Holy Crap!

[palmer6strings]

I suppose you could try it however you want... I'm not trying to say you can't do it your way. Just sounds more difficult to me lol.

[wiggy]

Would it be too hard to make Xbox 360 style buttons with embedded letters?

Way more work than I'd want to put into it. WAY more.

I was thinking like pouring tiny bit of resin then embedding the letter and then filling the mold.

Wouldn't that work?

Where would I get the letters from?  I'd still be stuck makin a 2nd set of molds to create the letters, which puts me right back into the "giant waste of time" zone.

Do you mean like taking a letter cutout and sticking it in clear resin? Then sticking the mold together to lets it dry?

If that's what you mean then I would just say no because you would have a high chance of the letter migrating when you put the mold together and it drying sideways/crooked/upside down/etc...

Basicly yes, but I was thinking even simpler hand casting that only uses one mold.

Pour bit of clear resin, let it set a bit, then carefully using tweezers embed the letter in correct position, then continue pouring colored resin carefully using needle and syringe.

If I looked at the Wiggy's buttons correctly the look solid so no need for other side mold, right?

Everything that Palmer said and illustrated is spot on. No way to do it with one mold. In fact, Palmer's method is a lot simpler and would require fewer molds that your method.  The Molds are 2-sided. The buttons have indents and whatnot on the bottom that need to be present for the button to work correctly. I fill in the cavities just because A) they aren't needed and only served to save material, and B) if I'm going to make clear buttons, then they look far better without the empty cavities

This is what I would need to do in order to make 360 style SNES buttons:

• CAD model the lower half of each button (the white part with the embossed letters).
• Have high resolution prototypes produced (my printer will NOT print these at a usable resolution).
• Make molds from said prototypes (2-piece).
• Make a 3rd half mold for the over casting (the colored bit that would finish of the part).


On top of that, the likelihood of me pulling a good, full set from those molds would be quite slim. It's really tough to get 100% air bubble free parts when casting, especially on this scale. About 15-20% of the parts I cast end up in the trash for this reason. The smallest bubble can ruin an entire part. Not to mention that I'm back to mixing 5+ colors to make a single set.  No thanks.

[Arseen]

Where would I get the letters from?  I'd still be stuck makin a 2nd set of molds to create the letters, which puts me right back into the "giant waste of time" zone.

Would letter printed on clear plastic film work instead?

[Arseen]

On top of that, the likelihood of me pulling a good, full set from those molds would be quite slim. It's really tough to get 100% air bubble free parts when casting, especially on this scale. About 15-20% of the parts I cast end up in the trash for this reason. The smallest bubble can ruin an entire part. Not to mention that I'm back to mixing 5+ colors to make a single set.  No thanks.

Would running the resin slowly thru syringe lessen the likeliy hood of bubbles?

[palmer6strings]

Where would I get the letters from?  I'd still be stuck makin a 2nd set of molds to create the letters, which puts me right back into the "giant waste of time" zone.

Would letter printed on clear plastic film work instead?

Actually if you want to go that far, you could just get water slide paper, print out your letters, then put it on the buttons yourself. It wouldn't last forever, but you would get close to the same effect.

[Arseen]

Where would I get the letters from?  I'd still be stuck makin a 2nd set of molds to create the letters, which puts me right back into the "giant waste of time" zone.

Would letter printed on clear plastic film work instead?

Actually if you want to go that far, you could just get water slide paper, print out your letters, then put it on the buttons yourself. It wouldn't last forever, but you would get close to the same effect.

Not bad idea, but then the letter would be on top of the button, not inside it, right?

[palmer6strings]

Correct.

[wiggy]

Would letter printed on clear plastic film work instead?

I guess, but it would be really hard to align and I just don't feel like it would produce a good result

Where would I get the letters from?  I'd still be stuck makin a 2nd set of molds to create the letters, which puts me right back into the "giant waste of time" zone.

Would letter printed on clear plastic film work instead?

Actually if you want to go that far, you could just get water slide paper, print out your letters, then put it on the buttons yourself. It wouldn't last forever, but you would get close to the same effect.

Clear coat em afterward and it should last a good long time

On top of that, the likelihood of me pulling a good, full set from those molds would be quite slim. It's really tough to get 100% air bubble free parts when casting, especially on this scale. About 15-20% of the parts I cast end up in the trash for this reason. The smallest bubble can ruin an entire part. Not to mention that I'm back to mixing 5+ colors to make a single set.  No thanks.

Would running the resin slowly thru syringe lessen the likeliy hood of bubbles?

You've never read my casting FAQ on the blog, have you?

That's exactly what I do. In fact, it's about the only way to ensure that the resin flows into some if the tighter spots like the pivot posts on the back of Dpads.   "Casting" and "perfect" aren't words that typically share a sentence.  It's a fine art rather than an exact science.  If the parts were larger and opaque, then a little spot putty or some body filler will fix the imperfections. The problem is that I can fill pits if I'm not going to paint the parts, and since the parts are so small, a bubble can eliminate an entire functional part such as one of the little arms that keep the button in place. I cannot repair something like that. And even if I could and was willing to, the amount of work required would completely negate any money I would have made. 

I've worked for quite some time on a proces that provides parts who's tolerances are extremely close to the original part, require little post de-mold cleanup (another reality of casting), and allows me to pour quickly without a large amount of poking around in the mold to ensure that all the cavities have been filled. The problem is that it's always going to be laborious and time consuming to cast parts and all the time required to perfect a process that would produce a 2-color part like that would be considerable.  Not to mention that the stuff I make the molds with ain't at all cheap.

[Arseen]

K

[wiggy]

Wiggy mini-SNES will finally have a matching controller

[wiggy]

And just so nobody else can, reply number 1000

[gam3rz3r0]

I dig the the SNES controller. It looks excellent!

[wiggy]

Thanks!   I've got one more thing to do with it before it's done...

[gam3rz3r0]

I'll be waiting eagerly.

[ElysianRsa]

+1 for the eagerly waiting part for the snes controller and the Snes shell that you were working long ago