Bacterial cellulose may be an interesting material to use. It absorbs additives such as silicone very easily and it can easily be made at home. All you need to do is to culture your own kambucha.

>>2959 That's a good point anon. Anything we need to be biodegradable in particular would be a good candidate for this process, I think.

Could we make the skeleton out of mycelium or some mycelium composite? I hear it is pretty strong and very light. We would also be able to grow it into what ever shape we wanted.

>>3058 That's a very interesting idea Anon. Even if it couldn't replace a more readily-available construction stock entirely, it might be a great part of some type of composite. Such as the cores of struts or structural frames, for example. You mind digging around for more information on the current research into this notion and then sharing it here with all of us Anon?

How to make mycelium brick https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6nurN-Hii8 Physical properties https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/1/281/pdf https://imechanica.org/files/MyceliumComposite_AuthorCopy.pdf Apparently it can be made more flexible and soft too. Here are some instructions on how to make it into a leather like substance. https://biofabforum.org/t/method-of-making-mycelium-leather/218 It could potentially be made into a fabric or foam like substance as well. If we play around with it maybe we could replace the need for silicon. This stuff has antimicrobial properties and it is waterproof.

The properties of our waifu will depend on the species of fungus used. Here are the ones being used in industry right now. Trametes ochracea Schizophyllum commune Ganoderma lucidum pleurotus ostreatus Irpex lacteus Ganoderma oregonense Piptoporus betulinus

>>3063 >>3064 Just the the kind of info we need, thanks.

>>3066 Oh did I mention how easy it is to repair? Just take a live piece of mycelium and it will grow to the rest of the body. Heat up the area and kill it then you are good to go.

>>3068 That sounds remarkable, Anon. In engineering there are always trade-offs. Can you spell them out for us concerning this material, as you see it for the moment?

>>3071 Maintaining a store of living material that needs to be fed and watered and so on sounds like it'd be pretty significant.

>>3073 Yep, for sure that. I rather meant it the sense of structural/mechanical engineering aspects, actually. For example, I'd imagine that humidity in any form would significantly degrade the material--much moreso than a likened metal part would.

I mean it isn't as strong as metal, but if we aren't using silicone then we don't need it to be. Now humidity can be a problem but that can be solved by rubbing wood tar on the mycelium.

>>3100 >by rubbing wood tar on the mycelium. very interesting idea. Care to elaborate on that process here for all us uninitiates, Anon?

The most costly part of making robowaifus seems to be manufacturing parts. Your options are either really far-removes materials with limited functionality like fabric, or more complex stuff that requires equipment so expensive you have to ask for a quote and say what company you belong to. Maybe machines that assemble themselves(synthetic biology) will be both complex and inexpensive? The knowledge barrier is higher though. Just putting this idea out there.

>>3111 >The most costly part of making robowaifus seems to be manufacturing parts. I get your point, but from my alternate perspective, the most costly part is the part we're all doing now--namely spending the time needed to get over the learning curve of what's already out there and applicable here, inventing what's needed to fill in the gaps. We have to walk the fine line between exceptionally expensive approaches in the luxury car, even supercar price ranges on the one hand, and cheap Chinese toy knockoffs on the other. There simply don't exist any easily-reproducible robowaifus in the ~$2K price range yet. >Your options are either really far-removes materials with limited functionality like fabric, or more complex stuff that requires equipment so expensive you have to ask for a quote and say what company you belong to. We will need to change this ofc. Help us figure it all out? >Maybe machines that assemble themselves(synthetic biology) will be both complex and inexpensive? The knowledge barrier is higher though. I can't speak to that from experience can anyone yet? but I admit I basically rather skeptical this will be achievable in a reasonably-near time-frame. More traditional robotics approaches and systems exist today however. >Just putting this idea out there. It's good stuff Anon, much appreciated.

>>3112 I was thinking about the nervous system and how you could make something that can detect cold, heat, pain and pressure. A 3-d printer capable of printing something on the same scale as the smallest nerves is at least $2000. I found an article on artifical nerves that resemble circuits, but to produce them they needed a spin-coater among other things. A lower budget one is around $400 dollars and who knows if it's good enough for that. The human body doesn't need large pieces of machinery to make its tiny parts and fit them together. What's your time-frame? 20 years sounds pretty good to me.

>>3113 >A 3-d printer capable of printing something on the same scale as the smallest nerves is at least $2000. That type of setup is for Anons who are creating a small factory setup to create the $US 2K kits. I should have delineated the targeting better. Good manufacturing equipment will cost money ofc, such as foundries, CNC milling, pro-grade printing etc., but those are all just line-of-business costs for the entrepreneurs among us. The everyman will simply follow our guides and we'll have tier-level kits he can use to get himself over the hump in creating his own robowaifu in the privacy of his own home.

After the mycelium is done drying you rub a little bit of wood tar (preferably pine or birch tar) and it acts as a protective layer to prevent moister from getting in. It also makes the mycelium even MORE resistant to microbes.

>>3105 >>3117 thanks anon, that sounds like a good idea. any recommendations where to pick up the wood tar?

>>3118 You can make it yourself through the destructive distillation of wood or you can buy it at a farm supply/feed store. Some hardware stores carry it too.

>>3071 Oh another draw back I forgot to mention is that it takes about 1 and 1/2 to 4 weeks to grow depending on the species of mushroom and nutrient used.

>>3121 >>3122 Sounds good, thanks for the info Anon.

Areas where materials choice seems to matter most is in structure and detailing, right? The muscles, computation, power, and cooling should be taken into account, but overall the materials used will determine structure, frame, and detailing as well as texture and feel. For the frame, the material would need to be light and strong, as well as cheap. I'm partial to endoskeletons as I find exoskeletons to be somewhat unnatural and not human enough for my tastes, but to each their own. Metal would be either too heavy or too expensive, wood would be too heavy and not strong enough, and while artificial bone does exist I imagine it is difficult to acquire or at least expensive. Personally, I believe that polyester resin with netted glass fiber would be the better option. It is stronger and lighter than bone, and can be casted. If we are basing the general frame of the robot on the human skeletal system, the entire skeleton would still cost about $80-100 which is somewhat high, but not prohibitively high. Fungus is a cheaper but more labor intensive option and I have doubts as to whether it has the strength required. From some limited research, mycelium seems to have extremely low tensile and compression strengths. This isn't to say that it wouldn't be a good material for non-structural components, just that it would make for a very poor frame. I could be wrong and my sources outdated, and I hope this is the case, but for the time being it seems as if fungus may only be good for more cartilaginous areas. I think it is important to keep in mind that most animals are sacks of organs and muscles and bones, and our robot could be as well. hydraulic or pneumatic muscles put on a skeletal frame would make up the bulk of the overall form and could also account for the softer feel that a human has while maintaining function. I don't think that there are many parts of this synthetic form that really require padding besides the organs (computation, battery, and coolant) and more aesthetic details such as the face and maybe hands. Mycelium may prove useful in this regards due to its price, but given the range of more fleshy silicone it may be unnecessary.

>>4224 If we hold to the idea that the skeletal frame is internal and the general form being determined mainly by the artificial muscles, then the only other thing to consider is the skin. It would be nice to be able to use the skin to vent heat from the internals as part of the coolant system, but it isn't a requirement. Skin is a difficult material to pin down. The most obvious is silicone, but that could be quite expensive. One option is to limit skin to sections that are likely to be seen or felt, and having the rest covered in a wire mesh or cheaper soft plastic. Any ideas?

>>4224 >I'm partial to endoskeletons as I find exoskeletons to be somewhat unnatural and not human enough for my tastes, but to each their own. <not loving toasters smh fam /clang/ would like a word with you. >If we are basing the general frame of the robot on the human skeletal system, the entire skeleton would still cost about $80-100 which is somewhat high, but not prohibitively high. IMO, if we can devise an effective, durable, and strong skeleton for a full-sized (145cm+) robowaifu at that price, we should count our many blessings Anon. It would be a veritable bargain. >and more aesthetic details such as the face and maybe hands. all the sexually-interesting parts need to be soft-ish, and the pelvic structure needs to be able to stand up to a pounding w/o damage.

>>4225 >but it isn't a requirement. IMO it's a fundamental tbh. >Skin is a difficult material to pin down. It sure is, but thankfully there are a wide array of synthetics available to choose from. >One option is to limit skin to sections that are likely to be seen or felt, Actually I think this is a great idea. Maybe a very thin covering over the entire shell, with extra padding where it's needed. And as Anons have pointed out, openly acknowledging the robotic nature of our robowaifus can actually be an endearing trait for her. >tl;dr Don't have to cover all her robot parts up with 'skin'.

>>4240 >Don't have to cover all her robot parts up with 'skin'. Perfect.

>>4257 Yep, that's the idea Anon.

>>4240 >>4257 You know it occurs to me (just to extend this discussion of heat transfer through the skin) that if you design certain areas with a kind of 'soft-but-mostly-rigid' mesh that air can literally pass directly through (kind of like it appears the ex machina robowaifu has) then internal air-cooling can be higher speed out through those meshes, whether it's purely-passive or active cooling. Maybe on the scalp under her wighair, and the upper chest/clavicle/back areas (since heat rises and she'd be upright most of the time)?

>>4261 Also, I guess you'd need the corollary air intakes lower down to get a 'flue effect'. Maybe on the outside thighs, and sides/lower back?

>>4262 Problem with an air intake close to the ground is dust and humidity from the air and the space that an intake and potentially a filter would take. Having the air intake in the lungs would have the same filtration problem, but the it might be easier to fit. Having the coolant system draw heat to either the skin or just cooling passively as it goes through more open mesh areas would be possible on a closed loop, but might not be as effective. Temperature regulation is a tricky one.

>>4263 True. We'd want replaceable foam electrostatic dust filters directly behind the intake meshes if this design was chosen. They'd still need to be open enough to allow some passive flow through. And yeah, having serviceable lungs would be a great choice >"Hold on honey, I need to open your bewbs for a few minutes. Gambatte!" >"*looks away & blushes* A-as long as it's you, Oniichan. G-go ahead..." It would be purely active (and therefore energy-consuming) but we might be able to devise some type of bellows arrangement that would increase basic efficiency. >Temperature regulation is a tricky one. It surely is. BTW, we're quite off-topic ITT, mind continuing this in the dedicated thermal management thread Anon? >>234

>>154 >Synthetic Fabrics As a skin for areas that are less likely to be seen or felt synthetic fabrics could save on cost, as the alternative is silicone which can be quite expensive given the skin is the largest organ. Another use for synthetic fabrics is in tendons and ligaments, since the fibers are strong but can allow for some give where needed without wearing on the frame, joints, or other mechanics. Nylon in particular seems ideal.

>>4330 Both very good points. In some of my earlier designs I was using nylon ribbons as the force transfers mechanism for lighter-weight arms & legs. And this idea may still wind up proving useful. Thanks for the ideas Anon.

The skin for the premium models will also need to hold a lot of sensors. I generally want to try spandex/silicone as outer skin layer. The coloring of lovedolls is often not very good, they reflect to much from the surface. Human skin layers are quite translucent, light goes a bit into it. I hope to do something similar with silicone without or very small amount of color on top of the spandex which might be colored a bit. For sensors we will need these conductive fabrics with silver, which is quite light colored, so I'm not sure if the spandex will even be necessary.

>>4349 >Human skin layers are quite translucent, light goes a bit into it. Quite true. It's been quite a focus of realism efforts in film & vidya. It's referred to as 'Subsurface Scattering' in the industry, and you'd be surprised I'd be the amount of attention it has been given.

PVC tubes for waterlines might be very tempting to use for prototyping of skeletons or pneumatic air cylinders. Please keep the dangers in mind, only use it when necessary, and maybe ad warning stickers to any prototype using it. Here some answer I wrote in regard of a video on building a pneumatic cylinder out of pipes: >>5103 You're welcome. Just looked into it again, to make sure I didn't remember that wrong or it has been debunked. The story I remembered was a house fire where everything was extremely toxic after PVC burning as a part of it. Upside is, it doesn't easily catch fire, the downsides are if it does burn then it's extremely toxic and also even heating it up releases carcinogenous gas. So, yeah, try to avoid it, exept maybe for waterlines under cement. What the guy in the vid does, might also be okay.

Here's a tutorial for creating something similar to Sugru, some fast curing silicone rubber, called Ogoo: https://www.instructables.com/id/How-To-Make-Your-Own-Sugru-Substitute/ "an inexpensive silicone clay that is easily made. It can be used as an excellent substitute for Sugru. It can be hand molded or cast in forms. Or, it can be used as a casting silicone. It can be colored any color from white to black. It can also be made translucent to allow diffused light to shine through. It can even be painted on in thin layers. It has very good adhesive qualities and will stick to itself, glass, fabric, paper, wood, and some plastics and metals." The article goes into some comparisons beetween different silicone rubbers and the difficulties with them. This Ogoo is clear silicone caulk mixed with corn starch, which helps it to cure faster and also from the inside. This might be in particular interesting for bigger parts. But it's usefull for a lot of things, like paint and sheets. Please keep in mind that this is not food safe like the medical silicone used in professional dolls. Caulk like that often has anti-mold chemicals in it, to keep it from going moldy, which might be toxic. I also don't know how well it holds up over time. So it might be fine for prototyping or for use in parts which don't come into direct contact with human skin. Maybe putting a layer of other silicone rubber on top of it will be necessary or at least adviseable in other use cases. That aside, please follow the tutorial. This material can be hand-molded, colored, but also sanded and carved after curing. There's also a explanation for how to make sheetslayers and tubes out of that material. I found this tutorial by random chance while looking into airmuscles, so it can be used for that. It can also be made translucent and conductive by using graphite powder (Oggo-2: https://www.instructables.com/id/Make-Conductive-Rubber-Transparent-stylus-iPodiP/ ) or still be used as a silicone rubber paint, or to make conductive cloth or artificial skin (flexible circuits or conductive rubber: https://www.instructables.com/id/Conductive-Rubber-Make-Touch-Sensitive-Robot-Skin/ ) and also conductive glue. Advantages of Oogoo over Sugru: 1- Made from inexpensive and easily obtained materials. 2- Easy to work and mold into forms. 3- Will set up quickly at any thickness. 4- Can be mixed in any color. 5- translucent structures possible for lighting aplications. 6- slightly more flexible than Sugru. Advantages of Sugru: 1- Much milder fumes, can be easily used indoors. 2- Cures to a harder rubber. 3- Gives more working time. 4- Already mixed. 5- Somewhat easier to smooth. 6- Carves easier than Oogoo.

>>5154 Neat. I'm actually a much better sculptor than I am a 3D modeler. I'd like to first fashion a full-sized robowaifu default-posed statue, then 3D-scan her in and then use that scan data to begin fashioning foam molds, armature designs, etc., from. Thanks for the tip Anon!

>>4224 I'm very skeptical about the mycelium, it just sounds like another unproven idea that gets hyped because it seems like it would be good for the environment. I've grown oyster mushrooms before (pleurotus ostreatus) and while a sawdust block can maintain its shape when fully colonized it breaks apart very easily. I didn't try cooking it like in the video, but I can't imagine it making much of a difference. >>5154 this one is very interesting, maybe it can be used to make cheap and easy to mend skin by coating some elastic fabric like lycra with it

>>154 Ever look closely at cosplay EVA foamcraft? Easy to work, tough, lite weight, flexible and can be coated and sealed in many types of "skin". Better for the robo than the waifu depending on personal preference. Bet a life sized Jenny could be built like foam armor with lots of space inside for robo-gubbins.

>>6506 That's not a bad idea Anon. I've been toying around with different ideas to skin my tensegrity space frame limbs & skeleton. This may be just the ticket. Have any particular brand/source recommendations? Less expensive is better tbh.

>>6507 No expert advise but I am soon able to network with a cosplay designer for a brain picking. I'm just an armchair casual for now but I am keeping my eyes and ears open. Take soft sculpture for example. Picrelated is made from nylons, fluff and wire. Mind you it's only painted nylon and quite porous. However I have been experimenting with coating cloth in TPE rubber skin by thinning it out with xylene and painting it on (in a very ventilated area with mask). Heat gun can smooth and blend layers later. Turns out you don't need molds necessarily to work rubber skin. Hot sculpting and wet sculpting takes patience but is doable. This technique works best in modular sections at least until I have a full body paint booth. Tempted to do full skin in separate patches of different skin tones like the super soldier skin from Sea Quest.

>>6512 Thanks for the advice. I certainly would be cheaper for one-off work to just do lay-ups and not go to the expense and trouble of making molds first. Glad to hear it's feasible. Pretty nice work so far, definitely a good-looking form. Keep it up Anon.

>>6513 God I wish that was my work. That's a Lichtenfeis doll. She is a retired Henson puppet maker. Considered the master and inventor of the art form. My experiments so far belong in jars whispering "please...kill...me" for now but proves to me it can work. LOL

>>6514 Oh, haha my mistake. Still, I think /robowaifu/ eventually will be producing things that are better than that. IMO, going for the waifu look both resolves the uncanny valley issue, and produces both more interesting and more aesthetic waifus at the same time. Thanks for all the hard work Anon, we'll all get there!

>>6579 Seconded! The valley is all about casting an illusion based on expectations. Something looks picture perfect and has one flaw it you will be subconsciously repulsed. My opinion isn't to reproduce people but to create a personal accessory companion/assistant. Domestic robotics are coming. I like this community. It is focusing on a specific style ascetic that I appreciate more than a self propelled trashcan (*cough roomba or R2D2 style). An electric Geisha can serve many roles from hat rack or teddy bear to tele-presence interface or friendly home automation front end. Frankly these roles would be weird going through a lifelike reproduction as apposed to a proper robowaifu style. I might be in the minority dreaming of waifu as device and not people. But I think devices are getting complicated enough to require rights soon. Just because the critter is built don't mean you don't need to be kind to it. After all, we're all stardust, man and bot. Devices that inspired empathy could be good for humanity.

>>6507 Oh, I thought this material would already be known here. I have a sheet lying around for later experiments. I don't think you need a special brand, and there are videos on Youtube on how to handle it. I thought I posted one of those here at some time. Whatever, I think you'll need a heatgun, and I only got mine recently. I'd like to try letting silicone getting soaked into it, bc otherwise its's just like some textile. Of course you could go the other way and make it rigid like armor, but this isn't my direction. We should always being aware of other makers and collect all ideas we might be able to use for our waifus. There are also hackers building machines that can knit or weave, which also might become usefull. I also bought a thin film of silicone on AliExpress, 0.2 mm or so, for experimenting. This might work better in some cases than using some liquid silicone as paint, especially if it would also be food safe grade. >>6512 Thanks, but a term or name for the method for searching on Youtube or for papers or articles might be useful. I do have TPU for my printer, TPE is only a very general term if I recall correctly. What kind of TPE were you using? However, I also want to note that there's a reason the more expensive dolls are made out of silicone rubber, since it's very endurable and can be made even medically safe. >>6514 Holy F... that's a doll? I didn't expand the picture bc the text was about the cloths. I thought this was a human model. But yeah, the the typical crap fingers give it away, and after expanding the pic, the face also tells me "not human" and also not so great anymore.

>>6785 The term is "soft sculpture" the name of the artist is " Lisa Lichtenfeis". Forgive me if I didn't communicate clearly. The idea is to blend techniques, soft sculpting over a robotic frame then painting/ hot sculpting the skin on top. Casting a whole body at once is so crude and mass produced. We are artisans. When it comes to the "TPE" that is a good question. In all the doll forums it's always "TPE vs silicone" then they wax poetic about platinum cured etc silicones and TPE is just generalized lump. So sex doll "TPE" that is an oil based synthetic flesh matrix that can be thermal molded or chemically dissolved, painted wet, hot molded warm and cast molten. IE: been butchering 20 lbs of ass in the name of science for a while.

>>6841 Yeah, thanks I will look into her work. Obviously this is much closer to what we need to do than casting a whole doll body. My thinking for a while now is that there will be something like a upper skin layer out of Spandex/Powermesh or other textile, then putting thin silicone onto it, so it soaks in or run down. Haven't tried that though, it's just a idea so far. I also bought some very thin silicone sheet which is pressed in a machine.

>>6883 I have done exactly what you are thinking about. Skinning cloth. It works! But I use the mentioned "sex doll TPE" not silicone. Unlike silicone it can be reworked and salvaged from premade sources making it a much more versatile and cheap option. Using TPE lets you skin chunks of cloth, stitch them together and melt and blend the seams together. You can also paint as much as your work area allows like a full body. You can use it as a glue so you can combine parts into complex shapes (like eye lids or lady bits). I'm working on techniques by first sewing, then painting with xylene thinned rubber. Then once cured, using a heat gun to rework the skin using patterned rollers and sponges for skin textures . This style will work fantastic for modular body styles. Allowing a creator to make smaller individual parts that can be upgraded or swapped later. Using the cosplay foamcraft as a shape holding scaffolding for a soft sculpt-able layer that can then be skinned makes a cheap and easy way to make some (moving part accommodating) curves!

>>6889 What about the toxic fumes? TPE from dolls is toxic when heated...

>>6892 If you heat it too fast the oil will vaporize. Go slow, wear the same mask you would for epoxy. Don't put your face in oil smoke. I have a specific painting room with two fans (soon a proper hood and airbrush set up). It's the xylene fumes that require more care. It can make smoke with heat, it's not good for you but it's not a chemical plume. Just smokes like fake bacon a bit. Still wear a mask with filters. You will need the same kind of set up for silicone too. None of this is play dough.

>>6895 >You will need the same kind of set up for silicone too. None of this is play dough. Thanks for the warning. Anons should take care with safety during manufacture ofc.

https://hackaday.com/2020/11/19/circuit-boards-you-can-stretch-liquid-metal-nanomaterials-make-a-strange-flex/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallium https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indium

>>6943 This would become a real breakthrough for many areas of robowaifu design & manufacture if they can be made inexpensive and reliable. It would be an advance for many other domains too ofc. Very cool Anon, thanks.

>>6943 That's amazing. I wounder how long this stuff lasts when soaked into some textile or similar material. One problem with soft skin and soft muscles is to put sensors into them which last very long. The other electronic cold be in the bones, well protected. The sensors would need to be very resilient, but also the "cables" to transport their data to the next processor in the bones. Cables don't work very well, I bought a whole bag of earphones recently, because they only last a few weeks at maximum.

>>6943 Awesome! If this goes mainstream it could come in very handy for folding and bending circuitry to fit inside small spaces. Like the inside of a robowaifu chassis!

>>6943 >>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallium >Elemental gallium is a liquid at temperatures greater than 29.76 °C (85.57 °F), and will melt in a person's hands at normal human body temperature of 37.0 °C (98.6 °F). >used in thermometers as a non-toxic and environmentally friendly alternative to mercury >Purities of 99.9999% are routinely achieved and commercially available. >>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indium >toxic when injected into the bloodstream >rare and not relevant: Indium lung >major future increases in the by-product production of indium will be possible without significant increases in production costs or price >The average indium price in 2016 was US$240/kg, down from US$705/kg in 2014 Looks like it's low risk and low cost. Looking forward to try this out one day...

>>5106 >Plastics and risks. Maybe a nice warning label to print out as a reminder. Dangrs differ a lot, depending what plastic it is. ABS and ASA are also a bit closer to Styrene. PETG is safer than PETE and has a lower melting point, so it is used in 3D -Printing. I would still keep windows open or have a system to move te air out, or filter it. I actually collect HDPE, in case I ever try to recycle my PLA, because my this can be mixed into it.

>>9043 Thanks very much for the information Anon.

I used to work at a injection molding factory and if you are going to injection mold parts then do internal parts. Because injection molding is a expensive avenue, if you wanted to make plastic exteriors like forearma and calfs you can do it but the mold will be massive. We made plastic benches and even baby changing station and the molds are over 10 ton. They cost a family's organs to buy as well. Never mind your machine needs to be up to par to handle the mold. So you can easily spend quarter million to start even running the thing. So if you wanted to do injection molding is recomend internal parts. Our smaller molds were small components that went into other proceses like soil launchers. I recomend molding for sure but do vacuum forming and pour the parts in there. Learn from small dildo makers.

>>9211 I think I understand. Obviously any gigantic factory equipment wouldn't ever be a choice for any of us operating even small-factory operations from our garages, etc. But yes, seems like it would be a good approach for us maybe to 'create molds and do pours'. For the uninitiates among us, think you could explain what might be involved for an individual anon to set up some kind of operation to do just that? What kind of supplies and equipment would be needed for instance?

>>9226 Ill stick with the dildo analysis since it is easier to explain pours in that way. You first make your prototype, it can be anything like wood, metal, plastic. Pretty much anything that isn't the material that will make the mold. Once you have your prototype you then make your mold. Normally your mold will be made from a rubber epoxy. You put your prototype in a comtainer with a little bit sticking out to pill it out when you finish the pour of epoxy. Once the epoxy sets and hardens you pull out the prototype and then you have a mold. With that mold you pour your desired material mixture in, remember to not pour the same material as the mold bevause then you just ruined the mold, and you will now have a mold to make your desired parts.

>>9230 I see. Thanks Anon. So, if you wanted to just make a thin plastic shell of say, a robowaifu face or forearm, there would be at least one other step involved with the process?

>>9232 If you wanted a formed sheet if plastic like a face or forearm I recomend to look into vacuum forming. Taking a sheet of plastic, heating it up and using a vacuum to make the plastic form over a part. This is a good one to invest in to make outer shells. https://www.vaquform.com/

>>9233 >This is a good one to invest in to make outer shells. Very nice, thanks. A grand isn't out of reach for most of us who budget.

Health, safety and other considerations - The fungus Aspergillus fumigatus effectively degrades plasticized PVC. Phanerochaete chrysosporium was grown on PVC in a mineral salt agar. Phanerochaete chrysosporium, Lentinus tigrinus, Aspergillus niger, and Aspergillus sydowii can effectively degrade PVC. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyvinyl_chloride#Health_and_safety - In the EU Risk Assessment the European Commission has confirmed that Di-isononyl phthalate (DINP) and Di-isodecyl phthalate (DIDP) pose no risk to either human health or the environment from any current use. ... In Europe and in some other parts of the world, the use of DINP in toys and childcare items has been restricted as a precautionary measure. In Europe, for example, DINP can no longer be used in toys and childcare items that can be put in the mouth even though the EU scientific risk assessment concluded that its use in toys does not pose a risk to human health or the environment. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyvinyl_chloride#Health_and_safety - Plasticized PVC is a common material for medical gloves. Due to vinyl gloves having less flexibility and elasticity, several guidelines recommend either latex or nitrile gloves for clinical care and procedures that require manual dexterity and/or that involve patient contact for more than a brief period. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyvinyl_chloride#Health_and_safety

>>9564 While we all should exercise all due diligence with our own efforts, globohomo (((cautions & guidelines))) are often questionable at best. I would suggest that the more females are involved in the """investigation""", the more likely it is to be antithetical to rational evaluation, rightly balancing risks and rewards. I'd suggest we keep our eyes and ears open for safety issues, but regard the majority of health guidelines with blatant skepticism and a huge grain of salt. Is there any other need in this regard than mentioning the plainly deceptive example of the current evil machinations surrounding the Covid 'crisis', Anon?

>>9566 We can be sceptical about everything to some extent. It's probably a matter of trust, but we shouldn't ignore such guidelines. I won't. I still doubt that people would throw their scientific training and reputation away just to make things up. If you want to discuss that in some extended way, let's do it in the basement >>39

>>9588 Fair enough. Commonsense is justified. Just don't go acting like women over it, running around like a chicken with it's head cut off being blatantly manipulated over every.little.warning. They plainly will try to destroy us as a community legally, or by any other means they can contrive. Preemptively aborting the entire effort in the first place through hand-wringing fear on our parts would tickle their humors, I expect. Ridiculously, some people actually wear the masks willingly today. /robowaifu/ will never become an enclave of those types of people, friend.

This >>9564 is about using the right materials for the job when building something, and being aware of the constraints. Let's stay on topic please.

>>9592 I personally consider the discussion to be on-topic, board-health wise. Let's review: -we all should exercise all due diligence with our own efforts -rightly balancing risks and rewards -we [should] keep our eyes and ears open for safety issues -Commonsense is justified, but don't be overly fearful like some woman Did I miss anything? Oh yeah, just one: Our enemies will stop at nothing to destroy us. Demonic gaslighting is a favorite technique for them due to it's comedic effect. Again, all on topic for my part.

I don't really know shit about materials to use, but I was thinking of making the arms completely rigid up to mid-bicep and the legs up to the mid thigh. Everything else would have fake skin, possibly also the hands, because I don't want my junk getting pinched in the gap inbetween hard parts. Here's what I was thinking in terms of materials for the visible organic parts, mostly based on what regular prosthesis use: Hair: Polyester, Acrylic (maybe a rigid headpiece instead of hair) Eyes: Acrylic or Silicone Eyelashes: Polyester, Acrylic, Polycarbonate Teeth: Zirconia or Porcelain dentures Nails: Acrylic or Polycarbonate Tits: Saline and thickener (Japanese breast implants look better) Skin: TPE, Silicone or Latex like a Stretch Armstrong, which I believe is 0.2 to 0.5 thou thick. Covering joints should crinkle-up slightly when straightened, like the elbows instead of getting stretched too far when fully flexed. If an elbow joint has a 180° range of motion, the material should be cast with it bent at a 90° or at least a 45° angle. It might be a retarded idea, but I also keep thinking of vulcanized rubber like car tires, with carbon black for durability and painted a flesh tone would make it easy to spot any damage.

>>13157 Pretty good materials-list there Anon, thanks.

>>13157 >Tits: Saline and thickener (Japanese breast implants look better) Never had a love doll (so called sexdoll) but looked into it. The claim is, that silicone tits are much better than hollow ones. In breast enhancement for women they might also use silicone bags. So I don't know why you want to limit it to saline and thickener. Btw, silicone prosthetics are available on AliExpress. Didn't find good porcelain teeth, though. I hoped these were also available for training of dentists, but I only found dentures or veneers and often based on resin. I guess we have one more thing to model and build on our own.

>>13162 Thanks, but it's a really crude list because I don't really know what I'm doing. I'd prefer to limit it to as few different materials as possible if I could. >>13188 Breast implants are basically silicone balloons, which are typically filled with silicone oil/gel, but the ones I was referring to are instead thinner balloons filled with sterile medical saline, which tend to look just like jiggling water balloons when you spot them compared to the often overly-stiff silicone oil/gel ones common in the US. Since they don't need to go inside a body there's no reason a little cornstarch thickener couldn't be added to the saline for more realistic jiggle, which would probably lead to complications if they leaked inside an actual human body. Salt water and cornstarch is probably simpler than dealing with silicone oil.

>>13224 >I'd prefer to limit it to as few different materials as possible if I could. That's actually the mark of a seasoned pro. It's only the rank amateur that wants to pile on everything + the kitchen sink I'd day Anon. I hope you'll spend time and effort to further refine things for it tbh.

>>13245 Not really, I'm just cheap and lazy. I'd make the whole thing out of recycled wood if it didn't look and feel like shit or give my dick splinters.

>>13162 >>13245 I'm retarded. I only just realized that except for the teeth, tits, and skin, I listed acrylic for each of them. And looking at acrylic on wikipedia, it shows that there are artificial teeth made of acrylic too. I really need to learn how to machine this shit.

>>13279 >Not really, I'm just cheap and lazy Heh, like I said 'the mark of a seasoned pro'. :^)

Electroplating carbon foam for strong yet lite parts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XRSf3vE_9o

>>13763 Very interesting, thanks. More info i n the video would have been better, though. It's unclear how strong it is, for example.

>>13787 From what I've seen, this technique produces parts that are pretty close to a full metal part. It is worth noting, that the more metal you plate, the closer to a full metal part with full strength.

It would be ideal if we don't pollute our homes with plastics by having a robowaifu. Hair might be one of the main problems. Human hair is an option, but expensive. Now I found out that hair can be made from banana plant fibers: https://youtu.be/C_n3nDgjle8

>>13862 That hair looks like shit, it probably smells bad too, especially once it starts to biodegrade. And how do you even wash it? I agree we should do away with plastics, but right now that's not really a viable option because of how versatile plastics are.

>>13871 The blonde one looked good enough. I assume you can wash it, don't see why not. Biodegradable doesn't mean it smells (bad). The whole thing is just something to keep in mind, it might need further investigation. >Banana hair can very often still have remnants of the banana tree fibre itself, it is difficult to remove all completely by hand as this takes a long time and it would reflect in the final price which we want to avoid. Again, we hope you can embrace these natural reminders using the ‘planet over perfection approach’. ... >The length is approximately 40″ folded over and each bundle weighs 30g or 90g. Banana hair is approximately half the weight of human or plastic hair. >Our hair is biodegradable, hypoallergenic, can be washed, https://rawsocietyhair.com/

>>13885 Sure I'm paid by the company to secure that new market, lol. You're probably our troll here. Dependent on the design, the outer shell of the body will be covered in medical grade silicone ruber.

>>13876 Lowered mass for hair is great, though it remains to be seen how cost effective it is for diy waifus

>>13892 Yeah, price is also an issue. However, if this gets to a point where it isn't for green hippsters but a mass product it might be cheap. It's made from plant waste and processed by very low wagies after all. The other thing is, robowaifus are for poor to wealthy guys. Broad spectrum. If one can afford children and a top notch robowaifu to raise them, additional costs for some hair might not be relevant. Plastics can allegedly have hormonal effects on fetuses, babies and toddlers, and no one realy wants a gender fluid "son".

>>13904 Endocrine-disrupting microplastics are found everywhere now. Literally in snow in mountaintops and inside amniotic fluid. It's nearly inescapable. Your robowaifu's hair is an incredibly insignificant role. Fixing the problem requires replacing plastic on a giant scale, not just finding small, specialized substitutes that won't matter in a grand scheme.

>>13907 >in snow in mountaintops typical envirotard warmist propaganda its physically impossible to carry solids in evaporated liquids, theres 0 chance snow has any microplastics

>>13908 Not carried in evaporated liquid. Carried on the wind. Air currents. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/science-environment-49343293

>>13907 Not doing something because other things might also cause problems is a flawed argument and approach. I don't know if plant based hair will be relevant and economic. I just wanted that to bring that option to attention, because some of us might care.

>>13912 >Not doing something because other things might also cause problems is a flawed argument and approach. My point was that little things like alternative materials for wigs are like trying to cut salt from your diet to improve your health, while overlooking the fact that you live in Chernobyl. If everything's radioactive, the one or two little changes you make don't matter until you solve the big one. This is just really annoying for me, because I was thinking a lot about how to make a plastic-free alternative for food packaging from food-safe ingredients, and had a plan to do so. The idea is to make something cheaper and lighter than plastic and open-source, to curb plastic use at an industrial scale, not just a few niche applications that relying on hoping some people might adopt. Then I lost my job, so I can't really afford to experiment until I get a new one, because it's a big money-sink. The biggest would be getting a Yeast Estrogen Screening to see if any of the ingredients are estrogenic individually or when combined. It only recently occurred to me that I could post all about it here, but didn't want to make a thread until I actually started testing. (And I need to figure out how to use Open Office spreadsheets to help with the trial-and-error.)

It is possible if the plastics are essentially atomized not literal atoms (because obviously a plastic is composed of chains of atoms, called polymers), but the term "atomized" meaning >convert (a substance) into very fine particles or droplets. "the CO2 depressurized, atomizing the paint into a mist of even-size particles" It is quite possible these are carried everywhere peppering the entire planet. Its not the end of the world, depending on the amount of cumulative consumption necessary to cause significant endocrine disruption. But it's worth noting.

I just found out about a kind of plastic I think I never heard about: Delrin. It seem to be printable but seems to be difficult and not very popular in the low cost printing scene. It can also be machined, though. It seems to be comparable to aluminum, and is used in bushes of linkages of bigger machines. It has a lot of interesting properties: https://youtu.be/vIkIkcqJ-E0 (no sound, which is annoying for a video, but still interesting) Machined bushes for cars: https://youtu.be/CdkVZnmteSE and https://youtu.be/cdb2fU78Bvw Delrin also can be printed, but it seems to be difficult and generally a very bad idea. Machining it, seems to be more common. Here a printable alternative to Delrin, POM, and Acetal: High Temp Nylon (HTN): https://youtu.be/OCLMz05atEA More advanced and often expensive 3D printing materials, which often require special printers: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWL6qzK573EvWBxek8oH1a79pYUXhqbcg

>>14544 Interesting material but I don't see the point of using it, if you have a light mil you'd rather work with a metal like aluminium it copper to get cool metal parts rather than do plastic which is already very easy to print. Overall it just isn't filling a niche that regular old PLA it ASA can't fill.

Has anyone tried platinum cure silicone and baking soda? it might make a soft, porus matrix you could load with a fluid.

>>15212 >Has anyone tried platinum cure silicone and baking soda? That sounds really interesting Anon. I assume the baking soda has some kind of foaming interaction with the silicone rubber?

>>15219 Yes, it is activated at the boiling point of water. Normal solid silicone castings are firm and rubbery, not at all what someone would want in a synth-butt or even synth-skin. Casting it solid isn't even perfect for sex toys that are best made with a firm shell and much softer core. Variable stiffness silicone would be right to make soft parts, and the stiffness can be tuned via adding more or less baking soda, in theory. Anyone can obtain silicone and baking soda.

>>15225 To add to this, silicone cured with a powder has lowered density, has a matte finish, releases easily, and cures significantly faster. It does lose much of its ability to stretch and some durability is lost.https://www.solidsmack.com/fabrication/oogoo-make-your-very-own-diy-sugru-substitute-with-silicone-and-corn-starch/

>>154 I think that the only real way we can build our robowaifus is with a 3d printer so we should look into the best 3d printable materials for the task. PLA seemed like a sure bet due to how easy it is to print and also how cheap the material is.

>>15278 For one offs yes, 3D printing is the only truly viable method. PLA is a great material but suffers from a low glass transition temperature. What this means is that if left out in a hot car or in the sun, parts of her can become soft and deform. Some PLA+ filaments don't suffer from this and PETG is about the same cost though, they are harder to print. PETG is currently my recommended filament if you're willing to take the time to set it up correctly.

>>15225 >>15227 Thanks for the information Anon!

Dragon skin or ecoflex with ecoflex gel 2 is recommended for encapsulated devices requiring a very soft silicone material by the ecoflex tech support. Going to say that ecoflex 00-20 to 00-50 is the best to use as a soft silicone from research, and dragon skin 10 for a much firmer and stronger silicone. Expect the dragon skin and most silicones to whiten a bit from clear when fully cured. Will come back with an answer as to if these are food safe, and I'm guessing yes with the sex toy makers that use these items.

>>15518 Thanks for the recommondations. Any chance you could make a diy onahole tutorial?

>>15523 >Any chance you could make a diy onahole tutorial? Not just onaholes, but 'skin', bewbs, and various other squishy bits for our robowaifus will need to be addressed properly. Once we have a good facility with this area generally as a group, then Silicone Molding & Casting will deserve it's own thread tbh.

>>15523 >>15529 I'm starting by making a 100% sized object for the capsule mold shape and an 80% sized object to cast a thin capsule part inside the mold. The gel will just pour into the capsule, and then can be sealed with more ecoflex on top or silicone epoxy with a cutout. The guy over the phone got a big kick out of me asking him if I could eat off of the cured silicone. I'll use dragon skin for the mold material.

>>15551 The thread title should read >Over 20 pounds of pussy and ass!

>>15558 Heh. Just rember we're not in the sex doll business Anon. We certainly can accommodate Lady-bit kits' created by '3rd-party' manufacturers, but legal restrictions in many jurisdictions would make our robowaifu kits literally illegal if we tried to directly integrate any sexuality into them. If an Anon chooses to upgrade his robowaifu with new outfits, shoes, or other 'accessories' then he's obviously free to do so. Our base robowaifus systems should be bland af in this department. We're protecting Anon's interests in this affair. I'm not trying to defend the legislators obviously, simply reminding everyone what we'd all decided as the best approach a good while ago.

>>15563 I'm a newfag and all I got from the sticky was that roasties are hoesies the whole kit should cost 300-2000 USD. What's this about being illegal to buy if sex is integrated? I'd like to check a thread to get the whole context. I'd like to elaborate that I plan to do big tiddy research to make a guide for a thread here, and I don't have any plans to be a closed source third party. What I like about a custom tiddy pair is that it could be about as big as you want that could fit inside of a mold, far larger than what flesh most men could ever experience in one lifetime. They could be as firm or soft or small as you can make, exactly to your liking.

>>15647 >I'm a newfag and all I got from the sticky was that roasties are hoesies the whole kit should cost 300-2000 USD. That would be a goal, yes. Don't be surprised if there are a wide range of model prices once the industry is established in the future however. This stuff is exceptionally difficult, and uses lots of costly components. Keeping the cost low is an important goal for /robowaifu/ however, now and in the future. >What's this about being illegal to buy if sex is integrated? I'd like to check a thread to get the whole context. Heh, there's no 'whole context' wrapped up in a tidy little package anywhere here Anon. We're an IB--notorious for conversations wandering practically aimlessly everywhere. But /robowaifu/ scores far above the average at keeping things on-topic and it's a lot of effort :^). We had most of these discussions in-depth maybe 2-3 years ago, and I certainly don't recall off the top of my head just where such info lies scattered about. But here are some ideas of threads that might help be of help to you in your search though: >News (>>404) >Roasties, 1&2 (>>160, >>1061) >Society (>>106) >Wombs (>>157) >Propaganda (>>2705) >Doll (>>101) I'm sure there are others. BTW, we have a software tool called Waifusearch that you can build to help you find specific terms anywhere on the board (>>8678). Finally, as always, the Catalog itself is your friend Anon. This would certainly be a very good topic for our Library Catalogue thread (>>7143), so please post your results in our /meta thread (>>15434) if you actually invest the time & research into the question. Good luck Anon. >I'd like to elaborate that I plan to do big tiddy research to make a guide for a thread here, and I don't have any plans to be a closed source third party. When you have your guide ready, please post it in our Vagoo thread (>>419) as it's probably our single thread most focused on robowaifus + sex, which you appear to focus on. Glad you don't plan for it to be closed-source, that's much appreciated Anon! Please use the MIT license, thanks. >What I like about a custom tiddy pair is that it could be about as big as you want that could fit inside of a mold, far larger than what flesh most men could ever experience in one lifetime. They could be as firm or soft or small as you can make, exactly to your liking. Sounds good, I'm sure many, many Anons would appreciate your efforts in this area Anon! :^) > BTW, yuge mammaries would in fact be very heavy. I can warn you in advance that an inordinate amount of mass is an enemy of the diligent engineer (>>4313). Welcome Anon, thanks for stopping by! >=== -add 'closed-source' comment -minor grammar edit

>>15648 >BTW, yuge mammaries would in fact be very heavy. I can warn you in advance that an inordinate amount of mass is an enemy of the diligent engineer If they're hard and made out of plastic they can be hollow to save on mass. You can also fit batteries in the robowaifus chest to give her a longer operating time. I don't think we should be that quick to dismiss breasts in order to save weight.

>>15675 >Hard plastic tiddies filled with battery There's several reasons why you really shouldn't do that. But, you're thinking about solutions which are an important part of problem solving. I prefer pettanko myself but, my idea for oppai would be silicone balloons that would act as a safety cushion for her. This way they can remain light while providing fun bags to play with. What do you think?

>>15648 Thanks, will check out the vagoo thread. >>15676 >airbags in constant deployment Nice idea. I'm not sure how good a hollow breast would feel, but a good answer to saving weight and preserving the sensation while using existing fabrication techniques would be a foamed gel filling. It would act as many small "airbags" and is made with a "blowing agent" like pressurized gas or baking soda (or mixing in bubbles) while it begins to cure. The main downside of foams is reduced strength and stretch length before tearing, which isn't a concern in capsule filling material in my opinion. Next week I may run a test on this with mixed in air bubbles that aren't vacuumed out, going by change in volume for same weight of gel.

>>15675 >I don't think we should be that quick to dismiss breasts in order to save weight. <dismiss such delights Lolwut? :^) No, not at all Anon. I'm simply pointing out that mass is a serious issue which we all here have to contend with. Given Anon's post, my understanding was that the proposition was for a solid-silicone casting of the desired ginormous teats. This would be quite heavy is all. Everybody loves bewbs! > >>15676 >What do you think? Not him, obvs, but I think this may be a prime opportunity for the Mylar 'balloons' for you and SiliconeAnon to work together towards? >>15679 >Thanks, will check out the vagoo thread. Nprb. I really like the idea of the foamed-silicone 'filling' Anon. Perhaps some sort of gradated layering? Firm in the central volume decreasing to very squishy on the outer shell?

So what are /robowaifu/'s thoughts on Nylon 12 CF for structural and mechanical components as opposed to say PLA or ABS? N12CF is stronger, more durable, less heat sensitive, and less hygroscopic than PLA or ABS, but allegedly is more difficult to print than either.. Has anyone had experience working with this filament?

>>15694 I have never been able to get nylon with enhancements to print on anything that wasn't a high end enclosed 3D printer. Nylon also needs to be kept dry, vacuum sealing is highly recommended as it will suck up moisture. This being said, it is one of the toughest and best plastics you can use if you have the proper equipment to print with it. I actually highly recommend it if you can afford it and will be careful. I also recommend using an abrasion resistant nozzle like a ruby because carbon fibers will shred through bronze and many other nozzle materials. Otherwise, PETG is almost as good and can be printed on cheap printers with filament that is less prone to soak up moisture from my experience. Good luck Anon, if you do use CF Nylon, please report your findings and results.

>>15696 From some of the tests I have been reading Nylon 12 was superior to previous Nylon filaments in regards to lower moisture absorption with Nylon 12 CF improving upon that by being 20% less hygroscopic than standard Nylon 12. My concerns being the introduction of brittleness that could potentially come with N12CF months or years down the road. The medical industry uses a polymide resin derived from castor oil called Rilsan on CF Nylon implants that I might end up testing as a possible solution to this issue. As for the issue of production I was already aware of the mechanical requirements, and was more interested in the temperament of the filament. How it handles, what the idiosyncrasies are, the types of quality issues you run into. Basically the kind of stuff you figure out as you experience a new material. Technically it looks like the ideal solution with the material's weight, hardness, and strength to weight ratios striking a perfect balance for something like a skeletal frame. I guess I will just have to test it out and see what I can do. It may take a while to complete my testing as I am busy upgrading my whole set up at the moment, but I will report back on my findings whenever that may be.

>>15697 I see you want to use CF Nylon 12. I'm running CoPA Nylon for gears with an enclusure, bag + dessicant, nozzle x, and garolite bed. What I've found with this beginner nylon is that Nylon 6's mechanical properties vary with moisture absorbtion quite significantly, and 12 to a much lesser degree. However, I've ran Polymax PC (probably, got it secondhand) for over a year and it always impressed me just how strong, stiff, and resistant to heat it is. It's about the same tensile strength with 1/3 the impact strength, but I've still not been able to break a small cylinder by smashing it with a hammer. The material properties table you listed is likely for an injection molded part, so keep in mind that you may see lower strength along layer lines, especially if the plastic doesn't have high interlayer strength and has carbon fibers in it. The carbon fibers are stiff only in the direction of each layer line with their high tensile or pulling strength. In the industry, companies that 3d print Nylon 12 powder use a wax coating to preserve mechanical properties against moisture absorbtion. Heat degredation starts around 80C, and the nylon will slowly lose stiffness above 70C afaik. I could try Nylon 12 with CF for parts that I'd reinforce along layer lines with nuts and bolts (motor housing), but I'd rather stick with my PC Max. My one weakness with the PC is the giant 1.5% print shrinkage (3x PLA) which greatly throws off dimensions and makes certain prints impossible to work since I can't easily bend or grind it into shape. PC CF would be just perfect, but I don't know which brand I'd go with that isn't low molecular weight garbage that prints at 240C. >>15682 >weight >balloons Could shove some dish sponges or something in the core for that. The texture might get weird if there's a hollow balloon in the middle. Maybe an anon on the doll forums could say what they do for big booba. >gradated layering When you squish something, it gets firmer the more you squish already. My skill is already at it's limit making one shell and a filling, but it's possible to keep using progressively smaller sized mold objects in the same cast for more layers. I'm going to just keep mixing silicone gel (deadened ecoflex 30) with a drill and straw rig until the volume rises by a measured amount in a few cups, and pour it out into a few molds to test firmness of the filling per air percentage. Hopefully I won't keep using expensive name brand shit once I get the process down.

>>15705 >>15705 >dish sponges Good thinking. I always am on the lookout for design and engineering approaches that simply reuse/repurpose/rearchitect already-existing items. Particularly off-the-shelf, easily obtained ones. >weird texture Yep, you understand my point clearly. >an anon on the doll forums We've had at least one here, maybe that Anon is still around? >it gets firmer the more you squish Yes makes sense, thanks for bring that out. It's something easy to overlook for the uninitiate like myself. >gradated layering >My skill is already at it's limit making one shell and a filling Fair enough. I realize this isn't easy and will take us all time to solve everything. You're already far ahead of most of us here! :^) >with a drill and straw rig until the volume rises Interesting. Is this some kind of air-injection system you're describing or what? >Hopefully I won't keep using expensive name brand shit once I get the process down. Especially once we reach the 'garage factory' stage, we'll all be needing/looking for ways to keep costs down. Basic material supplies are an obvious one, as well as the even-more obvious economizing the usage in our designs. Thin films of silicone as 'skin' for example rather than solid casts. I was actually quite surprised to realize just how expensive silicone products are. Somehow I just presumed they would be cheaper in my ignorance. Also, thanks for the files Anon.

>>15705 The image came from some filament company's tests on their own filament. For the life of me I can't remember which company but that was their results. If I find the page again I will link it. I have stuff coming in next week, but I just realized that I might need to upgrade from thermistors to thermocouplers if I plan on working in the 300C range.

>>15708 >straw and drill rig I'm taking a straw with a bendable neck to stick inside of a drill as a mixer. >>15713 Let's keep the 3d printing questions to the 3d printing resources thread: >>94

>>15716 But it wasn't a question. I was responding with a statement regarding the source of the image relevant to the discussion of materials. I then included a statement about a delay which could impact the testing of said materials.

>>15708 >we'll all be needing/looking for ways to keep costs down. Who is "we"?

>>15716 >I'm taking a straw with a bendable neck to stick inside of a drill as a mixer. Ahh, got it! So, I wonder if something like a kitchen blender would work well?

>>15742 That would work to mix it, but it would splatter liquid silicone everywhere and may cure inside of the machine. Maybe a paint stirrer and drill would be more appropriate. The initial testing of the silicone is done, and here is what I've found: >Dragonskin 20 Stiff and hard silicone, useful for making molds or firm bits. Dry to the touch. >Ecoflex 30 Floppy like a wet noodle. Very elastic, just a bit tacky to the touch with resistance to squish. Good for making capsule outside layers. >1:1:1 Deadened Ecoflex 30 A soft, squishy gel with slow spring-back. Cures to be absolutely nasty shit that you do not want to get on yourself because it will stick to your hands really well. You need to put this inside of a harder silicone to make the part. >Conclusions The Ecoflex and Dragonskin are both incredibly strong, even on the thin layer of what was on the cup when mixed. Everything cures on everything (tested superglue, ASA, paper, wood) no matter what. Just don't wear latex gloves when you handle the silicones. Letting the silicone cure before doing layers is only important to maintain wall thicknesses of each part. The most promising skin/toy/ect. combination so far seems to be: >get on gloves >put on a mask and use ventilation if you are spraying aerosols >coat every part in silicone release (I use universal mold release) spray >wait 5 minutes >spray again >paint/spread on a thin layer of dragonskin 10 NV (or any non-tacky outer layer material) >let it set for 15 minutes >vacuum the bubbles out of each thing you are pouring into the mold before you pour them in >cast in ecoflex 30 or lower into the mold cavity under a spacer that makes room for the gel >wait out pot life time >remove spacer >mix deadened Ecoflex at a 0.5-0.75 deadener:1 Part A:1 Part B ratio to give the gel some squish resistance and spring-action (1:1:1 was too "dead") >pour in ecoflex to the silicone cavity created by the removed spacer >wait out pot life time >pour layer of ecoflex on top of the gel capsule to make a flat base of the part >spread on a thin layer of Dragonskin 10 NV to make it dry (not-tacky) to the touch You could vacuum out the bubbles after you pour into the mold, and that may or may not degrade the mold release layer. The dragonskin outer capsule layer is only needed according to your preference. The dragon skin might slide off if you try to apply it to an uncoated ecoflex part, and vice versa. The end result is you can take a 3d model of your boobie parts, make a mold to cast the part into, and have it come out feeling the desired texture. There's research on human skin having layers of different hardness and thickness depending on where it’s located on the body, so varying the thickness of these three silicones of different hardness can produce exactly what you imagine the feeling to be. The attached file contains a diagram of the skin layers

>>15774 Excellent research Anon. Thanks for the procedural breakdown as well, very helpful. Cheers.

>>15774 >Correction Do not use DragonSkin 10 NV for multi-material parts, it lists on the website that it is incompatable (cure inhibiting) with other silicones. I've only done testing with the silicones listed in the post above, and wanted to try the NV version.

Glad to have found this board. Currently thinking about 3d printing an inner body with joints and then put a 1-2cm thin/thick silicone/TPE skin around it, cast with 3d printed molds. This should provide for lightweight constuction and good feel. Sorry if this has been mentioned before, I'm a lazy fuck who can't be bothered to read the ful thread.

>>15809 Hello Anon, welcome! Glad you found us. Your design goal is definitely amenable to our general approaches here. I'm sure as you spend time here on the board, you'll discover the costs & benefits of such an approach discussed. I'd suggest you use the catalog view to look around for topics you're interested in and go from there. Cheers! :^)

>>15809 Engineering tip: When working with a silicone skin, it's best to include holes in the inner body to provide the silicone with surface area to properly mate to the part.

>>15774 Update: >Success with smooth-on shit You can add some slacker (deadener) or silicone oil to make the silicone less springy or more soft, respecively. Don't go too crazy with additions or it won't fully cure. You can add cosmetic grade mica powder to the silicone to make neat color effects, just make sure there are no powder lumps. Some thi-vex is useful for painting a shell onto a mold, which you can then fill up with more silicone for boobie effects. If you use platinum cure silicones, then you may be able to mix in ignite colorants and have it thicken a bit for the same effect. Whenever you mix anything in, mix it in very well to part B first, use new forks every new thing you start mixing, and always pour a mixture into a new container. I use a fork and disposable cups. With these guidelines, it is possible to make butts, boobs, faces, and girly parts and horse cocks, you know, the futa kind. Need to try the material on a volunteer to test chemical safety.

>>16857 Thanks, good to know. Do you use a vacuum pot to get the air bubbles out?

>>16859 Yes, and upon further investigation I will not use deadener for anything on the outside because it's always slightly tacky to the touch.

>>16916 One thing to add to this: casting the deadened internal silicone first and the outside skin around it within an external mold with no silicone deadener should leave the surface not tacky while the inside is flesh-like. The way I'd do this is by sucking up the material from the bottom with a tube in the top and bottom of the mold, with the bottom containing silicone in a syringe and the top connected to a vacuum. It would need a buffer chamber for bubbles to expand.

>https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmrt.2020.11.021 Going to try this recipe for silicone sensors. If it works, then making a sensitive silicone part is as simple as mixing in some graphite and carbon powder to the same silicone used everywhere else, but attaching electrodes to the end of the shape. The possibilities are endless.

>>17202 I linked this in two other threads about skin and general engineering, since it's more about sensors than the materials. I'm sure such powders are available on AliExpress and other places. I want to mention the materials here, if someone wants to keep an eye out for them: >oft and stretchable conductive polymer composites (CPC) ... >Diverse fillers have been employed to accomplish CPC such as carbon nanotubes [7,8], graphene [9,10], graphite (GRP) [11,12], carbon black (CB) [13,14], silver [15,16] and gold [17,18]. Among the various fillers, GRP has shown to be a promising candidate over other fillers due to its good electrical conductivity [19], good thermal conductivity [20], biocompatibility [21,22], low percolation threshold owing their high aspect ratio [23], high compressive strength [24], along with their natural abundance [25,26] and low price [27].

>>17205 Thanks, bro.

>>17205 I got mine from Amazon for their (sometimes as advertised) fast shipping. If time was not of the essence I'd get it through ebay or aliexpress. The EF20 will not be used (per paper EF30), but I included it in the picture. I'd also like to mention that you may need EF silicone thinner to have everything mix into part A and have all the powder break up nicely. This cost about 150$.

>>154 I personally use epoxy for my project >>19226 for maximum durability and a fantastic smooth shine

>>19483 Are there varieties of epoxy anon needs to know about, Emmy-Pilled?

>>19484 I simply use normal "casting-epoxy", the most common on all the markets, but I have heard rumours about "flesh epoxy". Supposedly epoxy with more elastic and silicone-like properties. But never looked up on it myself

>>19485 >casting-epoxy Thanks. I found these links for that term. I'm assuming these are what you're talking about? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3S09V26OuqY https://resin-expert.com/en/guide/epoxy-casting-resin https://entropyresins.com/how-to/casting-epoxy/

>>19486 Yes. I use the "B-100" series, it can cost a bit more but has nice features like anti-bubbling mixture and zero harmful vapours (lessor epoxies require ventilation when curing or outdoor work areas)

it can also high depend on what work you´re doing, either a solid piece or a really thin "slosh-casting" which 90% of the epoxies on the market cannot do because of curing times (slosh-cast epoxy have insanely low curing times but about 3-4 times the regular price of most epoxies)

>>19487 >>19488 Great thanks again for the advice. Do you think it would be helpful to try brushing this on other items. Say if you have a robowaifu skellington made of wooden dowels joined together with 3D-printed fittings. Would brushing the entire thing down with this epoxy resins strengthen it overall in your opinion?

>>19489 yes it would, but if you´re going for a non-metallic skeleton even with epoxy I would HIGHLY recommend fiberglass rods

>>19490 >I would HIGHLY recommend fiberglass rods OK, we're all ears Anon. If you wouldn't mind could you give a detailed breakdown for why you recommend them over other materials? TIA.

>>19493 fiberglass has far more flexibility, can withstand temperatures more easily and will not expand, contract or warp like wood can if exposed to such conditions. Not to mention overall strength. Whereas wood would need nearly triple the thickness of a fiberglass rod for the same strength not to mention be either vacuum-enfused or encased in epoxy

>>19484 Not him. You can also put the resin for SLA printers into the same category. It cures using light. Reading up on this people pointed out that there are more common epoxies, e.g. for doing work with glass fiber reinforcements and repairs (e.g. on cars and boats), which might be available in many hardware stores. Personally I bought A/B epoxy from AliExpress. I want to use it for the eyes (Epoxy eyes) and to smooth out some prints instead of doing to much sanding. Makes the most sense for shells and molds, though with molds it might be important to make sure it doesn't interact with the silicone curing. Mine comes with the point to have a secure curing process if following instructions and that it doesn't yellow over time, which therefore might be a problem with other ones.

>>19501 UV-resistance can also depend on the brand, my B100 brand is fully resistant to all UV light without deterioration or yellowing

>Liquid Polyurethane Rubber For molding, maybe replacing silicone rubber in some use cases. >>19645 (note from the technical data sheet: "polyurethane rubbers bond tenaciously to shellac")

Nobody knows how the waifu looks like. I think if we make a life size doll it'll get this ball rolling. What do you guys think?

>>20439 It seems to be about like most rubber sexdolls Anon, so you're on track for your goals it seems. Any idea at this point what she'd weigh altogether?

>>20443 I'm thinking of getting 100 kilos just in case. If there's anything extra that stuff is money anyways. Can make phone covers, dildos, fleshlights or regular sex dolls, etc...

>>20456 Oh and I'd want her to be 150 cm tall I think

>>20456 >>20457 >I'm thinking of getting 100 kilos just in case. That's a lot of weight. I'm presuming you're simply going for the classical lifeless sexdoll route? I hope so, b/c devising robust articulation, and suitable actuation for such mass would be a real challenge today given current technology. --- >link-related: -Why is keeping mass (weight) low so important? (>>4313) >=== -minor edit -add 'link-related'

>>20458 I drew that so you guys would tell me if I'm wrong, how big the space should be the hollow parts or how much to get etc... Also say like the elbow. Would the skeleton be able to move the elbow?

>>20459 >I drew that so you guys would tell me if I'm wrong, Since you asked directly, yes, you're wrong Anon. As I already linked you: -Why is keeping mass (weight) low so important? (>>4313) keeping mass down is absolutely vital at this stage of technology development. In the future when nano-scale biotensegrity-like structures are available to us to use for design efforts, then we can actually be heavier than a normal woman is (much like 2B). Until then, our actuation systems are simply too weak/too inefficient to manage even half the weight of one. Again, this will change, but till it does, you're going to have use a shell-based design, not a solid-core one. Hope that helps Anon, ask us anything.

>>20474 Well we can make the silicone shell as thick or as thin as we want right? Also how are we going to do it with the elbow and knees? Should those be latex? And how much should the shell weight? The jelly for the tits and ass are not negotiable. I don't care about her back. We must force the waifu to carry her tits and ass even if breaks in half.

Anything after and including >>20439 should be moved to >>372 at some point. This thread is about the materials, not about how to build something.

>>20475 >silicone shell as thick or as thin as we want right? I think ideally you would want some filler material. But others seem to make dolls only out of silicone rubber. I thought ideal would be a soft skin with a thin layer of less sticky silicone, then something light but firmer as tissue inside. > Also how are we going to do it with the elbow and knees? Should those be latex? Why would that be? >And how much should the shell weight? Only as much as necessary. >We must force the waifu to carry her tits and ass even if breaks in half. LOL Maybe have an eye on the inventors corner in the Dollforum.com and also /r/DIYSexdolls or https://imgur.com/user/ReanimatorNine

hydrophilic silicone >>20602 >The hydrophilic silicone may have less tendency to keep dirt, hair, ect stuck to it when wet because water runs over it better. Just salty soapy water might clean it well after use with Jlube. I'm really surprised by this. There are plenty of kitchen things made out of regular silicone, not holding onto water. Also, while looking into it briefly I've read that some of the hydrophilic silicone may hold onto some problematic proteins. Aside from having the tendency to be toxic. We really need to look more into this. The anti-fungal ingredients in household silicone are normally the thing people warn about, and why dolls should not be made out of such silicone but out of food grade or medical grade silicone rubber.

>>20604 The "Protein adsorbtion" is when proteins stick to ordinary silicone, and generally goes down the more hydrophilic it becomes. Where did you read making it hydrophilic makes this worse? I plan to make just the lube with paraben alternatives so it's anti-microbial. As long as it's kept dry then nothing should grow on it, and silver (leeches out to kill microbes) isn't something I'd want in my silicone. The only danger is if the PDMS-PEG somehow leeches out after the IPA soak. Might try boiling it in IPA to see if that makes any difference in hydrophilicity.

>>20613 Did more tests on hydrophilic silicone today. A dirty chunk on the floor got clean with just water and rubbing off the dirt with my fingers. Is it possible to make a self cleaning toy by bubbling air and water through a tight hole with a cheap diaphragm pump? The silicone gets too thick to pour well beyond 0.0015 parts PDMS-PEG to 1 part silicone (0.15% or 1 drop per 10 ml silicone). The 50% block copolymer gets silicone hydrophilic in alcohol at such a small percentage that it may be possible to retain the bulk properties by lowering the concentration even more. The additive makes it more viscous and less stretchy when cured, will try lower concentrations (1 drop per 20 ml) later for the final recommended material. Anyone know how to safety certify a new material?

>>20475 >The jelly for the tits and ass are not negotiable. I don't care about her back. We must force the waifu to carry her tits and ass even if breaks in half. Lol. Fair enough, Anon. :^) >>20479 Agreed, but I'm lazy, and the process is tedious. :P Probably will have to devise some sort of bot to assist with this process here, once someone shows me how to use libcurl to retrieve CAPTCHA images, specifically. >>20613 >The only danger is if the PDMS-PEG somehow leeches out after the IPA soak. >>20733 >Anyone know how to safety certify a new material? This will be a must, for us to seriously consider this approach with any rationality Anon. Hopefully something will come through on your question. >=== -minor edit

>>20747 >how to use libcurl to retrieve CAPTCHA images I found this for CPP: https://github.com/2captcha/2captcha-cpp

>>20770 Thanks Anon! I believe I actually found this in my intial searches of the past. I dismissed it offhand then, b/c it's intented to enable spammers, etc. Our use for it is totally benign and simply intended to help with (our own) board management. I'll have another look at it, since it probably does contain at least some technical clues we need, if not an outright solution. We'll post info about this if we solve it. Cheers NoidoDev.

Ecoflex silicone rubber related: >>20885

>>20733 https://files.catbox.moe/ccci89.mp4 EcoFlex 00-30 with 1.2% parts 50% PEO and J-lube, post 24h alcohol treatment https://files.catbox.moe/z85fb6.mp4 EcoFlex 00-30 with 1 small drop 50% PEO per 20ml EF and J-lube, post 8h alcohol treatment https://files.catbox.moe/c5v8pp.mp4 EcoFlex 00-30 with J-lube https://files.catbox.moe/4khafk.mp4 EcoFlex 00-30 with 1 small drop 50% PEO per 20ml EF and J-lube, post 8h alcohol treatment Thinking of boiling it with soapy water instead of using the recommended alcohol because the entire silicone puck seems to "dry out" after a day in 99% IPA. The silicone gets less rubbery and flexible with a significant amount of the block copolymer. Will try addressing the (research paper) suspected silicone "water poisioning" of the catalyst by the hygroscopic block copolymer by adding molectular sieves to the container. It instantly gets more viscous and cures less stretchy when mixed in.

>>20733 >Anyone know how to safety certify a new material? Certify, like officially to get it to market, or checking if it's safe for yourself? >>20930 I don't understand much of what I'm looking at, but thanks. Is this about the question if it would be cleaned from time to time with alcohol, that it might loose it's properties?

>>20733 >>20930 >hydrophilic silicone is it safe for human skin touch, no one wants penis cancer would it be easier just holes for water jets to clean and after compresed air for drying the same holes could be used to dispence warmed lub in use, before the cleaning cycle to justify the whole sistem

>>20988 I'm quite sure he wants to use water running through, and maybe with alcohol. That's generally the plan.

The problem is mixing in the chemical makes the ecoflex less stretchy. The new silicone uses a block copolymer additive of PDMS-PEG, which is a silicone chain bonded to a polyethylene oxide chain. Somehow the PEO is the exact chemical used in J-Lube and K-Lube, which is commonly used as a personal lubricant. The theory of the block copolymer mechanism is that the PDMS (silicone) anchors into the matrix of silicone during curing in the ecoflex, and the PEO is drawn to the surface where water is, which makes it hydrophilic. In theory, this chemical would be no more dangerous than using K-Lube itself as long as it stays anchored in the silicone, since the same chemical is presented to the outside. As a matter of fact, this explains why it was so thick and viscous when I mixed it in: it spreads out the polymer chains into the uncured silicone and the uncured silicone liquid gets trapped in between the long chains before it can cure. This also explains why it's less stretchy, it's mixed up in a matrix of long polymer chains and it can't stretch out as easily. This chemical may function if sprayed onto the inside of a mold so it touches just the outside of the silicone before curing. Will try spraying it with silicone oil or other dispersant once I have a mold and harbor frieght sprayer/compressor and mask. I'd like to try pouring in whatever usual silicone with whatever colorants as usual and seeing if it's hydrophilic after curing. This may not work if it has to be mixed in the ecoflex for it to be permanently rooted into the bulk of the toy. The hydrophillic silicone is very easy to clean dirt off of just using water. I have a cheap diaphragm pump and cheap water pump to test >>20988, and I will once I have time. I will want to use hot tap water from a hose screwed into my sink faucet with some soap mixed in the line. The diaphragm pump can bubble air through the toy to dry it, but it should need powder to prevent it from sticking to itself. Idk how onaholes are maintained, but it should be similar. >>20966 Reference the paper below, the properties last for 20+ months on the shelf. The hydrophilicity seems to degrade when sitting in pure IPA for an entire day+, but the silicone itself probably isn't meant to be in there since it may have warped a bit too. Then again I put it in alcohol before a full cure, so more tests are needed. I think an IPA washing step to get the loose polymer off is all that should be needed since any that bonds into the matrix will be locked into place. Then again, mixing the polymer chains into the ecoflex matrix probably is needed to anchor the pdms, so spraying it on might not work? I'm gonna have to figure something out, likely spraying a thin layer of mixed up hydrophilic silicone into the mold before pouring in the rest of the unmodified silicone? Could try that one method I can't remember paper of where they boiled the chemical into the surface of cured silicone with ethanol? More testing is needed. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-43625-5

>>21008 >This chemical may function if sprayed onto the inside of a mold so it touches just the outside of the silicone before curing. Will try spraying it with silicone oil or other dispersant once I have a mold and harbor frieght sprayer/compressor and mask. Good luck with your test, hope it works Anon. Stay safe.

>>21008 how does it react with cum ?

>>21008 Wow, this is complex. Good that one of us is looking into this. Thanks and godspeed.

>>20930 I think I figured out one way to augment the silicone effectively. I mixed the surfactant chemical in water and cured silicone under the water. This would cure the silicone with the chemical polymer chains in the activated position between the water and silicone. This avoids having to mix it into the matrix, which makes it stiff because the polymer chains are sideways. In composites, the fibers are oriented horizontally in a resin matrix, which makes them stiff in that direction. If the polymer is mixed into the silicone, it's the same idea, stiffness in the direction of the long fibers. The final surface that had the surfactant-water on it is slippery with water on top of it and the whole thing is as stretchy as normal. >>20988 The worst I see happening is chemical irritation if it can't be washed off, which is what the SDS says to do. Once the silicone is cured, the chemical is anchored into the toy with the activated PEO sticking out, so it's effectively pre-lubed since PEO is a main ingredient in K-Lube, J-Lube, and X-Lube personal lubricants. Should be fine lmao. >>21045 cum would stick to it since it's hydrophilic. but it also takes less water and scrubbing to come off. >>21060 This is the simplest way to make a wettable silicone. There are other ways to but they don't last as long and are dangerous to do.

>>21161 >simplest way to make a wettable silicone I didn't even know that this was so difficult. This might be one thing where many DIY doll projects get stuck then, especially when it comes to the private parts. Thanks for solving it and sharing. That said, you mentioned something about how this isn't available to everyone to buy?

>>21161 >Once the silicone is cured, the chemical is anchored into the toy with the activated PEO sticking out, so it's effectively pre-lubed since PEO is a main ingredient in K-Lube, J-Lube, and X-Lube personal lubricants. In your estimate, how prone is the chemical to be 'pulled out by it's tail' and liberated off the surface of the silicone? By friction or other means. Also, if it does become diluted across the surface in such a fashion, do you envision any means whereby an end-user of the material can safely and effectively 'reapply' the chemical. Thanks for the solid research Anon, good job!

>>21169 The chemical used is PDMS-PEG, a copolymer made by Gelest. I had to have it shipped to an institution (my old University), and a little more research could reveal that other surfactants might have the same composition and are available elsewhere. Honestly it's probably not necessary to mke the silicone this way, but I want to make the best toys available and screw around with stuff. >>21170 Half of the tail is crosslinked into the silicone, so it would be like trying to scrape the surface off of silicone rubber (not really possible). If it gets ripped in half, it would be like having an extra lube particle in the surrounding lube, so nothing would happen. If the entire thing is ripped out, it probably isn't in high enough concentrations to be relevant. Guessing at this stage is pointless, and I should send the material to a lab instead. It apparently has a very long active shelf life, but there's no good way to re-activate it, even with more of the chemical. Once the silicone is cured, it's either in it or it's not. There's a paper on swelling silicone with chemical infused ethanol, but it is not as long lasting from what I remember.

>>21173 Understood. Thanks for the lucid explanation of what is surely a complex organic chemistry effect. Cheers.

I've been doing a little research on how to go about casting silicon. Apparently it's not done by carving styrofoam but by making a clay figure, casting silicon rubber and then casting the food grade silicon inside it. Or something like that... The part that I think it's going to be kind of tricky in particular is drying the clay...unless dry clay is good enough? Also how would I go about making the figure hollow inside?

>>21427 I meant baking the clay. Baking the clay would be tricky...

>>21428 Okay so upon further searching I found out about slush casting. So that's how it'd be made hollow I guess.

>>21430 Okay last thought. I just found something called paper mache clay that can be made with stuff you can find in the store. Not only is it cheaper I think but it doesn't need to be baked. So I think I'll try that.

>>21427 >>21428 >>21430 >>21431 Good research Anon. Please post pictures for us when you begin work on your casts! Cheers. :^)

>>21440 Thank you but Im on monk mode until I return to my house on the 11th of april. I'm also moving to another house so that might delay things a bit too. I've been (trying) to read books on electronics but they are kind of dense... first I tried electronics for inventors and immediately went like nope, then the art of electronics, which was better but I was progressing at a snails pace, I found one called teach yourself electronics which is not too dumbed down... I just download the PDF from Google and put them on my Kindle for free lol.

>>21441 Very glad to hear you're studying Anon! If you find good things to recommend, please post about them in our ROBOWAIFU U thread. BTW, I'm soon planning to put on the Teacher's cap and attempt to turn the tables for the first time. So just like everyone else here on /robowaifu/, we're both stretching our limits and doing new things. May every one of us prosper at it right well! :^)

Okay so once the paper mache clay is done it needs to be covered in a material to make a mold to then do the slush casting of the food grade silicon. I was thinking of using silicon wax but I just found something else. Acetone+styrofoam. If you mix the two you get goo and it hardens into plastic which can be used to make the mold.

>>21447 I would suggest buying very tough "casting silicone" (most hobby shop sites will have for sale, usually 2-5 liters a bucket), stuff dries in less than 25-20 min as well. For mother-molds I suggest polyester filler. Often the sort used for boats, it´s affordable and again like the silicone very quick drying, just remember to have ventilation when drying/mixing it. my experiences seen here: >>19234

>>21430 also depends on the epoxy, most standard epoxy takes far too long to become thick and half-dried for slosh-casting, so you gotta find the right brand. If not you can use my method of just having it 3/4 cured and have it float around at a snail´s pace

>>21452 What would be the drawbacks of using the cheaper acetone+styrofoam though... I just thought of something else. Im not sure if the knees and the elbows should be solid. But then again if it's hollow it might be flexible.

>>21454 never heard of such a combination, reminds me of gasoline and styrofoam. In any case I´d be careful and rely on materials less dangerous than combinations like that

>>21456 Oh no it's not dangerous I think. I found it on YouTube https://youtu.be/3R8n85QgRH4

>>21457 cool, however I would still recommend a heavily ventilated area/room. Who knows what sorta fumes that spawns, safety first anon

>>21447 Make sure that you don't try to use tin-cure silicone on platinum-cure (typically food-grade). It will not cure if you do.

>>21469 Okay so I think I'll just buy the air dry clay from Alibaba instead of making my own. I think I'll need like 40-50 kilos of air dry clay and they go for over a dollar a kilo which is not too much of a problem. But the silicon wax is kind of a problem so I don't see much of an alternative really. I'm kind of worried the melted styrofoam might stick to the clay figure so I'll probably brush it with motor oil just to be sure...

>>21468 >Who knows what sorta fumes that spawns, safety first anon This. Please be careful, 'acetone+styrofoam' sounds quite hazardous in numerous ways! >>21470 Good luck Anon. Again, post pictures!

Leaving this here for now: 20" long, jumbo-diameter, drinking straws. https://www.wowplastics.com/drinking-straws/jumbo-straw-20-red-2-500-case/ > ( cf. >>21223)

>>21480 To save from having to deal with paper (more resistant to humidity, for example): Thin-wall tubing. https://www.genplex.com/plastic-tubing-products/thin-wall-plastic-tubing https://www.jddsleeve.com/heat-shrinkable-tube/thin-wall-heat-shrinkable-tube.html

>>21427 Sorry for the late answer. I was planning to use a 3D printed mold after smoothing out the inside with resin. The other option would be using Monster Clay or something similar, which might require a "Slow Cooker" to make it soft without starting a fire. Then one can make a model from that, using this 3D printed mold by putting in the clay. Then smooth the clay part out and work on the details, then make a mold of that again, I guess using plaster or something. >>21447 >Acetone+styrofoam This sounds very unpleasant and unhealthy. Make sure this isn't some fake. >>21441 I think "Getting started with Electronics" should be in the thread about that topic.

Plastics in robots: a degradation study of a humanoid skin mask made of soft urethane elastomer https://heritagesciencejournal.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40494-021-00636-8 Aside from problems of longevity, I doubt if phthalates are very good to have at home. I think they were banned in child toys. Soft polyurethane (PUR) or synthetic silicone rubber seems to have many degradation issues. We probably wouldn't use that on the outside anyways, but it's good to know and keep in mind if someone wanted to use it inside somewhere. >Objects made of PUR, together with those made of cellulose nitrate, cellulose acetate and polyvinylchloride (PVC), tend to be more susceptible to degradation than other plastic objects in museum collections [12,13,14]. Several studies were conducted to understand the aging of PUR foams [12,13,14,15,16,17,18] or PUR coatings [19, 20], which alterations depend mainly on the ether or ester composition of the polymer. PUR ether polymers are more sensitive to oxidation, which causes discoloration and loss of mechanical properties, while PUR ester polymers degrade mainly by hydrolysis, caused by exposure to moisture, heat and light, and lead to chain scission of the polymer and its crumbling

More sensor than computer related but it's still pretty cool. https://chemistry-europe.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/open.201900186 Creation of Conductive Graphene Materials by Bacterial Reduction Using Shewanella Oneidensis >Graphene's maximized surface-to-volume ratio, high conductance, mechanical strength, and flexibility make it a promising nanomaterial. However, large-scale graphene production is typically cost-intensive. This manuscript describes a microbial reduction approach for producing graphene that utilizes the bacterium Shewanella oneidensis in combination with modern nanotechnology to enable a low-cost, large-scale production method. The bacterial reduction approach presented in this paper increases the conductance of single graphene oxide flakes as well as bulk graphene oxide sheets by 2.1 to 2.7 orders of magnitude respectively while simultaneously retaining a high surface-area-to-thickness ratio. Shewanella-mediated reduction was employed in conjunction with electron-beam lithography to reduce one surface of individual graphene oxide flakes. This methodology yielded conducting flakes with differing functionalization on the top and bottom faces. Therefore, microbial reduction of graphene oxide enables the development and up-scaling of new types of graphene-based materials and devices with a variety of applications including nano-composites, conductive inks, and biosensors, while avoiding usage of hazardous, environmentally-unfriendly chemicals.

>>23689 If varieties of different graphene can be cheaply manufactured, I predict it will lead to numerous breakthroughs in a wide variety of fields. Neat, thanks Ribose. :^)

>>23690 only advantage of using carbon instead of silicon is just weight though, doping silicon is already cheap, simple and now precise to the atomic level its not like were going to run out of sand any time soon, every time i read these articles its like they pretend we havent been doing this with silicon for the past 70 years

I understand your perspective Anon, and tbh my thoughts are primarily in the general materials-sciences arenas, as far as our robowaifu designs go. Keeping mass low, yet maintaining both high tensile- and impact-strength is a big deal for us. Cheap graphene manufacturing could revolutionize many types of mechanical endeavors, including ours.

>>23692 yeah but come on thats basically just what steel is, the higher the carbon content the higher the strength and yet low carbon steel is still the most commonly used in engineering and for obvious reasons ( fracture points in pic ), graphene materials will be the same as fibreglass today except half the weight, youre right though in our case weight is important but not so much in anything else that doesnt already use fibreglass

>>23693 >graphene materials will be the same as fibreglass today except half the weight You vastly underestimate the strength of graphene. Graphene is over 200 times stronger in tension than steel. The "specific strength" of graphene and some derivatives is listed below. I got this from studying flywheels. The watt-hours per kilogra is directly related to the specific strength (strength in tension per weight of material). Material Spec.strength in (kN·m/kg or kYuri) Low Carbon Steel (AISI 1010) 46.4 Stainless steel (304) 63.1 S-glass epoxy(45%) 390 Single wall carbon nanotube(low end) 38,461 Graphene 130,000 The number for graphene is huge. Stupendous.

>>23694 in only one axis, unlike steel graphene cant have a thickness more than an atom, its a sheet, one axis is strong the other is basically the force required to break a singe carbon bond and if you layer it the strength is determined by whatever is holding the layers together not the graphene

>>23695 >unlike steel graphene cant have a thickness more than an atom You're numbers are still way off. After all steel is just a bunch of one layers of molecules steel bonded together is it not? The below figure is high but accurate but it will not be the total strength. Graphene 130,000 Single wall carbon nanotube(low end) 38,461 This more like it. A fiber can be bonded by less strong glues and because there's a whole lot of them, they add up to far higher strength than the individual bonds of each of the glue bonds.

>>23696 except metals have the same bonding in all directions, graphene can only bond in 2d hexagonal sheets, thats the definition of graphene unless you meant diamonds, grapehen in layers is also called graphite and the forces between those layers are so weak they flake off with the slightest pressure thats why theyre used as pencils, metals arent structures theyre just 3d solids these extrapolated numbers for a material that dosnt even have a thickness are asinine when compared to metals that can have infinite thickness, to put it in perspective pretend graphene is fucking 100000x stronger than aluminum wow thats like super future tech shit, now get you some aluminum foil, which would have a thickness of >100000 atoms, that max 1 atom thick graphene sheet has basically the same structural strength as a sheet of aluminum foil (except perpendicular axis which is the strength of a single atom), yeah very impressive material....for ants like i said its only going to be useful for composite materials like fiberglass , which will basically just be another carbonfiber

>>23697 You're supposed to layer the sheets I think.

>>23697 >>graphene materials will be the same as fibreglass today except half the weight If you want to believe this it's fine. I do not. It's not that important to me. Maybe you will change your mind later. Maybe not.

>>23698 well lucky for you they already sell those, its called Pencil(tm) advanced skribing technology, the graphene sheets are layered into a long column and are designed to smart insert themselves into any canvas like substrate through geometric shearing angles specifically design to do so, its similar to a pen only better and more modern because you just press it down and without even any liquid or force its capable of slicing off the exact number of sheets required based on your preference and electrostaticly sticking the graphene sheets to anything you want to draw on you dont even need real ink the graphene sheets will auto-arrange themselves, smart mode, and smart follow the strokes of your hand, it will auto calibrate the number of the sheets dispensed by sensing your pressure on it, no mess, no dripping, no refilling, no nothing, and unlike normal ink, the Pencil(tm) has a ctrl+z you heard me, this marvel of the 21st century using graphene technology can dissociate intramolecular forces and undo the past using a high tech polymer located on the opposite side of the targeted graphene sheet dispenser* the future is now, say no to pens say yes to Pencil(tm) *on enhanced model Pencil(tm) only

>>23700 You're really desperate that you would go so far as to equate graphene composites with "graphite" pencils. It's possible you're one of those people who will just make up shit to "pretend" that you've won something. But surely not. I'm sure you feel vindicated. You've even won a prize for proving????...that Grommet thinks pencils are super strong. Here it is... ((( )))

Classical Greek has nothing to do with graphene, probably why you brought it up. Classic misdirection. But just so people understand how bad ass graphene composites are here's a plastic made of milk with a minuscule amount of graphene (0.5%) added that is 10X stronger then steel per weight. 1934 Simple Bioplastic Made Stronger Than Steel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OihOnlMV7fQ[Embed] They shot it and a 3mm thick plate would stop a 9mm bullet. Robert Murray-Smith has a ton of videos on graphene and all other sorts of interesting stuff. Lots of DIY stuff.

>>23702 because you made a nonsensical clown post i found amusing, implying graphite isnt a stack of graphene or whatever '"graphite" pencil' is supposed to imply given that the word itself is derived from graphos/graphein, graph-ite literally being a writing instrument, its a self defining word like hepatitis hence the pencil riddle youre just trying to shift your position to what i already stated: that its only useful when sprayed in minute quantities in plastic ie. composites ieie. identical to what weve done with fiberglass for decades with absolutely zero advantage other than weight, yeah i already know this you dont need to prove my point to me you can just say you agree

im not a kike, youre just an imbecile that hasnt got a clue which is why you bizarrely and presumptuously persist to claim simple facts are just made up or wrong because that is how (You) operate, youre a joke why not look at a fucking highschool level chemistry book instead of using jewtube as as your weltanschauung, moron https://chem.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Inorganic_Chemistry/Inorganic_Chemistry_(LibreTexts)/08%3A_Chemistry_of_the_Main_Group_Elements/8.07%3A_Group_14/8.7.01%3A_The_Group_14_Elements_and_the_many_Allotropes_of_Carbon try making an actual rebuttal to my statement instead of going on a peabrain tirade, clown

>>23709 Is there a way to settle this debate without reading a lot of papers? Tbh, I don't think Robert Murray-Smith is a good reference. Some say he's a fraud and others say his ideas might be real. Only way to find out would be getting deeply into it and copy his experiments. Then again, why are the things he's talking about for years not wide spread already? Doesn't look so good... >>23697 I don't know how strong a "carbon nanotube" exactly is, but I know from a reliably source (someone who works for the European Space Agency) that the idea of a space-lift is based on that and we're not that far off. It might work, and certainly not just based on "something like fiberglas" or "just some carbonfiber". It's certainly a very special material. That said, I doubt we'll be able to make this stuff on our own and use it for robowaifus. >=== -patched in crosslink

>>23704 You may not be a kike but you write just like one. (If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's probably a duck). You're whole agenda is to start fights, gas-light people with bullshit and drive everything off track. > graphene materials will be the same as fibreglass today except half the weight You are wrong. It's as simple as that. He's trying to confuse you with bullshit. That graphene can be "assembled or converted" from graphite, is true. But use your head, think, if graphite was graphene then everyone would get a bunch of graphite and put it in everything because this shit is first level major super juice for reinforcing composites. Do people do that??? No they don't so you know he's blowing smoke up your ass and insulting me, for no other reason than "he talks like a Jew". (get the reference?) That people are not using graphite like he says tells you he's full of shit. Jews technique of constantly spewing out bullshit is really suffering because of internet. People can look stuff up and see they are nothing but a bunch of psychopathic constant genetic constrained liars and scams. Notice his link is to a whole chemistry book. I know there's not a damn thing in there about graphite being graphene because, it's not. I don't have to look, but he wants to think it's there. Now you can get graphene from graphite but it takes chemicals and electrolytic separation to get it. It's not easy. All the methods of producing graphene, in numbers to be useful, are very time consuming and expensive. They're working on it and they will likely eventually figure a cheaper way. As for the strength some of the super high figures I gave are for very specialized perfect stuff, meaning super difficult to make, but even the not so good stuff has really high strengths far above most anything else. The sources I have for these strengths are from me looking at flywheels for batteries. Some sources https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanical_properties_of_carbon_nanotubes https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2018/10/discussion-of-80-gigapascal-super-material-potential-for-energy-and-space.html https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/flywheel-energy-d_945.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flywheel_energy_storage https://web.archive.org/web/20200529230749/http://zebu.uoregon.edu/1996/ph162/l10a.html ENERGY CONSERVATION WITH FLYWHEELS V1_N2_1980_Rabenhorst You can see all over that this stuff is super strong. As soon as they find a way to make it cheap it will be everywhere. I uploaded a couple of charts from a book I saved. I have a text file with a lot of data on specific strength and flywheel potential I save data in a chart. That's why I can throw these numbers out so quick. >>23706 >I don't think Robert Murray-Smith is a good reference He's a great reference. He takes basic stuff and shows you how to make interesting stuff. I think where people say he's a fraud is that he appears to make it look easy. He takes very recent scientific papers and replicates their work but...this stuff is hard to do. It's not easy to get some of results that he does. It takes a strong background and he has a good deal of equipment to do this. The point Robert is trying to make, and I get it, is that this stuff CAN be done with enough work on it. he says this constantly that you will have to bone up and do some real work to make this stuff. He says it over and over. It's not like you can miss it if you look at a lot of his videos. He's just showing you what IS possible. My feeling is the people criticizing him are the same sort of jerks that constantly criticize anyone who does something worth a damn. Crabs would due to their own mental hangups want to drag everyone else to their level. Look up "Robert Murray-Smith is a fraud" and you will see that people who know what they are talking about really like his work. The criticizers are mostly the drive by gas-lighting type. Wouldn't surprise me if a majority of the critical are Jews as it's just what they do constantly. Like our kike above trying to gas-light you about graphene. >>23706 >Then again, why are the things he's talking about for years not wide spread already? I don't know why this is but for some reason it takes about 30 years for new advances to become mainstream. Look this up, it's a general rule. Some scientist has said that the only way new ideas come into the mainstream is that the old ones retire or die off so the new ideas can get a chance. Look at what Musk did with rockets. Boeing and Lockheed could have done this but the people running the companies are dick heads, globalhomos and assholes, who don't give a damn about actually accomplishing things. They only want the max revenue "right now". Same with electric cars. GM built a great electric car but after leasing them to people who LOVED them called them all back and crushed them. Fools. Electric cars aren't perfect but a big segment of the population really like them. They could have owned the electric car market but now they are slowly dying. ANother reson advances do not happen is that large corporations buy up ground breaking patents and then, sit on them. The battery company that made GM's battery for the car they crushed, was bought up by them and then sold to one of the oil companies. Then they did...nothing. Not a damn thing. They refused to sell smaller batteries only large giant packs to electric companies. Here's another. Robert Murray-Smith built a carbon battery that had great potential. I saw his videos. He patented it. The buyers, "Edison Company", told him that they were going to build this solar housing project with his batteries as storage. He went Canada and made videos showing where they would be built and then when he finalized the deal with the "Edison Company". Nothing. They cut him off and he was contractually bound to not say a word about any of it. They ripped him off. This happens constantly.

>>23704 knowledge alone won't build the waifu buddy. You hoard knowledge and don't contribute it might as well be nothing as far as this thing is concerned. You already know how you can contribute. Make something and show it off at the prototype thread like I've been doing.

migration complete.

>>23707 Missed these saving-then-posting these images for this post.

>>23710 Thanks. A little bit less chaos.

Related: >>24149 >titebond type II and III >III being more waterproof. $30USD a gallon. This stuff works fine with drop cloths to make "poor man's fiberglass"

Related: >>25300 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase-change_material https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyacrylamide https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_acetate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_sulfate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_hydroxide

So youv'e built your robot waifu and it works reasonably well. It still needs some code tweeks but there's still one big problem- It looks like crap. The prints are different colors, it's got soldering burns and glue smears, duct tape is holding some wiring in place and there are some unsightly gaps in places in the structure to allow for movement. All-in-all it's pretty unattractive, but it's your waifu! What can you do? Or maybe you never started building a waifu because you were afraid it would turn out like this. Well despair no more. Go to ebay and search "robot bodysuit" and scroll throught the listings. On offer are an assortment of robot themed women's costumes (catsuits really) for you to choose from. They are printed front and rear and range from sophisticated high-tech to clockwork designs. You know what to do to make you and your girl happy. Or if you're a fan of Alita search "battle angel Alita costume". I've renamed the picrels above to the listings they came from. Most have an assortment of styles even if they show only one. Then while you wait for your waifu's "skin" to arrive (probably from china, no need to pay more for a local shipper) go to this thread on the Doll Forum's Inventor's Corner to see how to sculpt a foam body for your girl: https://dollforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=105821&sid=24d58ecc3423975dc5e82b0d12373cec You may even finish before the skin arrives. Remember to double-check the sizing. As the old saying goes "clothes make the man". It may be true for your girl too. Of course this will be a personal esthetic choice. I know my waifu is a robot so I like this high-tech machine look. Others may not. It may also help with the uncanny valley since the skin design is obviously robotic (reveling in it!) and not trying to be something it's not. Good luck with your projects.

>>25760 I thought about doing the styrofoam thing but I'm afraid it won't be perfect. That comes later though. Ty.

October has arrived and here in the states that means Halloween is coming. That means thrift shops are selling donated costumes, wigs and props at ridiculous discounts from the original prices. Need a french-maid outfit and a tail for your catgirl? How about pleated skirts for a schoolgirl? what about office wear or a business suit for when she is helping you with taxes? You might find it. What about everyday clothes, or will she be naked all the time? *I found an Austin Powers Fembot costume for $1. That's right, a Fembot costume for my Fembot! Muhahaha!* So now is the time to find some great bargains on outfits and wigs you will pay a lot more for later. Doing so now also gives you plausible deniability to buy other apparel as costume possibilities if you are nervous about shopping for women's clothing in public. If you have a specific anime character in mind so much the better. Check women's sizing charts to see what sizes tour waifu will be/is. Shoes are another matter if her feet haven't been built yet. On the other hand you might want to see what sizes your local thrift store has the most of and size your girls feet to have the largest selection to choose from. Hold off on getting any high-heels- lets get her walking in flats before trying those. You may also find other useful items to repurpose for waifu use. For example women's leather gloves- not just to wear, but what better material to simulate skin than actual skin? Usually black or brown but I have found light tan close enough to skin tone. However they may not fit many of the robot "man" hands available for printing. Barbie Stylin Heads, the ones with the hands to practice nail polish are the largest, for the heads of smaller robots. Children's electronic toys that make noise like educational toys and stuffed animals, and some lightsabers have small speakers- you want her to talk yes? Save all the little screws and the other electronics for parts for future use. Large motorized toys have DC motors that can be used in various ways- check the actuator threads. Vibrating massage pads for chairs yield motors, heating wire and foam to use for padding your waifu's skeleton. Hair blow-driers also have DC motors although sometimes the fan can be difficult to remove from the shaft. They also have diodes and heating elements that can be straightened out and used to hotwire carve foam (do it in a well ventilated area, preferably outdoors). Rubber excercise tubing is used in life-sized BJDs and could be used for spring assist, might also be usable as vacuum tubing. Stainless steel pots and pans will make reinforcing brackets far less expensively than buying stock at a hardware store. Aluminum will also work if it's thicker, like pressure cookers and roof-racks for skis. Foam yoga pads, the smooth ones, not the waffle surface, for padding your girls hard surfaces near the skin. Old plastic shelving, the thick stuff made of abs can be cut into a variety of parts like finger "bones" if you're doing fleshed silicone hands, or heat formed into ribs, etc. Plastic water bottles or clear tubing the right size can be used to make a Venus 2000 type receiver >>25775. Tiny toy helicopters, almost always missing the remote, can be scrapped for their main and tail rotor motors. These were originally the vibrator motors in pagers and now cell phones and can be used as vibrators again attached to the liner in the venus receiver. I have found all of these, often for 1 or 2 dollars, or less. Don't limit yourself to possible robot parts. You can find useful hand or power tools ready to use or appliances that can be used like electric carving knives to use on foam. If you don't know how to sew get a used sewing machine and learn how. As part of my tooling up for large robot projects I am making a Lyman type 6 vertical filament extruder. It will be used to recycle the abs remains of various printers and scanners scrapped for parts. To drive the auger I'm going to use the motor and reduction drive from an ice-cream maker ($3) with some bicycle sprockets and chain (trash picks). I'm also working on a PET bottle filament machine powered by an old electric can-opener ($1) using a large hot glue gun heater as the forming die ($2) and bearings from rollerblades my neighbor's kids outgrew. (Rollerblades have 2 bearings per wheel and a pair has 8 wheels for 16 bearings that can also be used in your waifu's larger joints) A food dehydrator to dry filament was $5. Large mirrors ($5 to $10 - cooler than ordinary glass) can be used to build very large 3D printers. I have also seen electric treadmills for $20 but didn't buy them because I have already collected 4 put out for trash (I passed on a 5th one last week). I scrapped 3 and kept the best one to train my robot's walking gaits. The steel from the other 3, as well as steel bed frames (many trash pics) will be used to suspend the robots while they learn to walk on the tread. So check the thrift shops now during the run-up to Halloween. You can sometimes find good deals at Goodwill or Salvation Army, they usually receive items from distribution centers once a week. But by far the best bargains will be at the local charity shops that put out new stock daily. In my area that's a shop associated with a local religious university. Try to go early, when they are opening the doors if possible and bring a tape measure. And don't forget flea markets while the weather lasts. And if you find a hoverboard get it. >>25783 Good luck and good hunting. Lyman Filament Extruder V6 https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1199870

>>25798 The author is discussing the opportunity to find useful materials and items at thrift shops during the Halloween season, as people donate costumes, props, and other items. They mention that you can find a variety of clothing and accessories, including costumes and everyday wear, which can be repurposed for various projects, such as creating outfits for humanoid robots or dolls. The author also suggests looking for other useful items, such as electronics, toys, tools, and appliances, that can be used in DIY projects, particularly in building and modifying robots. They provide examples of items that can be repurposed, such as motors, speakers, screws, and more, often at low prices. Overall, the author encourages readers to take advantage of the Halloween season to visit thrift shops and flea markets, where they may find cost-effective materials and tools for their creative projects, including those related to robotics.

>>25798 >Leather gloves Actually an ingenious idea for a hand covering. MaSiRo and MaidCom use cloth gloves but, leather is a better idea.

>>25801 LOL. tldr?

>>25804 Yeah, I sometimes prefer summaries, if I don't know if the text is currently relevant to me but I want to know what it is about, and when I have the summary I can post it as well. Don't let this discourage you, thanks for sharing your ideas.

>>25802 >MaSiRo and MaidCom use cloth gloves Maybe that's why their meido has to use both hands to support a soft-drink can? Or the arms are not strong enough to use only one, or maybe both.

>>25872 I think even just the little rubberized 'thimble' fingertip covers you can get at a stationary store would go a long way towards affording a robowaifu's hands a better grip.

Anyone try this? https://www.smooth-on.com/product-line/soma-foama/

>>25916 I've been involved with Smooth-On products before, but not sure about this specific mixture Anon. I may venture that they are all primo quality, but highly-expensive. In their case however, at this point in time at least, I'd say you get what you pay for.

>Since silicon nitride ball bearings are harder than metal, this reduces contact with the bearing track. This results in 80% less friction, three to ten times longer lifetime, 80% higher speed, 60% less weight, the ability to operate with lubrication starvation, higher corrosion resistance and higher operation temperature, as compared to traditional metal bearings.[27] Silicon nitride balls weigh 79% less than tungsten carbide balls. Silicon nitride ball bearings can be found in high end automotive bearings, industrial bearings, wind turbines, motorsports, bicycles, rollerblades and skateboards. Silicon nitride bearings are especially useful in applications where corrosion or electric or magnetic fields prohibit the use of metals, for example, in tidal flow meters, where seawater attack is a problem, or in electric field seekers. It might also be interesting in other areas related to robowaifus. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_nitride

Does the boobs go here? Imagine not having a dedicated thread to one of the most important parts of the robot lol

>>154 Why not alginate hydrogel? It's soft and fleshy enough, water absorbent and also anti-microbial

>>28119 Neat! I wonder if it's particularly difficult/expensive to manufacture? >>28140 >Does the boobs go here? No, we have a lewds-containment thread, the Vagoo thread : (>>419), for such things. Please keep things explicitly robowaifu-related, and spoilered. >>28184 >alginate hydrogel? Wow that's some really fascinating material, Anon. Do you think it's suited to DIY manufacture, and if so have any protips for us about it? Cheers. :^)

>>28186 >Do you think it's suited to DIY manufacture, and if so have any protips for us about it? Hello again, Chobi. The materials needed for its manufacture are available for DIYing it. As for color and pigmentation, i think having a tattoo gun type of device would be suitable for giving it more of a human like color as opposed to something like air brushed paint so that the transparent hydrogel can look like skin and so that it'll take on a lighter tone when certain parts of the material are stretched along parts of the body that actuate or have thinner areas of skin. I'm of the belief that we should go the soft robotics route so we can make them as human like as possible. Anyways, here's a video of some guy making the hydrogel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sz0KkT603E He has other videos he made where he makes a bunch of other stretchable materials.

>>28187 its like ballistic gel

>>28189 Sorta, yeah. Except when you jizz inside of it, it'll absorb the water content while it kills whatever germs you gave it

>>28187 Good to see you again, Anon. >an actual lab tho I'm curious about the safety issues with the materials involved? I'm too ignorant of Chemistry to know if the ingredients/admixtures of them, are toxic or otherwise deleterious to humans. Wonder what the material's costs are, and the accessibility of them by common anons like me? As to the manufacturing process, it appears to be simplicity itself. And apart from the technical stirrer/hotplate equipment, nothing special was required by way of tools either. Even a common disposable styrofoam plate (apparently at room temperature) was used as the curing bed lol. >I'm of the belief that we should go the soft robotics route so we can make them as human like as possible. That certainly is a very-desirable characteristic of great robowaifus IMO. However, we here as engineers need to keep the mechanics of the laws of physics always in mind. The >tl;dr is that mass is central to everything we do here (>>4313). Since this material is hydrophilic, I anticipate that it will have roughly the density of water (which is quite heavy, relative to our concerns here). OTOH, since it can be readily useful in thin-films/sheets, we could probably very conveniently use the stuff as a type of skin over our robowaifu's shell substrates. I note that the researchers were typically using rubber gloves to handle this material, and that it often had a sheen reminiscent of being wet/damp. I wonder what this hydrogel feels like to the touch, and if it could in any way be made to be as comforting as normal human skin under normal conditions at home? Regardless, very cool idea Anon. Thanks for the information! Cheers. :^) >=== -sp, prose edit

>>28191 >I'm too ignorant of Chemistry to know if the ingredients/admixtures of them, are toxic or otherwise deleterious to humans. As afar as ai know, it's used in medical applications like skin repair and drug delivery systems, so i think it's completely non-toxic as far as i know.

>>28119 >silicon nitride ball bearings I had an idea and I don't think for our purposes it can be beat for bearings. Bearing with balls in them or rollers will ALWAYS have friction problems. The simple reason is you have a outer race of one circumference and the inner circumference of different, smaller, measurements. So one side or the other as it's rotating HAS to slip. To overcome this problem they make the balls small and super hard to have as little contact as possible. If you large wide rollers, which require less strong material, then you will have a high friction bearing. So how do we get around this. There's a guy who has a patent on a bearing he calls Rolamites https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolamite and scroller wheels https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrollerwheel He simply makes two rollers between the races. These are sized such that each one only moves the exact same speed while rolling. For the linear Rolamite they say the friction is an order of magnitude lower. That's a huge amount. Now I think that it's possible to use the same principles but use the advantages that we now have with 3D printing. On this site and elsewhere we see cycloid drives for gears. The advantages of these are a large area for the gear to press on. As shown here, >>16709 I also see Planetary Transmissions that can be used as bearings "if" you hold the center gear stationary. Like here, >>17030 Now combine the two, cycloidal gears with a broad surface and the planetary system where the gears rotate all at the same speed like the Rolomite. Then you have low friction with large surface area. This means we can use less strong and easier to process materials. Like plastics. And WAY cheaper. Many plastics are stronger than steel per weight but they need a larger surface area to not be dented. This won't work with regular ball bearing because of the difference in race sizes causing friction but with a geared system we can make large, high surface area bearings with low friction. And we can cast these easily in complicated shapes due to the easy prototyping of 3D printing. There's one more advantage I see that I've never heard anyone else talk about. Even and long lasting wear. I know this long but to explain it takes time. There's a way to get next to perfectly smooth flat surfaces. They do this with surface plates. You have three plates all alike. You rub two together, One will become convex and one concave. You then rub the third plate on the others. You can see that if the third is convex and the others concave or convex by swapping the rubbing back and forth between the three plates eventually all will become flat because each surface will be different and each will rub down the irregularities of the others. You can get atomic sized flats from this. I believe that you can get much the same out of these cycloid planetary gear systems. The outer race, the inner gears and the inner race are very similar to the three surface plates. If you choose the gear ratios such that it takes a good while for the meeting points to line up the whole will revolve a lot of times before they line up exactly the same. As they revolve any friction will wear down only those areas not perfectly aligned to meet up. In essence the gear will get better and better as it revolves. If the gears are all slanted a bit towards the center a simple tighten, just like tightening the bearing on a car wheel, will take up all slack for any wear. The gears would last a really long time with minimal friction. You could also not use any sort of grease. In fact it would be better not to as grease attracts dirt and captures it. This bearing only needs cleaning with water to remove any dust or other particles.

>>28192 >so i think it's completely non-toxic as far as i know. Yes, makes sense. We've discussed biocomputing for our robowaifus here before (>>2184). I wonder if such gels might be feasible for such efforts? Say, contained inside semi/sealed glass vessels for the biomolecules to lay down upon? >>28200 >You can get atomic sized flats from this. Wow that's really fascinating, Grommet. Thank you. Do you think that even materials like PLA filament might wear down in such a fashion over time to become ultra-smooth like this? >=== -add'l resp

>>28209 >I wonder if such gels might be feasible for such efforts? Say, contained inside semi/sealed glass vessels for the biomolecules to lay down upon? Funny thing, that's currently being researched right now using alginate hydrogel. I'm moreso focused on making hardware centered around parallelism because i think it would be much less messy (and disgusting) than working with brain tissue samples.

I know the doll board has been referenced before, so at the risk of beating a dead horse, an ideal cottage industry minimum viable [s]waifu[/s] product sounds like it would be a scaled up 3d printed jointed doll like Polaris or something. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3184441 Parts would be kinda big so maybe a high-volume printer like and Ender3NeoMax. Could even print it in flexible filament if you're feeling fancy but you'd need a direct drive 3d printer rather than a bowden and other than the Sovol (which can be kinda hinky) idk. Maybe give put a layer of furniture foam over the 3d print (and since the structure will be hidden you won't have to worry about consistent color except maybe the face) then a rubber "cosplay bodysuit" (fully body rubber suits auto-gynophiles wear). Of course my jam is more the robotic aspect but just an idea.

>>28209 >Do you think that even materials like PLA filament might wear down in such a fashion over time to become ultra-smooth like this I'm not positive about this but it does logically follow. (Sometimes logic doesn't work though in fact). Some of it would depend on the "gumminess" of the material. If it picked up pieces and smeared them instead of wearing or packing down, might not work. I do believe this would not be the case but can't tell as it hasn't been done. The self generated accuracy due to even wear, depends on how the ratio of gears lines up. "IF" they have a very long period before they align up to the same outer race gear, inner gear and inner race gear then you can see that all the gears would almost equally wear on each other. If one spot was high some other spot low, they would over time wear each other the exact same. As they are all rotating and each tooth is being rubbed by all the other teeth I think we have the same effect as the surface plate where the average profile is enforced and they wear equally. Over time they would become more and more accurate. The wear would create a slight space or slack which could be easily taken up the same as wheel bearing slack in a car wheel is. Tighten a little to take up the slack. What's important is you can use less strong materials BUT spread the force over a larger space, WITHOUT creating point source loads like normal ball bearings are. Normal bearing MUST be hard because they need small areas to keep from adding large friction as noted above. You side step that with large hypercycloid gears.

>>4330 >>21161 >Cut-resistant performance of Kevlar and UHMWPE covered yarn fabrics with different structures >Kevlar fiber and UHMWPE fiber https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00405000.2021.1933327 >Kevlar fiber and UHMWPE fiber are widely used in stab-resistant materials at home and abroad. Researches focus on the selection of a single fiber as raw material, but rarely combine the two high-performance fibers for the fabrication of stab-resistant fabrics. Kevlar fiber and UHMWPE fiber were utilized to prepare twelve kinds of covered yarns with different structures in this paper. Tensile performance of the covered yarns and cut-resistant performance of the covered yarn fabrics were tested, respectively. The results show that tensile performance of the covered yarns is better than pure Kevlar or UHMWPE yarns with same linear density. Tensile performance of the covered yarns decreases with the increase of twists, and the covered yarns show different failure modes with different twists. The cut-resistant performance of covered yarn fabrics are better than that of pure Kevlar or UHMWPE fabrics; and the cut-resistant effect with Kevlar fibers wrapping around the core fibers is superior than that with UHMWPE fibers. The cut-resistant performance of the covered yarn fabrics decreases with the increase of twists of the covered yarns. For the same kind of covered yarn structures, there is a positive correlation between cut-resistant performance of the covered yarn fabrics and tensile strength of the covered yarns. However, no correlation is observed for different covered yarn structures. The results lay a theoretical foundation for the structural optimum of cut-resistant and stab-resistant clothing. Topic via Pete Blank Discord

>>4330 >As a skin for areas that are less likely to be seen or felt synthetic fabrics could save on cost, as the alternative is silicone I'm not buying that. Silicone is gross and sticky. It feels awful. Go and rub on a microfiber sheet. It's like silk. A spandex microfiber mix would likely be the best we could do without going to some sort of silk or super expensive wool. Neither of which would wear anywhere near as good as the synthetics.

>>3058 More on mycelium use cases and background information, especially in regards to flexible materials including something like leather: https://youtu.be/cApVVuuqLFY https://youtu.be/oe3Vwnnp-VA There are plenty of more videos.

MyCera is an interesting material made from sawdust, clay, and mycelium. The mycelium grows on the sawdust and binds the clay together. While we probably won't be using MyCera for robowaifus the idea of using mycelium as binding agent is kind of interesting. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RMdPgJJPOew&pp=ygUGTXljZXJh

>>28878 >printed fungi supporting structures I moved my answer on this to R&D general here >>28907, in case it starts a longer conversation about how to use this. Though, it would also fit into cyborg general since this is used for most biology related topics.

>>28908 We can remove this post for you if you'd like, Noido Dev.

>>29394 >>29414 >>29422 >>29423 Thinking about the idea of silicone body-part sleeves from doll manufacturers discussed in the crosslinks, I realized that many robowaifu builders might use female sex toys replicating anatomy as source material for their projects. I recalled seeing annoying ads for some of these on certain anime/otaku sites and so went to ebay to see what, if anything was available. It turns out there is quite a lot, surprisingly so. In fact so much I'm not sure whether to be happy at the extent of useful material or dismayed at the state of our culture that has made it available in such variety. Oh well, when you find lemons make lemonade. I initially didn't think any female limbs would be on offer, so I searched for "silicone female torso" and got over 1k hits. These covered a wide variety of items, most interestingly the "silicone female bodysuit" selection. These are basically anatomically correct silicone catsuits for trans-whatevers to wear and impersonate women. The ones I have seen listed so far do not have attached hands, feet or heads/masks. They are of interest because being able to get almost the entire body as one piece will reduce the problem of color-matching different body parts. This led me to wonder about the missing parts, so a search for "silicone female glove" turned up silicone female gloves for trans or hiding scars, and solid silicone hands for modeling jewelry. Searching "silicone female foot" yielded silicone mannequin feet and legs, the larger the item the higher the price, generally. I haven't found any hollow silicone feet yet. And a search for "silicone female mask" yielded same. Most of these were not very attractive although some might rival doll-maker's heads. But it should be remembered that these are masks intended for male trans to wear, and so are probably somewhat larger than a normal female head. The same may or may not be true for the gloves. Presumably the items designed to be worn are skin-safe, in fact some of the bodysuits include catheters and other attachments to accommodate various activities. Prices vary greatly with some venders offering a variety of sizes, colors and breast size. As said a very large selection. Now that we know about this possibility for robowaifu skin, the next thing to do is probably to find trans community sites with reviews and recommendations- pricing, quality, realism, useful lifetime, maintenance, repairs, etc., to gleen more information. *nobody said the journey would be easy or pretty- keep the end goal in mind* The picrels are of some examples from ebay, renamed as they were listed. I'm not recommending anything, just showing examples.

>>28909 No, I don't think so.

>>29428 This is some good research, Anon. Thank you. :^)

>>29394 >>29414 >>29422 >>29423 >>29444 The major differences between the doll heads and the tranny masks seem to be: The thickness of the material- doll rubber is much thicker to withstand the action of anon's body when he is "getting" oral, so too difficult for servos to manipulate for facial expressions without shaving down the thickness (from inside). This might make the material susceptible to tearing when trying to stretch it back over the skull. We might need to cut a slit in the rear like the masks to prevent this. On the other hand the additional thickness may allow for seating magnets to engage opposite pole magnets in slots on an animatronic skull, making removal/installation easier. I'm thinking of the scene from Bicentennial Man where Andrew's face is removed and he screams. We briefly see the inner layer of the face studded with 'somethings'. Shave down the area between them? Oral shouldn't be a problem for waifubot using a tranny mask (presumably they are already used for this) as the waifubot will be the one actually moving and "giving head"- less stressful on the face. Doll heads are made to be interchangeable so customers can mix and match them with their preferred body type. They actually screw on. While they don't wobble like a bobble-head doll, there is a gap between the top of the doll's neck and the head where they overlap which annoys some owners. Tranny masks usually have an integral neck and some portion of the shoulders and upper chest (like the Borg queen) so the lower edges of the mask can be hidden by clothing for a more convincing appearance. It depends on the look you want for your waifu. That's about all I can tell without genuine articles to examine.

Toxic products from China (including clothes): https://youtu.be/BxXDHGnOa_E - Don't use Talcum powder for silicone skin - Cloths for dolls or to make a skin-like material could contain poisonous materials - Metal parts could contain high levels of Led or Cadmium - People with children have to be even more careful. - Western chains might check their imports, even if the products are also made in China. Since they could be sued. >>29428 >>29447 Interesting, I'll look into this later.

>>29448 >Toxic products from China (including clothes): https://youtu.be/BxXDHGnOa_E Really glad I don't live in china >Don't use Talcum powder for silicone skin Cornstarch for humans wearing silicone, or wetsuits, etc. I think we want to keep any kind of fine powder away from the works of our waifus.

A reminder that composites are based. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxKlbik4QjM

>>29448 >china

There is a vastly available pretty much free material. Discarded HDPE bottles, jugs, lawn furniture, and pallets. It just winds up thrown in the dump instead of recycled a lot of the time. Could be chopped up, melted down and injection molded. Technically it can be used as a 3D print filament too with some difficulty.

Materials for hair: >>30524 and >>13862

>>30521 Thanks, I'm aware of that. These materials can be shredded and mixed with TPU and a small amount of another plastic which name I forgot, then it can be made into filament. I don't thing this is worth it, until you have many kilos of PLA waste and we find a way to build a cheap shredder using electroplating and maybe pre-heating the plastics to make it soft.

>>30527 It doesnt really have to be shredded that finely from all the videos ive seen on HDPE recycling often they just melt anything as is but in case of large objects they just need broken up for easier handling. At least in case of using it purely as HDPE not mixed with anything else, i know it would need to be more pellet sized to mix otherwise you will get uneven blending.

>>30529 True, but you still need to form it, also while being warm. It's also being used for making things that way because it's has a low melting point, which might be disadvantage in many cases when it comes to make something useful. Especially with motors that create heat. It's also not very strong, just tends to bend and not break, which can be good for security reasons. I always thought it might be interesting to make full body molds for adding the silicone shell. If someone makes a lot of them, then it might be useful to reduce the price of plastics. For normal prototyping work it doesn't really matter, since plastic isn't really that expensive and we don't need that much and other also it's not the right one. Then again, it might be interesting for people in poor countries. You can collect quite some of it over time just by keeping household waste made out of it. If someone would need more, it might be possible to collect it or ask the company collecting it with containers to buy some of it for cheap. Also, please don't do this indoors, however much you may think the dangers of chemicals or fumes are just something activists make up in their minds. 3D printers have a temperature control and only melt small amounts at a time. Trying to melt bigger parts with a less precise device will certainly create even more dangerous fumes.

>>30529 HDPE type IV and type VII plastics are not thermo-reactive: they can be melted down multiple times without emitting many harmful fumes and remain stable (provided you don't burn them). Any other type of HDPE undergo a chemical change upon heating (thermo-reactive) thus their recycling methods are more complex (usually chemical) and ill suited for DIY use. Typically, the type is a number inside the little recycling symbol. I looked into them a little over a decade ago investigating diy vaccu-forming. Gallon milk jugs are the most common source.

>>30532 My thought process was the moderate flex is good for a shell at least but fact it is used for pallets and deck boards it cant be that bad at supporting weight when thick enough. I am seeing different melting points all over but lower ones i can find is 125°C with a max use temp of 120°C which I think means it doesnt become more flexible until that temperature so it doesn't warp till. Different types of plastics release different kind of chemical fumes. TPU releases hydrogen cyanide when heated enough as one example. Im not sure what HDPE produces. Just thinking of ultra cheap materials. here is a thought what about making paper mache and paper mache clay using food safe silicone glue and unbleached paper ? In theory this should create a fire retardant silicone paper structure.

>>30534 I see. I didn't know there were subtypes of HDPE and I can't even find information substantiating this.

>>5154 >>15227 >oogoo I found something interesting. Apparently if you use PEG 3350 (you know like Miralax type laxatives) instead of corn starch it makes it a shape memory polymer. Found it in some random student lesson. I suspect the ratio needs adjusting though. https://www.uakron.edu/polymer/agpa-k12outreach/lesson-plans/making-a-shape-memory-polymer-from-silicone-i-caulk-and-miralax Then when I looked into this a bit I came across a paper describing use of PEG 600 with silicone to create an electroactive polymer. https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0022-3727/45/48/485303/pdf

>>30535 One of the problems with HDPE is in thinner sections it's a little flimsy. A thought, maybe you could make a mesh of basalt fiber or better, rope, which is super strong then melt the plastic around it. An example, https://basalt-fibertec.ch/index.php/en/basalt-products/tubes-ropes I wonder if you could use Mylar as a film to vacuum form HDPE? Mylar they say, will stay together at 200C. SO you have a plaster ot toher mold with a two sheets of mylar on each side, taped to hold air. Dump HDPE into the mold between the Mylar, heat then draw a vacuum on one side of the mold while heating. It will form to the mold.

>>30584 There may be an interesting line of research...on this sort of thing. Shape memory polymers depend on the strength of the dielectric. So do capacitors. So some of the effects of one should change the same in each. There's this guy called Robert Murray-Smith who has a massive YouTube site with all sorts of good stuff. For the longest he concentrated on capacitors, batteries, graphene, that sort of stuff. He has a should not miss set of videos called, The Strange Capacitor - How To Build It and Improve It Return To The Strange Capacitor I suspect very strongly that this effect in PEG comes from it forming a sort of vesicle. Another name for this is a liposome. It's used in drugs delivery and also in liposomal vitamin c. Usually some sort of fat or protein that make something like a cell wall. It would not surprise me if the same stuff Robert is using in capacitors would help actuators. Another thought. If you had two materials with different responses. One large, one small, then if the two were glued together they would curl or curve like an old fashioned bimetal thermostat.

>>30711 Thanks, interesting idea, but this here is a thread about "Materials", but it drifts more and and more into a general about what can be done with certain materials. We have this general thread exactly for that: >>24152 and >>108 for vacuum forming. >>30716 Dielectric actuators are actuators: >>27021

>>30711 I was thinking mainly of it being a bit on thicker side anyway though that is a lot of material. >>30716 I think it comes from the PEG forming long molecular bonds with itself so it creates a scaffolding that holds it's shape under more tension. PEG also can be used as a solvent of sorts which may be related. >>30725 I had included >>30584 here instead of actuator thread because there is other uses for SMP than an actuator and when making it yourself from chemicals it falls into material science. It can be used for a way to repair dents though im not sure if that is an advantage over more rubbery materials that instantly bounce back. Body temperature activated can be a type of actuator with very limited perhaps for a tiny hand to close on your own so i wouldnt consider that an actuator in the same way something that can be actually controlled, rather it could be more accurate to call it reactive material. Though how to make it in chemical synthesis is a whole other thing above my head.

>>30730 Okay, understood. But please keep in mind that this thread is always in danger to drifting towards becoming another R&D general instead of just covering the materials mentioned in other discussions.

This video, about composites, is one of the best quick videos to get a handle on the properties, cost and usage of different types of fibers for composites. He makes a very complicated subject very plain to see the differences. His background is race cars and how the different fibers are used. Specifically good is how he covers cost which I appreciate as most of the time people ignore that. This video while on these specific materials will also give a feel for other materials and their properties. Carbon Fiber vs Kevlar vs Fiberglass - Which one is right for YOU? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHXVf0SaJpA Attempt to upload a graph that shows the properties of a lot of materials and you can see in the video how these different materials in the graph fall in comparison. Fail Here's a link that has a download chart that has bone in it. Useful to determine what other materials might take the place of bone. A good reference is Ashley's charts of various strength-density-etc https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Guillaume_Lamour/publication/314132031/figure/download/fig1/AS:468862996094989@1488797057726/Material-property-charts-for-amyloid-materials-A-Flexural-rigidity-plotted-against-the.png

I ran across what appears to be a super, super useful material for prototyping. I wonder why I've never heard of it? A trade name is ShapeLock. Also called polycaprolactone plastic, Meltable Polymorph, Polyshape Polymorph Hand moldable Plastic, Moldable Plastic Thermoplastic, etc. Anyways here's a quote, "..Unleash your creativity with our premium grade Polymorph Plastic Pellets. This revolutionary material is designed to give life to your wildest ideas. This unique thermoplastic polymer has a low melting point of just 142°F. When immersed in hot water, these pellets become as moldable as clay, allowing you to shape, sculpt, and create to your heart's content. Once cooled, they solidify into a strong, durable material that's similar in strength to nylon. Reheat them, and they return to their malleable state, ready for your next project. Ideal for hobbyists, crafters, inventors, or anyone interested in DIY projects..." So this stuff only uses hot water to get it to flow then hardens to something close to the properties of nylon. Nylon, as noted earlier, is really strong stuff. They use nylon for intake manifolds for cars and all sorts of car parts. I could also see you making rough shapes then use a heat gun to further mold and shape. They say you can mold and melt it over and over like most plastics but the low temperature makes it easy to use and it's supposedly nontoxic. Cost I've seen are roughly $17 US a pound. About the same as 3D printer filament and since it can be reused you could use it to make molds for one part, melt again and make molds for different parts. On ebay I've seen it for .99 for 50gr so roughly $11 a pound. I wonder what it would take to make filament out of it? With it's low temperature it might be easy to make a machine to feed this through a hole and make filament that is reusable. So you could 3D print things and reuse the filament over and over. I suspect with it's very low temp melting point that if extruded in a 3D printer you could make accurate parts because it could be printed very liquid, at low temp. Since the temp is low the amount of heat in the material is also low so it's likely just a cooling fan would solidify it in place fast. Here's a link at Make on this stuff https://makezine.com/article/workshop/the-many-uses-of-shapelock/ Here's another link where I heard of it first and there's a good bit of info on it. BTW this guy has an interesting site. https://dercuano.github.io/notes/polycaprolactone.html

So I find people are suing it as filament. https://hydraraptor.blogspot.com/2008/03/chalk-and-cheese.html

Some wild ass speculation, "...Polycaprolactone (PCL) is na ultra-high molecular weight (UHMW) non-toxic polyester thermoplastic.." I've talked about the making of graphene relatively inexpensively here and how it turns plastic into super materials far stronger than steel. Very strong. Bulletproof strong. I wonder if this stuff could be mixed with graphene to make super strong stuff for waifus with low temp processing. Now let's go even further. This is a thermoplastic. Could it be made into a thermoset. Thermosets are not remoldable but are generally stronger and higher temperature. The reason I say this is the above material is a UHMW plastic. So is spectra or dynema which is maybe 100 times stronger than steel per weight. My understanding is the bonds between the very long chains are not so strong but that there are so many of them it makes for a super strong material. It's just like spaghetti. You cook it in water and it slides all around easy but drain the water and let it set up in a pot and it becomes a hard sticky mess. A very good way to visualize how plastics work. Could we not do something similar by reprocessing the above in some way? Some additive that sticks the various strings together? I don't know. I bring this up as it's something to be aware of and maybe you might run across some data that points a way to do this.

Using Shapelock to make motor connectors, knobs and couplings https://www.robotroom.com/Prototype-Plastic-2.html

Thanks for all the great inputs ITT, Grommet! Cheers. :^)

I found a good page. It has a lot of advice on casting various high precision gears and parts. He uses small CNC machines, makes molds with silicon and then cast plastic parts. It has specifics which is good and covers what type materials he uses. His focus is on robots. Guerrilla guide to CNC and resin casting https://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/gcnc/full/ I wonder if you could pour the before mentioned shapelock into these molds. I'm not sure the shapelock plastic liquefies enough to do so. Possibly you could put this in an oven with a sprue filled with shapelock, melt down to run into mold, then when you pull it out add a small vacuum for a bit. Likely that would get all entrained air out.

More materials links. This guy makes bedsheets into waterproof and sturdy tarps with silicon. Could be good for the silicon fetish folk. Recycled Bedsheets Make The Best Waterproof Tarps https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_R0gEDZhAI He got the silicon treatment from a guy who does all sorts of material, casting, glue type experiments. He has some interesting stuff. Here's a video of him making low cost pourable silicon for making things or molds that dries in an hour or so. DIY POURABLE SILICONE for mold making. Thin silicone w/Naphtha, fast cure w/cornstarch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_IOqxds130 There is a problem with this, they are banning Naphtha some places. Likely too damn useful for the powers that be, so he has a video with alternatives. Thinning Silicone: NAPHTHA is being BANNED. Now what? What can you use instead? SURPRISING RESULTS!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaUbqgMzMR0 Some are suggesting in the comments that coleman fuel is Naphtha "...look for 'white gas' also called Coleman fuel for stoves and lanterns..." Wikipedia says this is so but that it does have additives in it. Experimentation would be required to see if it functions the same. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coleman_fuel If you notice casting interest me a lot. I think it's one of the quickest and cheapest ways to make all sorts of intricate structures including waifus.

>>6943 This week I'll be making some galinistan. It's not a country, it's a eutectic alloy of 3 low melting point metals. It's completely safe and non-toxic, and one order of magnitude less conductive than copper. It's going to get injected into silicone channels using the zero-volume air chamber method (http://www.kevincgalloway.com/portfolio/zero-volume-air-chambers/) and used with a teensy LC in a touch-capacitance circuit. This liquid metal can deform with the silicone and has all the benefits of being a conductive material for sensing deformation (change in resistance) and body proximity (change in capacitance). This type of sensor is very common in the literature, and I have high expectations for it in waifubotics.

>>31107 >low melting point plastics therobotstudio YT channel guy made his older robots out of that. There are some workflows pointed out in these videos, which are also linked in the thread for humanoid robot project videos. The downside of it, is of course that it is harder to replicate for mass production, and 50ºC would melt these parts, which isn't much.

>>31224 Made the Galinstan: https://files.catbox.moe/gvmgx0.mp4 Here are examples of what I want to put on the robot: https://www-x-huyuechen-x-com.img.addlink.cn/uploadfile/202208/f939a7684551c04.mp4 http://www.huyuechen.com/index.php?c=category&id=3

>>31271 Wow, that was fast. How did you weigh the different metals? Is there a tutorial on how to make this?

>>31224 That is very cool and that zero volume air chamber idea is really innovative. I started looking up galinstan and found this link, Small robots made of ‘galinstan’ can run faster than a (miniature) leopard https://www.devhardware.com/small-robots-made-of-galinstan-can-run-faster-than-a-miniature-leopard/ This thing is unbelievably fast if you compare body lengths(it's very small), but comparing body lengths a cheetah is 23 BL/sec(body lengths per second) but this thing moves at 70 BL/s. I wonder could this sort of speed translate into larger sizes??? Of so it would be a good way to get a fast actuator. One drawback, gallium is expensive, but if you could prototype it fast it might make up for that in time savings. quick search Gallium Liquid Metal 100 Grams, 99.99% Pure Melting Gallium - 100g for Kids and $69.99

>>31280 >DIY instructions Firstly, Galinstan is a non-toxic and relatively harmless alternative to mercury in thermometers. I'll probably have enough for life with this small amount I made here. I don't think it will ever go bad as long as the plastic vials I have stay closed. Don't buy glass vials in case it freezes and expands. It leaves a black residue on anything, so wear gloves and wash your hands if it gets on you. Obviously, don't drink it or do anything stupid with it. >Composition 68.5% Ga, 21.5% In, 10% Sn To find how much indium and tin for 50g Gallium, use the following formula: indium weight = (((gallium weight - 2 grams)/68.5)*21.5) tin weight = (((gallium weight - 2 grams)/68.5)*10) The subtraction of 2 is to account for the oxidized gallium that won't react with the indium and tin. I accounted for 1 gram in my experiment and had an excess of solid metals left over >Breakdown by price buying metal from amazon Indium 20g x2: 16.94 x2$ Gallium 100g (save 30$ on 2 50g vials): 69.99$ Tin 8oz 99.99% pure: 22.99$ Galinstan 144g: 126.86$ >Galinstan pre-alloyed from the same store Galinistan 25g: 129$ >Uses Conductive, flexible, deformable, it does it all. Can be used for a stretchable touch sensor and a heating coil. What more would you need?

I've been watching a bunch of videos lately about people making their own "geopolymers" which is just a fancy way of saying cement. By changing the recipes by adding different ingredients and changing the ratios the properties change. This might not be the right thread to ask, but I'm sure there is some way software could be used to help simplify the experimentation to reduce the amount of trial and error done testing a large number of different materials that could be added to the mix so I could create a cement that has all the physical properties I'm looking for?

>>31322 "geopolymers" Don't wish to be too annoying but cement is normally portland cement. Produced by heating limestone and clay minerals. Geopolymers are not the same thing at all, other than they both are hard and look like stone. I don't want people to confuse the two as they are very different. Geopolymers, "...They are mainly produced by a chemical reaction between a chemically reactive aluminosilicate powder (e.g. metakaolin or other clay-derived powders, natural pozzolan, or suitable glasses), and an aqueous solution (alkaline or acidic) that causes this powder to react and re-form into a solid monolith..." They are somewhat like polymers, hence the name. I wish I had a good cheap formula for making them. If you know one please link it. They are complicated and I can't think of any software that would help. I would say, according to others and common sense that a good proportion of the pyramids in Egypt are made of geopolymers. The casing and the upper levels, mostly.

>>31326 >Geopolymers are not the same thing at all, other than they both are hard and look like stone. I don't want people to confuse the two as they are very different. The two seem nearly identical to me. Not all cements are Portland cement, so as far as I'm concerned "geopolymer" is just a synonym. Supposedly the cement used by the Romans had volcanic ash and used salt water instead of fresh water, and probably some other differences, which is why it lasts so much longer. https://youtu.be/znQk_yBHre4 https://youtu.be/rUYWiVVuc_w https://youtu.be/sESzPUei3os https://youtu.be/kUBB3wNae1s The recipe in the description of the last video: 1 part salt water (1 cup tap water with 1 tablespoon of salt) 1 part Sodium Silicate (Waterglass) mixed into the above saltwater 1 part Sodium Carbonate white powder mixed in fully 1 part Calcium Carbonate white powder mixed in fully 1 part Crushed powdered limestone mixed in fully And then there's these attempts at recreating Maurice Ward's Starlite for fireproofing, which isn't "geopolymer" in any traditional sense, but an intumescent material made using borax, baking soda, cornstarch, powdered sugar, flour and water: https://youtu.be/aqR4_UoBIzY https://youtu.be/0IbWampaEcM But of course, the more ingredients I could possibly test in a geopolymer the better chance I have of making something with the properties I want, but the harder it would be to determine with brute force trial and error. I figured some kind of genetic algorithm would be the best way of doing it, since I seem to have an ever-growing list of ingredients I want to test. And materials I want to make. >>5154 I thought this sounded familiar. Years ago I saw this modified version of Oogoo that's just food-grade silicone mixed with cornstarch: https://youtu.be/7fwytA5r2Mw

>>31333 "...Not all cements are Portland cement..." Yes you are correct. I made an assumption because so much of what is called "cement" is Portland. Most people are talking about Portland when they say cement. There are magnesium cements, all sorts. The above recipe is not geopolymer. It appears to me to just be binding all this stuff with Sodium Silicate. Not the same. Geopolymers, by the definition of the guy who invented them, Joseph Davidovits, are aluminosilicates. They make chains like plastics. Plastics have normally a carbon backed chain, these are based on aluminium-silicon. Here's Joseph Davidovits site. https://www.geopolymer.org/ https://www.geopolymer.org/archaeology/roman-cement/high-performance-roman-cement-and-concrete-high-durable-buildings/

>>31338 >the guy who invented them Actually, invented the name and reinvented some of the processes to make them, They have been around thousands of years with the recopies lost in time.