DIY Roto-molding machine

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This is an at-home roto-molding machine I whipped up in about 3 hours one night.

To build one like it you will need:

-About 20 dollars worth of Fisher Price Construx from ebay
-A drill (DeWalt's fit nicely, but anything should work)
-A few wood screws to hold down the Construx
-A piece of scrap wood

For my casting material I like using Alumilite and Polytek resins, they are both REALLY easy to work with and fairly cheap. Any RTV resin should work well as long as it has a short set time.

Channel: People & Blogs
Uploaded: June 26, 2007 at 3:53 am
Author: noenflux

Length: 00:05:36
Rating: 3.62
Views: 49189

Tags: DIY rotomolding casting spin slip

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Video Comments:
speedster1fast1 (October 11, 2008 at 1:30 pm)
video juice ran out?
give me a break, he just didnt want us to see his failed roto-mold process.
but i will admit, it looks like it would work.
csven (June 28, 2008 at 8:23 am)
Good point. I doubt this could handle the heat necessary to melt resin pellets. Seems an erector set is required.
csven (June 28, 2008 at 8:02 am)
Rotomolding is most often associated with really big plastic playground toys (Little Tikes and Step 2 come to mind), for some large car interior pieces, and for urban vinyl toys. There are a number of practical advantages (e.g. molds are relatively simple) and monetary advantages (e.g. it's a comparatively low-cost investment process).
romansura (May 28, 2008 at 12:02 am)
why reinvent the wheel. so whats the NEW part?
Treknologist (May 14, 2008 at 12:09 am)
Another ingenious use for construx. How do you set up the gears & pulleys to get the inner ring to rotate?
scud180 (March 11, 2008 at 5:01 am)
Ingenius idea to use construx to build it.
Only problem with Roto-moulding is it dosn't work so well for complex shapes, as some surfaces wont have as much material flowing over them, and you end up with thin spots.
Works great for simple shapes though.
In my old job, we used this proccess for makeing plastic water tanks, although we used plastic powder and heated it to 180c during rotation.
lammyjammy (February 13, 2008 at 5:55 pm)
Yes, construx. The amazing building set that should not have been discontinued in the 80's.
vincent1230909 (January 31, 2008 at 2:00 pm)
Whats that for??
NickBlackDIN (January 25, 2008 at 3:26 pm)
makes it hollow inside (lighter, less mateial, and no injetion flanges)
BRUTUALTRUTH (January 19, 2008 at 2:20 pm)
Ignore the ignorant remarks. This type of machine is good so that the mold is covered fully inside and no air bubbles occur. Well done and thanks for posting.