Total Estimate: $153.18

Materials: $75.78

• Primary
  • Algenate
    • 2 ounces by volume per mold
      • found 3lbs for $23.36
  • Cement
    • ~ 15 ounces by volume
      • Found a 50LB bag for $18.99
  • Spray Paint
    • Glossy Blue
      • Found 1 12 oz can for $6.28
    • Gold
      • Found an 11 oz can for $5.43
• Secondary
  • Screws
    • 2 #8×1″ long phillip head wood screws
      • Found everbilt 12 pack for $1.18
  • Tape
    • Painters tape
      • Found a 60 yd role for $6.58
  • Paper
    • 1 news paper page
      • Free
  • Containers
    • 3 32 ounce mixing containers
      • found a 12 pack for $13.96

Labor: $77.4

Time: 4 hours

Average machinist pay per hour: $19.35

Procedures:

Making the mold:

To make the mold I used 4 oz of algimate with 6 oz of water for each of my molds. The first mold turned out great but on my second try I got distracted and waited too long to put in my finger, I also thought that the lumps of solidifyiong algenate were air bubbles that I needed to take out. This all resulated in a lumpy mess that I could not use. However, I was able to get my second mold after another try.

Casting: RockITE

For casting I first tried to quick set cement but when mixing I ended with another lumpy mess that was not fluid enough to cast. I am not sure why this happened because I followed to intructions on the container. I thus decided to use the ROCKITE quick set cement instead and this worked out a lot better. However, I made the mistake of using too much water to start off (4oz) and ended up using a lot of ROCKITE to create the appropirate consistency. Once I had the right consistency, I poured the mixture into my molds to cast my fingers. I then added the screws and after 1 hour I removed my fingers from the mold.

Post Processing:

For post processing I simply wanted to spray paint my hook, however I found some gold spray paint and decided to try to paint the fingers nails gold. To spray paint the nails I had to use painters tape and an old news paper I had in my bag to cover everythinbg but the nails.

Reflection:

All in all I am very happy with  how they turned out but I do think that I put to much of my hand into the mold and if I were to do this again I would be more careful not to let my hand leave imprints in the mold so I took out just a finger instead of my hand.