone mold to make a flexible mold, then use that mold to case your final wheel.

I've played with urethane casting using 3D printed molds, and I've found this to be the best method for doing volume parts. 3D print a positive part, and then cast a series of silicone molds from that positive. Then use that silicone mold to cast final parts. The nice thing about making silicone molds from positive part is that you only need to print a single part rather than a series of molds.

[pgabriellini329]

what type of printer does he have anybody know

[MasonMM]

We've had good success following what Art and Dustin mentioned.

We've also printed the positive part with attached floors and walls like an open top box so that starIght from the printer we could pour silicone over the positive and fill the box to create a mold. We reuse the printed box / positive multiple times to create many molds.