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Despite the jokes, I'll never switch from wooden to plastic patterns
I get weird looks when I pull out my old wooden patterns for castings. Last week, a new guy said plastic is the future and laughed at me. But these wood patterns have given me cleaner molds for decades. They don't warp as fast in the heat, and I can fix them on the spot. Maybe I'm just set in my ways, but it works for me.
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adam_robinson7mo ago
In the workshop I trained at, we had wooden patterns from the 80s that still made perfect casts. Plastic warps so bad in the summer heat, it's not even funny. I fixed a chipped edge on my favorite pattern with just some glue and sawdust last week. The grain in wood absorbs vibration better during molding, too. Tbh, people who laugh at wood just haven't worked with good ones long enough.
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nora3117mo ago
Read this wild article about a foundry that still uses the original wooden patterns from a 1900s cathedral restoration. They said the wood holds details plastic just can't, something about the fibers locking together over time. The guy writing it claimed those same patterns have been used for a hundred years of castings and still look new with a little care. Makes you wonder why we switched to plastic for everything when the old way works better for some jobs. That story totally lines up with your point about wood just lasting if you treat it right.
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jessica_bailey7mo ago
Plastic's fine for most stuff though, right? Sounds like you're making a mountain out of a molehill.
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