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Making you own polyurethane cartridge cases


ivop

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Here's how I made my first cartridge case.

 

First, I made two molds with tin cure silicone, the cheapest variant. Perhaps I'll make another one with platinum cure later.

The cost of the molds is about 12,= euro's in total, but they can be reused several times. Not sure how many times yet. Might vary between 20 and 120, judging by the reports I read on the internet.

It took 10-15 hours to cure until I could take the originals out of the mold. After that, I had them post-cure for two days. I was very pleased with the results.

 

Pouring the PU was a totally different matter. The silicone had a pot life of 40 minutes, which means I had plenty of time to mix the two components and pour them in the container, but the PU I had bought is a fast curing variant with a pot life of only 2-3 minutes. So when I started with the second mold, it had become way too syrupy. Nevertheless, I managed to get it all in the mold. I unmolded after 60 minutes, let it cure a little longer and then used a vile and sandpaper to clean it up.

 

IMHO it turned out not too bad for a first try. I have plenty of PU left to try a few times more. By my calculations the cost of one case, not counting the mold, is about 1,25 euro.

 

Regards,

Ivo

 

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Looks good. It might be an alternative to donor carts, especially if you can color the PU and the material characteristics aren't bad.

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Thanks for your interest. It has a hardness of Shore D-70/75 which is pretty sturdy IMHO, but it could be increased up to 85 by adding another component. PU can be colored by either adding a color agent or painting it afterwards. Painting is cheaper, but it probably won't look as good as mixing the color before casting.

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