For the molding and casting assignment, the project was to cast two fingers out of plaster of paris, with screws in the bases so they could be used as wall hooks. This assignment was mostly completed in class. The first step was to mix alginate with the required amount of water to form the mold. This went relatively well besides Dr. Wettergreen pointing a large section on the side of my container that I failed to mix in. I then held my fingers in the mold until it set, about 5 minutes. I did two fingers at once, since the assignment was to make two fingers and Dr. Wettergreen suggested that we just do two fingers at once. I then mixed a small amount of plaster of paris with water, before pouring it into the mold. The final step before waiting for the plaster to cure was inserting a screw into the top of each mold.

When I de-molded to two fingers, I made a mistake on the first one by pulling on the screw too hard. I hadn’t quite inserted it deep enough into the mold, and the base of one of my fingers broke into a couple pieces and the screw fell out. After examining the damage, I decided it was very minor and not worth re-doing the casting process, so I superglued the pieces back together. There are small cracks that are noticeable if you know to look for them, but I think they are very minor problems.

For post-processing, I decided to spray paint them a metallic gold color, which came out quite well, and then clear-coated once to protect the finish.

Cost estimate:

– Alginate: $2.00 used

– Plaster of Paris: $22.98 for 25 lbs, assuming 3 ounces used this would be $0.18

– Spray paint: A can of Rust-Oleum is ~$10, but I used very little, so I will estimate $0.20

– Time: This was a relatively short homework, counting the time spent in class it took me about 2 hours to complete. At $15 an hour, this is $30 of labor.

Total price: $32.38, with labor again making up by far the largest component of this price.