How to make white lenses for the V and Xtra Raptors

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Spyke
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How to make white lenses for the V and Xtra Raptors

Post by Spyke »

Sorry it's taken me so long to get started on this how-to, who knew that being unemployed could keep me so busy! Anyway the whole thing took me at least 5 weeks, start to finish, as I had never worked with silicone moulds or resin before and made loads of rookie mistakes, but I'll try and write it up more quickly than that!

The first step is to watch this video on two-part mould-making, and think, "Hey, that looks really easy".
[youtube][/youtube]

Then go shopping for materials - you'll need 2kg of "RTV silicone" (Room Temperature Vulcanising, which means it'll solidify when you mix the parts together), some mould release agent, some water clear resin, some modelling clay, and some acorn/dome nuts.
Ingredients.jpg
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You can buy clear resin and RTV silicone on fleabay, or at some places that supply fibreglass materials - I had no luck Googling "mould making" supplies, but "fibreglass" and my home town gave me a few options. I chose a translucent silicone in the hope that I'd be able to see what was going on in the mould, and while it did make it easier to remove the original parts from the mould it was no help when making the replacement parts as they are not orange.
Last edited by Spyke on |September 13th, 2015|, 1:02 pm, edited 5 times in total.
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Decide on a parting line and make your moulds

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The next step is to decide exactly how you're going to make your moulds of the originals, where the "parting line" of your 2 part moulds will be. The parting line does not have to be a straight line, as you can scoop out or build up the clay in your mould box, to wherever it suits you best. I decided that for the cleanest faces for the parts it would probably be easiest to have the parting line straight along the edges of the original lenses, this means the only complicated features I needed to worry about are the "screw hole" and the "retaining v" shown here:
Tricky bits.jpg
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There is another small lip on one of the edges of each lens, but if you're careful when you're embedding it in clay you can make sure it's not an "undercut". There's a good description of undercuts, and why they're to be avoided at http://spyglassasylum.blogspot.com.au/2 ... y-are.html, but in our case the retaining v is a small undercut but luckily the silicone, when cured, is flexible enough to mean that the original part can be removed from the mould without damaging either the part or the mould itself. To be on the safe side it seemed best to make the smaller leg of the v (i.e. the outer lip) the undercut, rather than the longer leg (i.e. the inner lip), so that the parting line splits the "inside" of the lens from the "outside plus lip" side. In the pic below you can kinda see that the smaller lip of the v is embedded, and the larger lip of the v is sitting on the surface of the clay so that the parting line can run around it.

That only leaves the screw hole to worry about. I considered "blanking off" the screw hole in the original part when making the mould, but that would mean there was some fiddly drilling and threading to be done at the end of the process - and I didn't feel confident about doing that. I also considered buying some "threaded inserts" and inserting them at an appropriate time, but that seemed excessively complex. In the end I decided to have a go at making moulds that would hold an appropriate screw, so that when the resin was poured into the mould the resin would actually thread itself, by setting around the screw, and this worked a treat! This method does mean that you must be able to remove the screw from the "mould plus moulded part" combo when the resin has cured, so I had to work out a way to stop the screw from being completely encased in silicone. Luckily a straw from McDonalds and a wee dod of hot glue made a good protector for the screw head. You can hopefully see in this picture that the straw has been trimmed so that the silicone will not completely encase the screw head when poured.
Mould box.jpg
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My mould box was made out of bits from a drawer that was being thrown out, trimmed to a more appropriate size, and glued together with a hot glue gun. Ignore the bits of wire that I was trying to make chimneys with, that route didn't turn out well!

Make sure you have a couple of hours to do the embedding part, it's remarkably fiddly and of course your pattern part will only be as good as your mould is, so don't be tempted to rush this phase.

I used half a kilo of silicone for each part of the two part moulds, unfortunately this was a bit fiddly as the stuff I bought meant you had to weigh 10 parts of A and 1 part of B, but there are simpler mixes available where you just mix equal quantities of A and B, I'd probably try and get that stuff if I had to do it again.

Don't forget to embed the acorn/dome nuts into the clay as per the video, as these help to ensure the finished mould holds tightly together in all the right places, and doesn't slide around. The nuts/marbles/whatevers should be embedded close to, but not touching, the original parts so that the two mould parts will lock together nicely.

Making the two parts of the moulds is then just like it's shown in the video - my RTV silicone took 24 hours to cure though, and I left it for another day just to be on the safe side, as it was still winter and "room temperature" was lower than normal. I also took a break over the weekends as I needed the OEM lenses to be re-installed on the bike so I could go out to play! :revrev:
Last edited by Spyke on |December 5th, 2013|, 4:43 pm, edited 9 times in total.
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Make air channels in your moulds to allow the air to escape

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I found out the hard way that as you pour your resin into the finished 2 part mould you need to have left a way for air to escape from the mould, but a metal ruler and a craft knife meant I could just cut some small channels into the cured mould, to link the resin chamber with the outside world and release the air. You could probably also do this to cut the "sprue" (mould-filling hole) into the mould as well, but my sprue was built into the mould by rolling a dollop of plasticine into a vaguely funnel-shaped bit, and sticking that into the mould at the pointy bit that I had determined would be the "top". (This turned out to be a much neater solution to the trapped air problem than my previous attempts to glue cotton bud sticks to the original part for breathing holes, shown in the pic further up.)

Here you can vaguely see the channels I cut to let the air out, and the sprue, in the finished mould. I'll try and get a better pic tomorrow in the daylight.
Features.jpg
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Something that's worth noting in this pic is the feature to the bottom right, this is the recess that contains the screw that is inserted from the outside of the mould. By having this feature at the "bottom" of the mould during the casting process you can make sure that air will not be trapped in this area - any air around the screw should simply rise to the top of the recess, then to the top of the mould and work it's way out before curing is complete. It's a bit hard to explain, but if you think about how the resin will flow downwards into this recess you will see that there is no undercut to trap air and cause your casting to be missing a vital section.

It's also worth noting at this point that the retaining v part of the mould will also be towards the bottom of the mould when casting, but it might still be possible to trap air in part of the v if either of its lips have a slight upward tilt (i.e. if the v has any sort of undercut). My priority was to ensure the screw hole would be pointing the right way though, and I managed to avoid trapping any air in the retaining v by tilting the mould towards the retaining v for the first part of the pour, then returning the mould to horizontal and completing the pour.

I'll try and post some better pics tomorrow, and cover the casting and finishing processes, as well as my rookie mistakes.
Last edited by Spyke on |August 21st, 2014|, 11:41 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: How to make clear (white) lenses for the V and Xtra Rapt

Post by shebee »

Nice bit of homework there... Thanks for sharing xx



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Getting the amber back in your indicators

Post by Spyke »

You're very welcome shebee.

You will of course need some amber bulbs/globes now, I bought a pair of orange/amber BA15S that had 27 SMD5050 chips on them, these are plenty bright enough.
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And if you are installing LEDs for the first time you'll need to do something to compensate for their lower current draw, you can either add resistors to the circuit, or change over your flasher relay. Adding resistors to the circuit is the less preferable solution, IMHO, as this means you'll have hot resistors somewhere, which could feasibly cause problems for your ECM. Once again fleabay is your friend here as you can get a replacement flasher can with integrated resistors for less than AU$1.50, e.g. http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/221723946951.
Last edited by Spyke on |April 1st, 2015|, 11:50 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: How to make clear (white) lenses for the V and Xtra Rapt

Post by Spyke »

Well after SEVERAL months of R&D I *think* I've finalised the manufacturing process - hurrah!

I had many, many, many difficulties finding an appropriate "mould release agent" - there's waxy ones that end up leaving a horrid waxy coating embedded into the lenses, and there are PVA ones that you allegedly spray onto a mould, but all that did for me was leave horrid spots on the lenses where the PVA had accumulated into droplets and dried.

The big problem is the section around the embedded screw - the screw-hole grabs the screw. If you don't let the poured part sit long enough it distorts as you remove it from the mould. BUT if you lightly coat the screw and screw hole with vaseline you can get it Just Right. (I think!)
:tada:

Pictures to follow, when I get organised!
Last edited by Spyke on |April 1st, 2015|, 7:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: How to make clear (white) lenses for the V and Xtra Rapt

Post by Spyke »

When you have built your moulds and are ready to fill them you need to insert the retaining screws from the outside of the mould, lube the screws and holes with vaseline, then clamp the mould halves together. I found the best way to ensure no trapped air bubbles was to start the pour with the the retaining Vs downwards, and the screw parts upwards, propping up the screw ends to start with. In this pic you can see a red oval marking where the screw has been inserted from the outside of the mould.
Pour.jpg
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I found that 30ml each of parts A and B Barnes Easycast Clear was enough to fill the moulds and leave a small dribble to allow you to test the curing of the mix. Mixing the two parts in a round-bottomed container seemed to reduce the inclusion of air bubbles in the mix, and tapping the mix container for a minute or two after mixing encourages the bubbles to rise and pop at the surface.

I found that you need to give the mix plenty of time to slide down inside the mould, it's a bit treacly so doesn't flow quickly, adding a teaspoon at a time and letting that settle worked best. With the screw end propped up each mould takes about 6 teaspoons of mix, and then the prop is removed and a final teaspoon is added. For my mould and funnel combo I could see that the mix starts to show around where the funnel is inserted as a warning that it's getting full. Air will slowly escape from your air channels and this level will lower slightly, so top up if necessary.

Once your happy that your moulds are full, pour the rest of the mix into a suitable small container, so you can poke it to see how the curing is progressing, without mucking up your actual parts. Don't touch it for at least 12 hours, and after about 24 hours it will have solidified although it's still a little flexible if you try to bend it - this is the time to "crack" the screws and ensure they will release easily from the mould - carefully unscrew them a quarter of a turn, then screw them back in that quarter of a turn. After a week the lenses should have cured fully and this is the time you can remove the screws, and then the mould clamps, and finally split the mould and remove your parts. Once you have the parts out you can trim the excess resin from the air holes and the sprue with a craft knife, junior hacksaw, and files etc.
Last edited by Spyke on |May 17th, 2015|, 11:28 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: How to make clear (white) lenses for the V and Xtra Rapt

Post by ozzraptor »

wow you have got some patience. Great work, how many hours does it take you to do one set ? Can i put an order in for a set ,they look much nicer than the orange. Also if you use those led globes for the flashers, do you need any mods to the relay or are they just plug'n'play :happyhappy:
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Re: How to make clear (white) lenses for the V and Xtra Rapt

Post by Spyke »

Now that I *think* I've nailed the pour process I can make about a pair per week - I still need to saw bits off and file bits down and fit them up to the bike to make sure they fit OK. Not sure how much time that actually takes, I'll post again in here soonish. Yeah I've got you and Miz down as the first folks to try them out.

Yes see earlier in the thread for bulb/globe and relay info, 2-pin relays are cheap as chips, but good quality LED amber/orange bulbs/globes are still not really cheap, my research into LEDs showed that the ones with multiple 5050 chips were meant to be better than the ones with the smaller chips as each 5050 LED chip actually has a number of light sources within it. I think the ones I ended up buying were something like 27 LED chips on each bulb/globe, there are others with even more chips but 27 seems to be plenty bright enough, the more chips the more it sticks out of the socket and the 27s fit nicely so I'm happy with them. It does seem that you don't want to buy just any old 5050s so I went for a seller that promised to sell good quality stuff rather than just going for my usual tight-arse budget options.
Last edited by Spyke on |April 1st, 2015|, 7:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: How to make clear (white) lenses for the V and Xtra Rapt

Post by shedmonkey »

wow awesome :nod:
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Re: How to make clear (white) lenses for the V and Xtra Rapt

Post by Miz »

Looking forward to a bit of testing.

Well done on getting them to this stage.
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Re: How to make clear (white) lenses for the V and Xtra Rapt

Post by ozzraptor »

Miz wrote:55 years agoLooking forward to a bit of testing.

Well done on getting them to this stage.
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Re: How to make white lenses for the V and Xtra Raptors

Post by Spyke »

I'm still patting myself on the back about these, please forgive me!
But this thread needs BEFORE & AFTER shots so here ya go.
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Re: How to make white lenses for the V and Xtra Raptors

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