TECH: Wing a Custom Taillight

[Pantsbeer]

Pretty sweet. How did you make/attach the clear piece though? Now I gotta find some cool shit to make.

[Revelator]

Pretty sweet. How did you make/attach the clear piece though? Now I gotta find some cool shit to make.

that's what I 'm trying to figure out too. maybe clear silicone?

also, Can the resin material be filed/sanded, and buffed? or do you just run
it as it comes out of the mold warts & all?

How much was the total investment with ALL the materials, resin, silicone, Dye, etc ?

& finally........Nice Job.

[originalrumrunner]

that's what I 'm trying to figure out too. maybe clear silicone?

also, Can the resin material be filed/sanded, and buffed? or do you just run
it as it comes out of the mold warts & all?

How much was the total investment with ALL the materials, resin, silicone, Dye, etc ?

& finally........Nice Job.

Thanks guys, let me try to answer some of the questions that came up.

1. The clear window is the corner of a plastic GLAD sandwich container. It's bowed out a bit cause when I made the first one flat, it started to yellow from the heat of the bulb. That little bulge makes all the difference. I just attached it to the resin with clear silicone seal.

2. You could do anything you want to the resin. In fact, if you look at the first pink one I made, that's been heavily sanded. You get rid of an dimples (not warts, cause air gets trapped in as you pour the resin and leaves little holes) on the surface but you lose lots of detail and surface gloss. One thing I found you can do to return the gloss anyway is to put this coating they use to make concrete glossy, can't remember the name, but I got it at Home Depot, you just brush it on the resin and get all the gloss back.

3. If I did it right the first time, total cost would have been:

1. Hummingbird - $4.00
2. Silicone - $35.00 (cheaper online)
3. Resin - $30.00
4. Dye - $6.00

So maybe like $80 or so? Two things about the cost, the mold you make could conceivably be used hundred of times, so if I ever wanted to make a third or fourth, it would only be the cost of the resin. 2. The resin can make way more than one light, but unfortunately once you mix it you have to pour quick. So, you could either have multiple molds ready to go, or carefully measure out how much you need and only mix that amount. On this particular run, I obviously wasn't worried about saving money or time....

I'm really proud to be able to share this with the Forums guys, hope this helps!

[originalrumrunner]

and the end result is tasteful. Certainly worthy of the time it took you. I would have like to see how you fashioned the base as well....

I didn't cover the base with pictures cause it came way after.

1, I just carved out the basic shape of the hummingbirds with brass and put a big hole through the middle.

2. Used my old 1157 bulb socket and literally silicone sealed it to the backing plate. I think welding would have been much better, but so far the sealing has worked fine.

3. Now, you need some way to seal the backing plate to the taillight, but you have to be able to remove it as well to change the bulb. So, I just took a plumber's gasket and cut out the shape and inserted between the backing plate and the light. I dumped a cup of water over it and it didn't get anywhere inside the light, so that was my test. I live in SoCal though, so if you're making one of these and you live in Boston, maybe a better seal is in order. One thing that would be easy to do is to make the backing plate a bit bigger and then curl over the edge to act as lip, creating a nicer housing for the light. With this particular shape (I tried this!) it was impossible to shape the lip around the tight corners at the beak and wings.

[lobstermobster]

so sick, im in a pickle on the best one. this one... or the bacon dog one. but this is really rad/

[shotgunlarry]

Great guide would love to see some pics of what people make using this.

[calicruiser]

this is VERY COOL!!!! How long did it take you from beginning to end? I know you made a couple of attempts but was it a couple of hours or a couple of days to complete it? thanks and again, great job!

josh

[Bozi]

Belt Buckets , (the old style big oval shaped ones) would be a good canidate for this,
Military or police badge, your cats face.......endless possiblities.

Thank you for doing the post.

[philbey]

Fantastic, I've been hanging to see this thread.

I've got an old taillight that has glass lenses, and I'm just waiting for the day it gets busted. I reckon I'll just cast up a few spares using the original glass as the pattern and run those instead!

I used to work with a model maker and he'd make shit like this all day long no stress. Actually, now you've hollowed out the back of your first one, you could polish the inside and cast a plug up so that you don't have to keep carving every light you make. Add to that, if you get fancy you could overmold the clear lens into the resin casting!

[JohnnyWolf]

Nice, I can't add much more to what's already been said. But, I too need to try this.

Thank you!

[originalrumrunner]

Fantastic, I've been hanging to see this thread.

I've got an old taillight that has glass lenses, and I'm just waiting for the day it gets busted. I reckon I'll just cast up a few spares using the original glass as the pattern and run those instead!

I used to work with a model maker and he'd make shit like this all day long no stress. Actually, now you've hollowed out the back of your first one, you could polish the inside and cast a plug up so that you don't have to keep carving every light you make. Add to that, if you get fancy you could overmold the clear lens into the resin casting!

These are some great ideas. A two-piece mold that included the external mold and plug would be killer. I am still trying to figure out how you would "float" the plug in the poured resin. I tried this on one of the lights, using a rubber plug and tried to sit it in the resin after it had started drying a bit, but it was hard to keep the plug seated as it dried further. I've seen some old rocket-style Mercury lights being cast from a two-piece mold that would literally snap together, but that is way beyond my skills.

Overmolding would be so killer! In fact, most of the light was to be a prototype, I figured it would fall apart on a hardtail, but with a thousand miles or so on it, it's held up well.

[damned]

Hey I say that's great info my friend...
Thanks for sharing!

Dan.

[pangeaspeed]

great job!! it was rad meeting you at the show yesterday!!! i grew up working at my dads model shop, untill last week i was making these molds everyday. the two sided mold is really easy to do once you grasp the concept of making a "splitter" ryan if your interested in the details of the splitter shoot me an email or call me and i will work you through the details. basicly the best way to do these molds is

build an mdf(3/4in particle board) box around your part give .5in on all sides. take a piece of .5in mdf that is cut to the inside dimensions of the box.

place your tail light with your clay work done on the mdf base. (do all clay work at this point sculpt your inside geometry, drill your holes etc. the best way to go instead of using the clay extend your bird would be cutting and trimming some mdf or high density foam(basicly the same way you made your brass part but layer up some mdf to get your thickness.) this will allow you to sand and prime the master part and not get all the bumpyness form the clay. mdf scults very well with a dremal or small files and chisels.

if your going for a glass clear part spray the part with automotive clear coat to achive a nice smooth finish(wait at LEAST 24hrs for any paint to fully cure or you will get inhabitions(soft spots) in your silicone.

now that you have your box built and have the master stuck firmly down to the splitter, you need to spray down some mold release. we use a product called mr-150 made by sil-pak. stone also makes some airesol release agents. you cant get away with out the release but you risk damaging your mold.

now mix up your silicone. at our shop we had the luxury of a mixing and metering machine, basicly this machine mixes the two parts togeather with zero air getting induced into the mix and also nicely shoots the silicone out of the nozel. most people dont have the 10k for that machine so that will leave you with hand mixing. get a small scale and measure out your ratio correctly so that your silicone performs best. you can mix the silicone using a drill with a paint mixer on the end. when you are mixing the silicone becarefull to not get to vigerous or you will induce exess air into the mix. if you have access to a small vacume pump you can create a vacume chamber very easily( for another time though) once your silicon is mixed up take a few min and tap the cup on the table, tapping the cup will bring any major bubbles to the surface.

when pouring the silicone into the box start in one corner away from the part and start slowly pouring the silicone in. stay in that same location and just let the silicone flood the part. by doing this the silicone lays down perfectly over every surface and as it lays down it forces the air up and out of the box. take your time the silicone takes 24 hours to fully cure so if you see any bubbles as you are filling the mold stop and pick them out with a tooth pick. the better you make the mold the less work you will have to do on the final parts and if your gonna make 25 of your light and sell them you dont want to be foolin with each part anymore then you have to.

once you have your box almost topped off grab your lid that you cut out for the box oh and i for got to tell you drill some 3/4 in holes in the lid. lay the lid on the box, either glue the lid down or screw it down. now pour the silicone into the holes on the lid (this step locks the silicone into the box that way your dimensions stay correct)

let it cure for like 24hrs or so.

on to side two. flip the box over. you will notice that you didnt fasten that splitter down..... well its going to be glued down efectivly because you poured silicone all over it. pry this piece out and toss it in the trash.

now you have your .5in clearance on the bottom of your part, you also have access to the inside geometry of your part. at this point (dooo not remove your master!)

take some small sicks we buy plastic rod in dia's of .063 - .020in for this. you can use dowels or welding rod, tooth picks. cut these rods so that when glued to your master they stick out of the box by 1in. what we are doing here is taking these rods and gluing them in areas that air is going to get trapped. trapped air leaves voids in your part. these rods are called vents. you also need a gate(filler hole) this should be a larger dia dowel like maybe 3/8in dia. super glue that to your part.

take your bottom lid that you made and plot out the locations of all the gate and vents. drill 1in holes in all these locations.

spray down your mold with mr-150 or your other parting agent (if you have to you can use vasaline but it sucks)

pour on your silicone on the second half of the mold. place your lid over the top and screw the lid down(do not glue this lid down) now pour silicon in the lid holes that have the gates and vents located in them. this does two things it locks the top silicone into the mold and it allows the vents to vent to the out side of the mold box.

give it 24 hours.

now get pliers and pull out the gate and vents, unscrew the lid, and very very carefully pry out your masterpart. if you are having troubel removing it get an air hose and blow some air inbetween the part and the silicon making sure not to scar up the silicone.

at this point you have a really nice mold. pat your self on the back if you made it this far this shit is hard to grasp untill you do it a few times.

now for casting the part.

take your scale mix up your resin (here is a little trick, take your master part toss it on your scale and see how much it weighs. add a little to that weight to be safe and you have a good starting place for how much resin to mix up. take the same stepps to avoid mixing air in the resin. work fast though this stuff kicks off fast!

take a funnel and jam it in your gate hole. pour the resin down the funnel and keep pouring untill you get a bunch of resin pouring out your vent holes. watch for air as the resin pours out and when you dont see anymore bubbles you know you are good. its worth wasting a little resin to ensure you got all the air out.

most people think that putting your part under vacume at this stage will get the air bubbles out..... in most cases this is not true. if you watch the way a resin reacts under vacume you will notice that before removing all the air the resin will get supper bubbly as the air is released. in a slow curing resin or silicone this doesnt matter because all the resin will settle down before it gels. but in the kind of resins we are using they gell to fast and you dont have the time to get them to settle. we actualy have a glorifyed pnumatic calking gun that we shoot the resin out of that reduces the amount of air that can get in the mix. the main thing we do though is place the mold in a presure pot. basicly the reverse of a vacume chamber. its a steel chamber that has 100psi forcing into it. this presure pot basicly shrinks any bubbles that might be in the resin. you dont have to use a presure pot but it does help quite a bit.

after your part cures open the mold and pull out your part, you might have to blow some air under the part to remove it.

trim off your gate and vents, bam there you go perfect part!!!

you can do some sanding and polishing if needed, if you want it way glossy just have your painter spray some urethane clear on it and you are good to go!

this was way long and probably doesnt make any scence but hopefully it will help some of you guys. good luck with it. if you have questions feel free to email me.

oh another cool thing to try is B.T. ore (bismuth and tin) basicly this is a low melt metal that has similar proporties to aluminum but it can be melted down on the stove and poured into a silicone mold. check out the fork emblum on my xs thats how i did that part.

[Toecutterp]

Awesome thread, good to see useful stuff on this board. It's starting to come about. Craft store trip today.

[originalrumrunner]

PangeaSpeed rocks

Thanks for the followup, Andy, it was rad seeing you and the XS in person, that emblem in the front is the cat's meow, I never even heard of BT; that's some Terminator 2 shit right there!

I dig your explanation and that's what these posts are great for. Someone's got an idea, and someone else contributes knowledge or lessons learned and by the end of it, you get pages worth of info on how to put together something nice and custom. I'll definitely hit you up as I go through your post, sounds like a way to improve the final outcome and cut down on labor, too.

The light procedure took me a couple of days, on and off, but it was for sure a labor of love. One thing I've been toying with is manufacturing limited runs of lights, and selling them. Problem is, if materials even cost you $40-$60 bones, and you put in many hours of work to get it done, what are you going to sell the light for, $200? That's stupid, man, I don't think I'd pay that for a light. Plus, what shape would be cool enough to do a run on? A Harley logo? A re-pop of an old design? Fuck that, that kills the whole idea. I'll be honest, I got the idea to do the casting from the BratStyle dragon face light they're selling, that's pretty rad, but the second I saw one on another bike, I'd be less likely to want it on mine. So, for now, one-offs are in my mind. I can not fucking wait to see what guys come up with and then get all extremely jealous and pissed that I didn't think of what they did! A Pangea logo light would be rad as fuck.

Thanks again for all the info, I need to try one of these two-parters. I call dildo light!