Casting records?

[cementimental]

Would this remotely work I wonder? -
* Cut record with very deep grooves into a very soft material (you could even use material too soft to play back durably, ie wax, plasticine etc)
* Make silicon/latex mold of the resulting record
* Cast multiple copies in resin

I imagine you'd loose a lot (or possibly all!?) of the sound quality, but could make some interesting artifacts this way! I'm imagining thick clear resin disks with encapsulated objects etc!

From the little moldmaking I have done I think silicone would pick up enough detail to more or less work. Not sure what if any types of resin would be durable enough though...?

[Steve E.]

Does silicon/latex harden enough to make any sort of a stamp?

And when I hear "resin" I think "tree sap" or bugs in amber...or is that rosin? and I think of it as brittle but sticky. I'd think that would zap a needle if you tried to play it, but I agree that it could look good.

This is a good topic! I'd love to stamp records but it seems so out of my league.

[Guest]

Latex and silicone both make very soft molds which can capture very fine detail ( but maybe not fine enough for this?)

When I say resin, I mean 2-part apoxy resins such as the clear stuff you make paperweights out of... you mix it as a liquid, when it sets it's very hard, basically like hard plastic. It might be too brittle, tho there are various sorts including stuff with aluminium powder in it which sets into a very strong metal/plastic stuff!

My idea was to make the rubber mold of the record and pour resin into it to make the records.

I may try this one day, even if just trying to copy an existing 7" by way of a test to see if it's remotely feasible.


bubbles could be a big problem! But could be avoided by things like vibrating the mold, as professional modelmakers do...

[cementimental]

that was me by the way...

[motorino]

try axon epoxy silicones, the best

need a vibration chair (with infrared light (maybe blue..(odont)) ) for slow hardened ( dont move on the grooves...)

and enjoy

[motorino]

axon support high kilos/centimeter and 800 centigrades temperature if hardened ok

[drscience]

This does work. I've seen an article about it (in Make I believe) and I remember previously I saw a manufacturer of resins and other molding materials advertising that one of their users was doing this and had made a small business from it.

I would think that you would lose some quality from this, but I would think that you would still be able to make a reasonably good duplication.

[vinylrecorder]

You can also do it with choclate. I know it sounds silly but if you keep it cold you can get one play and then eat it.