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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.
The center bottle is a standard glass one, the other two are ceramic, cast out of the version 1 plaster mold. The stopper fits perfectly. The clay is Plainsman M370 + 10% raw umber, it fires black. The glaze is GA6-B. They were fired using the C6DHSC firing schedule. The slightly larger size will enable inserts at the bases to inlay a logo or other info. These bottles are a testament to how 3D printing and 3D design now make it possible for even casual potters to make pieces never before practical or even possible.
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.
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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