So this time it was about utilizing molding and casting as a manufacturing technique to produce two wall hooks in the form of fingers. Molding and casting is a very easy technique so this assignment was very straight forward. Firstly, it started with making the actual mold, that involved mixing alginate and water in a 4:1 ratio. I started by measuring measuring 50g of alginate into a cup and then adding 200g of  water into it then thoroughly mixing it up using a popsicle stick, the results can be seen below.

After this it was just a matter of sticking my finger into the mixture and waiting 5 minutes for it to harden into the mold and then take them out. I mixed 50g of plaster with 25g of water and then poured it into the finger holes as the casting material. I also suspended screws to the top of the finger holes with the plaster to be used as hooks. I then waited 30 minutes for the plaster to harden.

 

My initial results were mixed as one finger came out really good while the other had a lot of inconsistencies in the plaster surface making the outline of the finger not as clear, you can see this below.

So I redid the mold and cast two more finger just to have a backup incase another failure occurred and this time both fingers came out really well so I ended up with an extra finger. Lastly, I just spray painted them to make them more aesthetically pleasing and with that I was done.

Costs

Labor – $12/hour * 2 hours – $24

Materials (Screws, alginate, plaster) – $25

Total = $49