I'm using a smoothon rubber mold material called Clearflex 50. If you use mold release, you can pull the rubber parts from a rubber mold. See the product sheet for more info.

http://www.smoothon.com/PDF/Clear%20Flex%2050%20&%2095%20Combo.pdf

As to how to do it, Rob S mentioned the idea in Amersfoort and Hugo suggested it here. I've got a set of transparent button from farnell that I am trying to cast around. I say try because this is just theory at this point.

Okay, the UV LEDs are on order. Not the easiest to get, but it's done.

Stu

Impressive work, Mach.

Things hit a bit of a wall here when I got ill for a few months (chlorine gas poisoning, lots of fun), but we're slowly bringing the shop back up to speed. I'm a one-man operation, so when I did the "gas thing" all of our projects fell behind. Which affected our income, etc..

I've got a few days of intense work this weekend and we should be back on schedule with the projects that ended up on hold, like the fascia/buttons. Pending some client's payments that are in the mail, I'll have the materials to pour the first molds end of next week.

I like the smoked idea, and will be trying a few different fillers to test their effect on the clarity of the buttons.

I probably won't be doing any soft-surfaced/hard-center buttons, but for the record, some soft urethane resins will bond permanently to a compatible hard urethane resin. I've done some experiments involving scale WW II tank road wheels that turned out rather well.

My sincere apologies for the long wait. Had to catch my breath... ;O)

(BTW, our website is temporarily unavailable. It'll be back up soon.)

Glad to hear things are looking up for you!

Wow, chlorine, that's nasty! You have my sympathies!

The next time that I help design, build and maintain a water treatment plant, the ventilation system is going to be a used turbine from a 767.

We had a chlorine solution failure that over-taxed the ventilation systen in the building. Over the course of 4-5 months I was getting a daily dose of just enough chlorine gas to affect my lungs, but not knock me out or indicate that anything was wrong in the building.

About the time that I couldn't draw a full breath and my son got tired of my... ah... reduced mental capacity from lack of oxygen, we figured it out and replaced the bad solution with good. I also upgraded the ventilation until we got rid of the balance of the old solution.

The hard part is getting through the slump caused by the loss of time in the shop. Lost time = loss revenue. It's been tight, but it looks as if we'll get through it okay.

Thanks for the encouragement!

Thanks! I'm definitely out of my depth but it gives me something to play around with.

I'm glad to hear you caught the source of your health problems. Please try to stay out of the life threatening gases for a while, huh?

I'll be watching the button thread for more info.

So second mold is finished. I tried a rough run with decorating gel made by Eberhard Faber. Some things worked; some didn't. Here's what I found...

The Farnell buttons embedded in the mold before casting worked well. Use the shortest (16mm). The 19mm give too much of a halo within the buttons.

The decorating gel tears too easy (the 4th button tore apart) but is flexible when it sets up. (Flexible buttons are very cool.) The color is about right for white glow buttons. It's tough to tell in the photos but they have a frosted glass look to them.

I tried another batch with black pigment to attempt the color discussed above but the buttons came out with a purple color and glow with a wine tint.

The mold itself needs work. I'm using a silicon RTV rubber that can take high temperatures. The button tops cast clean but the sides are a ragged. I didn't take into account the farnell buttons blocking the sprue holes.

I also tried some FIMO clay for the knobs but they crumbled when I tried to pull them from the mold. The Sculpey clay seemed to work better.

Hey Alvin,

looking really cool! Keep on trying...

I have the feeling, it's not a long time any more to get coool buttons.

cheers, Thomas

Thanks! I hope so. It's an interesting problem to play with.

For anyone interested, we have a limited supply of UV LEDs on hand at $5 each. PM me for details.

Stu