Exactly. And not to be a super-anal nerd about it, but the term "vacuform" actually refers to pulling a flat sheet of heated plastic down over some molds on a table, and sucking out the air underneath to "form" the sheet around those shapes. That's how the form-fitting clear plastic trays boxed toys come in nowadays are made. I first heard of throwing molten plastic in a "pressure pot" for the purposes of removing trapped gas from servbot30's resin-casting thread on TBDX...which Rand continued here on Monster Kolor. Clever shit. Now, I get why rotocasting produces inconsistent wall thickness (because the centrifugal force isn't the same at different distances from the axis of rotation), but I still don't understand why rotocast vinyl toys have a microscopically-porous, matte surface finish (even if the mold is super-glossy), while slush-cast toys retain the precise finish of the mold (glossy or otherwise)...
MonstreHero did a good tutorial on casting with pressure pots in the rompers room. http://www.skullbrain.org/bb/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=2962
i agree, i appreciate everything i have so much more after checking all the links out! the m1go one had me going WHOA! i thought rotocasting was done in a machine? im sure sometimes it is, but it seemed he was trying to explain it like just shake that I FART A LOT around to get the vinyl on the mold haha
looks like one of Mark's videos got picked up by CNNGo... http://www.cnngo.com/tokyo/shop/how-make-japanese-vinyl-toy-039410
I still don't understand why rotocast vinyl toys have a microscopically-porous, matte surface finish (even if the mold is super-glossy), while slush-cast toys retain the precise finish of the mold (glossy or otherwise)...[/quote] I asked this question to one of my engineers and I'm pretty sure it's something to do with the spin speeds. You are right about the tooling, the more polished the mould is..the glossier the finish. I'll ask him again next time i see him, if anyone is interested I will be happy to document the process of Chinese small run production next time I'm there. There is an amazing factory of twenty craftsmen that have their ish down tight that did the Sarumon sculpt that I use a lot in Shenzhen.
But seriously, these manufacturing videos are great. I also enjoyed the paint masking photo spread posted by HBCoffin.
The sculpt was done in China, I will check if the manufacturing was done there. I know for certain that this factory is known to import raw plastic from Japan for clients but I could not tell you for what products I'm afraid. I am over in China next month so I will ask a bunch of questions, take some photos and report back, the in house sculptor is off the chain! On a kind of related subject, there is a model making company up the road from where I live that made a slush moulding machine for around £1500.00. They are still working the kinks out but it's a really impressive project. The guys who make this stuff never fail to amaze me.
Aren't they all saying no one wants to take over the business? I wonder what part of it is because kids want to stay healthy...
