New to the forum

[william reinicke]

First off, thanks for having me here, but I am not a printer. I am actually looking for direction on a company or person who might be able to print a mold for me. I am decoy maker and cast a lot of foam. I have metal molds from decades ago that I still use to cast foam. Otherwise, I can make molds using Silicone and hard cast plaster but I want to see if I can find a 3d printer to make a mold that I can cast polyurethane foam. I can send the master decoy to anyone, so that it is scanned and made into a file, and then hopefully reverse engineered into a mold. I am new, so hope to be able to figure out how to upload pictures. Figured creating a profile and asking here might be a good idea. I will never have the brains to get into all of this, and truthfully, I don't need another hobby. But I would definitely be willing to pay someone to 3D print for me.

Thanks,
William Reinicke

[william reinicke]

Here is some of my work. Here is one of the metal molds I use now. Foam puts out a ton of pressure when being casted, I do understand a vent hole or a way to allow gasses to release is needed. I can figure all that out. I just need someone to print a mold for me and I can do the rest. I would start with one, and if it turns out well, I might have quite a few made.

[Lez0]

Hi. welcome to the forum.
My background is engineering, and I spent a lot of time designing plastic injection mould tools.
I'm not in a position to make these mould by the way as my large printer is broken.
The first question I think most people would ask is how long are these moulds, as they need to fit on the printer.
The mould would need to be designed differently as plastic is not as strong as steel, especially when printed. This is obvious but I think it can be done.
The next is the finish of the moulds, I imagine the steel moulds are very smooth, this is not the case for some 3D printers, they leave lines.
If I were doing this I would get a small test mould made first to see it if works before you spend a lot of time and money on the final moulds.
Good luck and I hope you find someone to help you.
Lez