Casting in resin vs white metal

[dijit]

Hi,
I've got a few bits that I'd like to cast (slight undercuts, but nothing out of the ordinary); now when looking at the various possibilities I can see there's the possibility of casting in either resin or in white metal. Resin seems to have the advantage of not requiring heat, whilst white metal you can melt down your miscasts. Does anyone have any experience with the two forms and can offer some advice as to what is best? What is easiest to start with and what is cheapest? Also any good suppliers in the UK or Europe would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Duncan

(I'm pretty sure I've seen a thread where it was mentioned before, but can't seem to find it)

[CompanyB]

Metal, if you do it yourself that means you'll be melting molten metal in a pot on your stove.  Can be done, but it's a bit tricky.  You can do metal gravity cast molds, and they work quite well, but be prepared to not get good results until the third or fourth pour (warmed up molds cast better).  Your other option is spin casting, which probably costs about the same if you can find someone to do it for you.  Micromark here in the US has all the stuff you would need or information you can read up on and you can see what everything would cost: http://www.micromark.com/CASTING-METAL-TYPE-160-8-OZand135-CUBIC-,8330.html

resin, easier.  You can buy a kit of resin, mold rubber and other supplies from Alumilite in the US.  Not sure if you can get it in Europe, but it should give you a good idea of the price point and what you would need. http://www.alumilite.com/ProdDetail.cfm?Category=Starter%20Kits&Name=Super%20Casting%20Kit

Depending on the size, you might be able to get away with press molds and greenstuff.  It really depends though on what you are molding.

[Connectamabob]

Resin will be cheaper if you're just casting a few bits for yourself. Metal requires some degree of special equipment pretty much no matter how you're doing it. Doing high-quality resin casting requires special equipment too, but you can do "good enough" resin casting without it, depending on the shapes you're casting*. Metal's cheaper for manufacturers because once you're past the equipment cost, the metal itself is cheaper (as is the mold rubber), and molds for metal last a lot longer than molds for resin.

*Small, narrow parts, like you would find on a 6-30mm gaming mini, are very difficult to do this way. Larger parts, like you might find on a vehicle mini, are readily doable, with a little TLC given to the surface detail. If you're talking about figure bits, I'd second Company B's suggestion of doing an epoxy putty press mold instead.

If you do a press mold, make the mold out of Green Stuff with the mix biased toward the yellow component for maximum flexibility, and make sure you grease everything up thoroughly with thinned petroleum jelly or something similar to keep the mold from adhering to the pattern, and the castings from adhering to the mold.

You can also make cheap & dirty rubber molds using silicon bathtub caulk. The stuff is a wee bit caustic though- not enough to damage your pattern, but enough to bond itself to any paints or lacquer-based putties present. Supposedly by mixing the caulk with talc or cornstarch you can greatly improve its workability and curing time, but I haven't tried that myself.

Don't know anything about UK or European suppliers unfortunately, me being a Yank.

[dijit]

Thanks for the help. Resin it is I think then.
Duncan