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Panic wrote:yeah,

Vitruvian XVII wrote:Nice idea! Should work great.

Fingers crossed, lots of wasted time other wise!

SilverMK2 wrote:You weren't MacGyver in a previous life were you?

Ha Ha I wish!

Ok today I brushed the two part epoxy glue onto all the metal intersections and where metal joins wood at the edges.
I then sandwich clamped the metal rulers between two tiles to flatten them out.


update again with success/fail tomorrow!

Panic...

Failing the "clamped" putty route you could also try making a mold of 50mm square tiles and casting them up yourself.

yeah,
The clamping worked and the tool is now 98% straight and level when placed onto the wooden tiles.

Galorn wrote:Failing the "clamped" putty route you could also try making a mold of 50mm square tiles and casting them up yourself.

I wont be clamping when using the tool, that was only to correct the distorted uneven rulers.
There were some gaps where the tool would not have reched the putty and tha could have ruined the panel pressing.

From here it should be fairly straight forward, I just have to make the floor panel mould(/s) mix up some putty and give it a test run.
Hopefully tomorrow.

Panic...

You should try it out tomorrow I'm way to curious about the results!

S.

yeah,

Photo showing how the press now goes totally flat against the tile.


Making the tile moulds. each tile mould needs to be 47mm square approx
I found a bit of wood 45mm square in the shed and cut it into 6 cubes. and sanded them down.


This is the blank tile I'm aiming for and the first tile press mould WIP. The plastic card is 47mm square.
Everything is sprayed with release agent and the first test press on 5g of green stuff.
The tile maker made a real good square.
But the bolt in each corner of the mould prevented detail being pressed in.


I hit down on the Mould with a hammer.

Second test.
the corner bolts are sunk into the mould so they are level with the centre.
and I increased the amount of green stuff to 9g
Detail is getting there...


Third test.
I increased the ammount of green stuff to 13g
This time detail is there but not even...


A few things I've learned is the depth of the Green suff in the final test wasn't beng used.
the extra raised bits came out clearer.
that the green stuff was probabily too hard?

Test 4 The Green Stuff will have more yellow in it to make it softer..
Test 4 Bolts will be returned to full 3mm hight and the center part made 4mm deep.

Cost watch!
I cut out the square and weighed it 8g.
If I use 8g per square as in the final test, the total weight of putty for all 36 squares required will be 288g...
The putty I have costs £7.50 per 250g
I will see if i can reduce the amount of putty used in the tests with the new mould tomorrow.

Panic...

I really appreciate you showing us not only what you're doing, but outlining the steps AND your thought processes. I think it helps a lot to be able to 'see' what you're thinking, see your attempts, etc.

Will make a great Dakka Article when you're finished.

as we say in Dutch: Goed bezig!

glad you're pleased with your results so far. Hope the new discoveries will work out and that progress will go as planned.

S.

Worth checking the relative weights of putty, though. GS may be lighter/heavier than what you're using...

yeah,
increased the ammount of putty again!
...My rolling pins handles broke yesterday. I made one handle into a pressing tool by adding a drawer handle to it.
Newly reconfigured tile press has 1.5 mm deep central part and and bolts. Plus fancy pants brass parts.


Standard process in enhanced buy pushing the putty towards the edges with the new tool and the end of the rolling pin.


test4 results...
First pressing I pressed to much putty away from the edge with a rolling pin miss hit... the top presses look good.
I cut into the tile to show how much wasted putty depth there is.

Second pressing looks good.


The extra depth to both putty and press seems to work.
So I've ordered 1.5mm 2mm and 3mm thick plastic card and some better scalpel blades to make press mould mk2

Panic...

yeah,
I'm back with some new plastic card, scalpel and some brass etch for detailing.



I bought the brass etch to try and copy this pattern I found on some steps near where i work.


I had a thought that maybe what was needed was pressure.
So the new press has quite shallow detail. and used 4 grams of GS

the result was disappointing at the corners. It also appears that regardless of pressure maybe the green stuff wasn't level enough.

Ok upped the ammount of GS to 6g per square and made sure it was more level.


A bit better but still too many defects.


so I had a thought can I make mini tools to fix defects??


Not sure but It's something to think about...

Panic...

I'd try Squadron Green Putty man..It only takes 30 minutes to cure, and it's got to be cheaper than GS...

I have to agree with Dave. I think you need to experiment with other materials, or consider making a mold and casting in dental stone or resin.

Surely you just need a square pressing tool rather than the round one you made?

yeah,

dsteingass wrote:I'd try Squadron Green Putty man..It only takes 30 minutes to cure, and it's got to be cheaper than GS...

Briancj wrote:I have to agree with Dave. I think you need to experiment with other materials, or consider making a mold and casting in dental stone or resin.

I agree.
But the green stuff trials are just to test the process...
that green stuff in a tube looks interesting, but it's £3 for 65g. with 5g/6g a square x 36 squares I need 180g/ 216g a tile that means I'd need 3 /4 tubes of that £9/£12.
Which is more expensive than the other Sylmasta stuff I've got, £7.70 for 250g, but not tried yet - 500g of black - sylmasta A+B putty I'm gonna try real soon.
Although time isn't really a issue since once the tile is done I can leave it to one side to cure, 30mins is probably too short. The sylmasta stuff says it's workable for 2 hours...

ArbitorIan wrote:Surely you just need a square pressing tool rather than the round one you made?

I didn't use the tool during these tests as i figured the increased pressure would sort out the putty...
the corners proved me wrong!

Another issue I've realised is that the clamps I have will not reach the center to press the mould down - Also winding the handle for every tile would take ages!
So I made a quick lever setup that I can clamp onto my work bench.
I'll hopefully get to test it and the sylmasta tomorrow!


Panic...

Not to pimp my own stuff here, but just FYI- I made these master floor panels for Galorn and then had molds made of them, just cast as many as you want- Dental Plaster is relatively cheap




But if you want a press system, I acceidentally discovered this when I learned that gap-filling CA does not stick to the soft plastic of granny grating
I then used Squadron Green putty (nothing sticks to that plastic) to get the effect quickly (30 mins)



Either way, I can't wait to see what you come up with!

yeah,
your casts look amazing.

I do have silicone and resin here so I may switch the project to casting up squares. but I think I'll keep going with press moulding for a bit longer.



PAnic..

That's no lever...that's a space station!

Do you have any scraps that could act as a spacer underneath the block that your lever is hinged on? Unless your stamp sinks considerably from where it is in that picture (or your ruler grid is absolutely rock solid), I'd be worried that the lever won't apply pressure very evenly. Raising the block up slightly so that the arm is level when fully depressed would be ideal, I imagine.

yeah

Briancj wrote:That's no lever...that's a space station!

oadie wrote:Do you have any scraps that could act as a spacer underneath the block that your lever is hinged on? ... I'd be worried that the lever won't apply pressure very evenly...

The lever worked quite well. near the center (as shown) the beam seemed to apply a even pressure.

Sharazad helped out with making the tile.


I think now that press molding is not the way forward.
the results are a bit disappointing. the detail is there but is just a bit wobbly.



we tried to clean them up a bit but it just wasn't working..


The process Isn't good/clean enough for the results I want. I want my tiles to stand up next to FW tiles.
Now if i was making a ork zone! this would have done...

I'm cutting this one loose, my zone mortalis press mold idea is now scrapped.

...

It's like Michael Caine said to BatMan - 'Why do we fall?'


Panic...

Ah, but Panic, your efforts demonstrate that (a) you're insane and (b) a warning to others. And by making the effort, you help out everyone else.

So, here's a pint of bitter raised to you and your friend's efforts to make cheap, good-looking gaming tiles!

Briancj wrote:Ah, but Panic, your efforts demonstrate that (a) you're insane and (b) a warning to others. And by making the effort, you help out everyone else.

So, here's a pint of bitter raised to you and your friend's efforts to make cheap, good-looking gaming tiles!

Yes he is insane xD pretty awesome thoug ^^
And cheers dude for the compliment.
I think Panic did a pretty impressive job here, and I still have the opinion that it worked out rather well for something so creatively constructed.
Now on to the next stage...huzzah!


S.

Next experiment it is! Keep on trying man! I think you have a lot of potential, perhaps if you make something that works well enough you could even sell it yourself!

Sweet!

Yeah, I think the black milliput might be a bit of a wobbly medium. However, I'd keep the casts you have anyway - might be useful for a damaged section / melted reactor terrain piece / blast damage etc.

Nice work. Reading this tempts me into buying a Zone Mortalis board and damn the expense!

Have you tried a two part pour resin? It could be a little smoother than Green Stuff
Still, looks awesome

Yeah,
This project got canned!
FW started making blank tiles.
Easier to just buy them!

Panic...