The Mouldmaking & Casting Forum

Hi,
I'm looking to reproduce a steering wheel emblem and need advice on the materials to buy and techniques to use.
The current, cracked tatty emblem consists of 3 parts. A gold coloured metal disk with raised sections that show the logo, then black resin that fills the lowered section and finally a slightly domed clear plastic coating.
I'm thinking I will get some silicone putty to make a mould of the metal disk to reproduce it in resin with gold cold casting powder added.
Then I would need to produce the black inserts. Id rather not fill the metal disk directly so can I use the silicone putty again to take a cast of the first mould?
Finally I'd coat the whole thing in clear cast. What are the properties of that once it sets? Is it likely to crack or discolour from the heat that can build up inside a car?
If I just buy the clear cast resin can I use that for the black and gold sections with the proper pigments?

Lots of questions I know, I hope someone can help, I'm new to this

Thanks

You could send me a picture to get a clearer idea but it sounds like a straight forward 3 layer clear casting resin would do the job. Make the mould of CraftSil silicone no need for the dearer varieties. Pour the first layer with gold powder added to just cover the gold emblem. Allow to gel then pour the second layer with black pigment included and allow to gel then pour a final clear layer. I may have the order wrong but something of this style should do the job. Stan

Thanks for responding so quick.
I'm not sure how that would work. Here are some photos




In the second image the black inlay is still stuck to the clear coating.
I think you are suggesting pouring black an clear layers directly into/onto the gold section.
Some of the black inlay where the letters overlap is pretty small and not very deep. If I were to pour the black directly into the gold piece could I sand back any over-pour and retain a gloss finish?

Cheers

P.S. I have to do this now because the black and clear plastic crumbled in my fingers when I tried putting it back in the steering wheel!

Hi,
If you need to get the black resin into some tiny spaces, try using a pin with a minute amount of black resin on the point and let it run into the cavities.

kind regards
Joseph

I realised the other day that I never posted the results of my efforts here.

I created a perfect mould of the metal section and even managed to cast a negative mould from it by coating it with vaseline.

I tried making whole new badges with the added gold. They looked good but I couldn't manage to get the high shine I wanted. Think I was expecting a bit much.

I didn't use the negative mould in the end either as the pieces it cast were too small and thin (no fault of the materials of course) they didn't sit well in the badge. It was much easier to pour the black resin directly into the gaps.

For the small sections I used a pin as you suggested. One thing I found was that tiny drops would not hang off the very point of the pin. They stop where the pin starts to thin. I solved that by chopping the point off. The drops were then right at the very end and I had much more control over their placement.

Anyway, thanks for all your help. The badge has been in my car all summer and the heat has not effected the resin in any way. It's still as clear an shiny as the day it was cast.

Here's a few photos

The mould


Completely new badges - well worth doing to practice pouring the black


The final badge - original metal with new black resin and a clear coat on top