Margaret Tries to Make (almost) Anything | 2020

Margaret Sullivan | Undergraduate
Mechanical Engineering | MIT

Week 05 - Molding and Casting

Assignment

Design Mold, mill it, and use it Galapagos Topography

This week is all about molding and casting. Using the small shop bot creating the object, and the usinng smooth-on 25 to create the mold. I chose to fill with plaster (drystone). This week I really wanted to play around with the limitations of this process so I decided to make something that is subtle and detailed. I chose the topological map of the Galapgos Islands. I am quite familiar with this map as I conducted research there. A large part of my job was identifying hotspots from topological maps. See below for how the project turned out.

Topological Map on Fusion

The mold filled with plaster

The final result

The results were pretty good. I think the accuracy and overall shape is good, but i think I would more dramatically show the z axis/ elevation change. Addtionaly, I felt that the process went smoothley and the bubbles in the plaster were minimal.