This week, we got to work on a project in which we made molds and casts of our fingers, ending up with finger hooks which we could use to hang things on a wall! This project was quite straightforward; in class, we were shown how to mix the alginate, use it to make a mold of our finger (which involved sitting with our fingers sitting in the mixture for about 10 minutes), and then how to mix plaster and pour it into the mold to make a cast. In class, the plaster I used didn’t have the correct ratio of plaster to water, and thus didn’t solidify correctly, so I had to make two outside of class.

I ended up completing this project at about 1am while waiting for my 3D prints to finish for the previous week’s 3D printing project. In general, it was pretty quick – I just followed the steps from class, with the hardest part being using tape to balance screws in the plaster so that they would set inside it. The only mishap I had during the process was accidentally locking myself outside (on one of the coldest days of the year yet). I was stuck outside for quite some time, due to there being only a few people in the OEDK that late, and was briefly afraid I’d have to spend the night sleeping in my car without my phone or keys. 

Luckily, everything worked out, and my plaster fingers turned out pretty cool! If I could do it again, I would make sure the screws set in the plaster straighter, as mine were pretty angled; however, this does allow me to hang things more easily, as it allows the fingers to be at an upward angle against the wall. In addition, there were a few bubbles in the tips and at the base of the fingers, but they were small enough that I didn’t think it was necessary to redo everything.

Once I had my fingers cast, I spray painted them using some dark blue paint (which was an interesting choice, as it made it look like the fingers were bruised / lacking oxygen), and applied a clear coat over the top to finish.

Cost Analysis:

Cost Type	Cost	Price	Source	Quantity	Total
Materials	Alginate	$54.97 / 3lb	Amazon	400g	$0.04
	Plaster	$8.86 / 4 lb	Amazon	400g	$0.01
	Spray Paint	$15.29 / 12 oz	Amazon	0.5 oz	$0.64
	Clear coat	$6.19 / 12 oz	Amazon	0.5 oz	$0.26
Labor	Mold Making	$22/hr	Ziprecruiter	30 min	$11
	Spray Painting	$18/hr	Ziprecruiter	10 min	$3
Overhead	Facility Cost (Machine Time)	Assume 15% of labor and materials	Rockler	N/A	$2.24
	Quality Control	Minimal time spent	N/A	N/A	$0
Design	Engineering and Development	$43.12/hr	ZipRecruiter	N/A	$0
Scrap Material / Waste	Alginate + Plaster (from failed mold)	Alginate & Plaster costs above	Alginate & Plaster costs above	200g of each	Negligible
Total	$17.19