Duplicating Carvings & Gothic Panels

Mark, do you need a contractors license to do what you do? I would assume so, but assumming makes an ass of you and me. By the by again, don’t worry about it, you got the talent and the time. Let his hand be your guide. mike

-- Mike. Profisher50@yahoo.com

Nope, no contractor’s license is needed. I am pretty picky about what I take on to build, and keeping away from residential and commercial property remodeling is pretty high on my “don’ts” list. I had a contractor’s residential license one time in Wichita when I used to do remodeling in between furniture jobs. In those days, I even had to have permits pulled to put up a privacy fence, and so now I try to say no to remodeling. Additionally, I live in sort of a “throw-back” style county, as there are no inspections, no permits, no anything needed in my county to build or remodel. There are some local city rules, but not in the county, so the issue doesn’t come up around here. Also, I try to only do jobs that I can build in my shop, so that I don’t have to haul tools around, or work at a job site. That work does seem to pay better, and has a better market for work, but it isn’t what I enjoy doing the most.

-- Mark DeCou - Kansas Flint Hill's Artisan

Good luck with the casting. That sounds very interesting.

-- http://www.woodsongsfurniture.com

Mark,

You may have the information you need by now, but here goes anyway.

I have replicated moldings and column capitols in a couple of different ways, including carving them straight out (for simple things) casting them in fiberglass/resin, casting them in plaster, and casting them in very hard plaster and then copying them with a carving duplicator. All of the methods take time, but for complicated parts, I think that casting in plaster is the most efficient.

You need to make a mold of the model, which can be a challenge by itself. Here are the basics (or at least how I’ve done it). You need to have one of whatever you are planning to copy available to take with you. Making the mold “on-site” would be difficult (but not impossible, I’m sure). The mold-making process involves a flexible inner mold to capture the detail, and an outer mold, or “mother mold” to keep the flexible inner mold in the correct shape during the casting.

I prefer silicone to urethane for the inner mold. It’s much easier to work with, but more expensive. The outer mold can be made out of plaster. For a casting of something that’s going to stay indoors, plain plaster with hemp fiber reinforcement is sufficient and much easier and less toxic than resin/fiberglass. Outdoors, you either need to use a “polymer modified” plaster or, what some decorative casting companies do is to thoroughly seal the plaster part with linseed.

It can be an undertaking, to be sure. Getting a casting book would be a good idea. And making the mold is not exactly cheap, especially if you go the silicone route. If there is a scupture supply company in your area, they can probably help you get going.

Good luck.

-- -- Christensen.Charpentier@gmail.com

Hey folks:
I am finished with this project now. I blogged the completion today at:
http://lumberjocks.com/jocks/decoustudio/blog/962

-- Mark DeCou - Kansas Flint Hill's Artisan