Version 2 ceramic beer bottle rubber block mold

This time I printed the block mold, rather than the case mold, in six pieces on my consumer 3D printer.
Top: I printed the two halves upright (creating them in the slicer rather than Fusion 360). Because the print lines run concentric the quality is so much better than the previous version printed flat. The ribbing inside made the halves strong so they did not go out of shape when filled with plaster (to give them weight).
Second: The mold halves were simply laid against each other - they mated perfectly (and stayed in place because they are full of plaster). The four rails were then clamped in place.
Third: The PLA was soaped (using Murphy's Oil Soap) and rubber poured in (Smooth-On PMC-746). The next day it easily pulled out.
Fourth: The finished rubber case mold. The sides are pretty flabby so I make them rigid using the four rails (placed upside down).
Right: Using a plaster mold created from this rubber case mold I slip-casted a bottle using my L4768D recipe, glazed it with GA6-B and fired it at cone 6.

Related Pictures

Slip cast leather-hard full-sized beer bottle prototype

The commercial bottle on the right is 25cm high. These stopper mechanisms are a commodity item, millions are made and a wide range of bottles work with them. They are easy to find online and go by a variety of names (e.g. "Grolsch style flip top stoppers", "Swingtop Grolsch style bottle cages", "Porcelain swing top cap").

The slip cast bottle is on the left - this one is leather hard, recently extracted from a mold. It is made using a black-burning stoneware, the L4768D recipe. The GA6-B glaze fires deep glossy beer bottle brown on this body. As a starting point, I used water/Darvan proptions outlined in the "Casting Recipe" section of the M370 data sheet. By the time this is fired it will be 10% smaller and will match the glass one on the right. The pads are positioned to work well with swing-top stoppers.

Which is the glass beer bottle among these ceramic ones?

One hundred years ago Medalta Potteries made beer bottles (until glass ones took over by 1930). I am making master molds to create them again (using the slip-casting process). These are beyond cool! There is a glass one in this group, I'll bet you cannot pick it out! These are stoneware and fired at 2200F. The clay is dark-colored (like Coffee Clay) and the glaze is actually made using 80% of a clay we mine in this area (it is called Alberta Slip), it is extremely durable and has a chemistry akin to that of the glass in a regular beer bottle.

Links

Glossary	3D-Printing Standard 3D printing technology (not printing with clay itself) is very useful to potters and ceramic industry in making objects that assist and enable production.
Glossary	Side Rails Side rails are the containment used when pouring plaster molds. We 3D-print these to custom fit each mold.
Projects	Beer Bottle Master Mold via 3D Printing A project that took several years of failures and blind allies and is finally coming together - so much simpler than expected!

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