FJ1100 fuse cover

[T Legg]

I lost the fuse cover on one of my 1100's a while back. I tried to make a new cover out of plastifix but having to deposit the plastic clump by clump into the mold made it wavy and bumpy looking. I bought a product called aluminite resin and tried it in the mold I made and it came out pretty nice. The resin makes a strong plastic and the part looks as good as the original from the top. I could have used black pigment but I will just paint this one. I am going to try to recreate some pieces of my fairing that are missing next.

[aviationfred]

That looks awesome. 

I know the fuse covers are impossible to find.


Fred

[giantkiller]

That looks great.  With plastex you just pour it full of powder and add the liquid to it.

[T Legg]

They are hard to find I kept looking along side the road for weeks after I lost it. I'm going to make a couple extras just in case. I'm lucky that between my two 1100's I have a complete bike to make molds from.

[T Legg]

That looks great.  With plastex you just pour it full of powder and add the liquid to it.

          I've tried that with plastifix but I ended up with weak spots and portions of powder the liquid didn't reach. This one is stronger than the original.

[Pat Conlon]

Great job Travis, I recall a couple folks here are looking for this cover....you may be able to sell a few.

[red]

T Legg,

Looks great! 
What material did you use for the female mold? 
Care to write up a process?
I don't need that specific part here, but maybe some other things . . . 
   
.

[T Legg]

Red  I'm a novice at this in fact I got the name wrong it's alumilite . I'm out in the sticks so the only internet I have is a phone with two gigs of data a month which I have already burned through. I can't post pictures until a couple days from now when I get my next two gigs. I will post some pictures then of the molds I made and the product. As of now I have only created one sided molds but this stuff has the potential to make perfect replicas with two sided molds. They also have several grades of mold making materials of which I used the most basic and several grades of resins . Some of the resins have a metallic appearance and some have a high degree of U V resistance. It would require a lot of material and more skill than I possess at this stage but it would be possible to cast an entire fender.

[Waiex191]

That part has 3D printer written all over it. Nice job on the mold!

Does my '89 FJ1200 have the same cover?

[red]

Red  I'm a novice at this in fact I got the name wrong it's alumilite . I'm out in the sticks so the only internet I have is a phone with two gigs of data a month which I have already burned through. I can't post pictures until a couple days from now when I get my next two gigs.

T Legg,

If data limits are a problem, you should look into GIMP, the free image processor.  It is distributed in all flavors.  You can Crop images to only what is needed, and Scale the images to smaller sizes.  You can Export the finished product as .JPEG, or other image-compression formats.  I seldom see any need for me to send pix larger than maybe 75k.  They look fine.  There are other image processors out there as well; some cost money, some do not.  PM me if you need some help to get started on GIMP.  The cover pix you sent here was 4.7Mb.  Attached here is the same image, cropped, re-sized, and in JPG format, as 36K.
       
.

[T Legg]

Only the 1100's have them. I don't know what the 89 is like . My 86 1200 has the choke handle and reserve switch there. Printers are cool but it only takes fifteen minutes to make and cure the mold and about one minute to mix the resin and pour it into the mold then ten minutes for the resin to cure. Since I made a one sided mold I had to do a little bit of whittling on the back to make a perfect fit. I spent $ 40.00 on mold material and resin components. I probably have enough resin to make at least fifty covers and five or six molds but the molds can be used many times. The challenge is to have a good part to make the molds from.

Red I couldn't imagine doing all that on my phone. I'm looking into sattelite internet services. I think my computer is still running on windows whatever came before windows seven.

[Flynt]

Travis...  if you need something I might have on my '84, just let me know and I'll send it along pronto...  Thanks for you service!

Frank

[red]

Red I couldn't imagine doing all that on my phone. I'm looking into sattelite internet services. I think my computer is still running on windows whatever came before windows seven.

T Legg,

You can take pix on the phone, then use a USB cable to put the pix on your computer.  Do the tinkering there.  Put the "reduced" pix back on the phone via USB cable, and send that.  Sounds complicated, but it's easy stuff, if done one step at a time.  GIMP has legacy program downloads for any flavor of Windoze, for your computer.  The newest versions of GIMP are not that much better; you won't be missing anything really.  The difference between your image and mine is, you can send one of your pix, or send 130 of mine.
     
Now that process does not help when people here upload multi-Mb pix for your viewing, but you may be able to stop attachments from downloading unless you actually want to see them.  Your phone tech support may be able to help with that option.  They may have other ideas as well.  Can't hurt to ask.  If your local library has computers on the Internet, you can do your 'Net browsing there, and only use the phone for responses.  Just a thought . . .
.

[T Legg]

Travis...  if you need something I might have on my '84, just let me know and I'll send it along pronto...  Thanks for you service!

Frank

I appreciate your offer Frank. I need to develop my mold making skills. The mold material I used this time is easy to use but a little delicate. They have a silicone mold making material that is incredibly tuff you can pull and twist as hard as you like and it won't tear. For these molds you construct a plexiglass box and place the item to be molded into it then pour the silicone around it to make a two sided mold that will last for many many uses. When I get the process down  I would like to make a library of molds for the future while pristine parts still exist. The fuse cover I used looks ok but has some damage from brake fluid and that damage is reflected in the mold. I would like to work my way up to complete fenders before the day comes when they don't exist .

[krusty]

I've had success making small items by using Play Doh for a mold then using epoxy casting resin for the item.
The Play Doh can be re-used over and over.
For larger items and two piece molds I have used a silicone that dentists use to make molds of teeth. I have made a few tank badges that way.