Can You Make Resin Tools?!

In the time honored tradition of Peter answering the questions that no one has ever cared to ask, “Can you make resin tools?” 

Using this wide arsenal of actual tools at his disposal, can Peter successfully mold, cast and produce actual functional tools? We are about to drill down and find out.

The first step in this exploration of the inane was to decide on what to make. He settled on a drill bit, some screws and a hammer and some nails. If he cannot get these to work, what hope would remain for anything else?

He gathered up a thin plastic water bottle to use as his drill bit mold.

With a healthy glob of hot glue to secure and seal the bottle to its base, it was time to pour some silicone. For this job, Peter used some Platinum Silicone from Tap Plastics.

After mixing the gloop, he continued to pour it down into the bottle, completely submerging the metal drill bit. Once cured, Peter used a stream of compressed air to easily extract the bit from its mold.

It was then time to get to work on the hammer mold. Luckily for him, he already made one for the Every Book is a Hammer project video.  After a bit of trimming, it easily fit into the pressure pot along with the potential screw and nail castings.

When sufficient time passed for all poured resin to cure, it was time for the big reveal. Visually, they were a great success overall!

The castings picked up every little detail from the original, including the texture of the plywood hammer.

The true question was, can they pick up the sharpness and actually do some work? Peter was determined to find out!

Let me save you the trouble…

No. They cannot.

Except for the hammer, they were all complete disasters. Any use case that required a tool to hold an edge or remain thin and strong seemed to crumble under the pressure.

Peter was so preoccupied with whether he could, he didn’t stop to think if he should…

Is this the end of the idea or just the start of another? Stay tuned to find out!