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Seedling
Hello all, just wanted to share my journey (so far) into making concrete bonsai pots, using 3D printed molds. I am showing the results of my first two attempts. I have a lot to learn still. These almost ended in disaster, but I was able to save them. So your thoughts and suggestions are appreciated.
I started of in Fusion360 designing a few bonsai pots. I went with one very simple rectangular pot and one with a little bit more curves and edges.
After I had some pot designs I liked, I designed a mold around the pot to be later 3D printed. As I designed the molds I went back and adjusted the pot designs to account for draft angles, printer bed size, and how I was going to fill the mold with concrete. The larger pot needed to be broken into more pieces for printing, and it actually made it easier to de-mold in the end. the smaller pot i may go back into the file and break the side into 4 pieces for easier de-molding
Here are the 3d printed molds after being used, they ended up holding up very well. only one little piece came off of the smaller pot, it was a post to make a hole for a wire tie down.
I used cheap Quik-crete brand concrete from the hardware store and i sifted out the large aggregate and large sand.
Below are my results of this experiment. These pots almost didn't get this far, but I didn't want to give up on them, and they ended up working out, at least for now.
This first pot, my mix was a little too thick, I left more sand in than with the second pot, and I used less water. When it came out of the mold it fell apart into 5 pieces, I used some epoxy to temporarily hold the pot together, then filled in the crack with more concrete. The base of the pot was very thin, so I used more concrete to build up the inside which is why it looks rough. I did use a random orbital sander to help get bubbles out, but with the concrete being so thick, it didn't work as well as intended. I am planning on doing a little touch up with sand paper on this and possibly a little paint or wash.
This second pot i added some finely sifted concrete to the mix to remove some of the heavy sand grit, I also added more water to make it easier to poor the mix into the mold. The mold came out better but still cracked into a few pieces, i used some adhesive and more concrete to repair it. I added a brown wash as a little test, but wiped most of it off. I also lightly sanded the sides of the pot.
Some things I am thinking about:
Using glass fibers or wire to strengthen the pot.
Using a cement specific for molds, or mix my own cement, sand mixture instead of sifting
Modifying the molds to to make de-molding easier the large pot was easy, the small pot because i used two sides instead of four was harder.
I don't have to worry about frost in SoCal, well maybe one night a year, every decade or so.
I am open to suggestions, thoughts, etc. Sorry I don't have pictures in progress, I just have before and end as things got a little messy in the middle and didn't have anyone to help me take photos
I started of in Fusion360 designing a few bonsai pots. I went with one very simple rectangular pot and one with a little bit more curves and edges.
After I had some pot designs I liked, I designed a mold around the pot to be later 3D printed. As I designed the molds I went back and adjusted the pot designs to account for draft angles, printer bed size, and how I was going to fill the mold with concrete. The larger pot needed to be broken into more pieces for printing, and it actually made it easier to de-mold in the end. the smaller pot i may go back into the file and break the side into 4 pieces for easier de-molding
Here are the 3d printed molds after being used, they ended up holding up very well. only one little piece came off of the smaller pot, it was a post to make a hole for a wire tie down.
I used cheap Quik-crete brand concrete from the hardware store and i sifted out the large aggregate and large sand.
Below are my results of this experiment. These pots almost didn't get this far, but I didn't want to give up on them, and they ended up working out, at least for now.
This first pot, my mix was a little too thick, I left more sand in than with the second pot, and I used less water. When it came out of the mold it fell apart into 5 pieces, I used some epoxy to temporarily hold the pot together, then filled in the crack with more concrete. The base of the pot was very thin, so I used more concrete to build up the inside which is why it looks rough. I did use a random orbital sander to help get bubbles out, but with the concrete being so thick, it didn't work as well as intended. I am planning on doing a little touch up with sand paper on this and possibly a little paint or wash.
This second pot i added some finely sifted concrete to the mix to remove some of the heavy sand grit, I also added more water to make it easier to poor the mix into the mold. The mold came out better but still cracked into a few pieces, i used some adhesive and more concrete to repair it. I added a brown wash as a little test, but wiped most of it off. I also lightly sanded the sides of the pot.
Some things I am thinking about:
Using glass fibers or wire to strengthen the pot.
Using a cement specific for molds, or mix my own cement, sand mixture instead of sifting
Modifying the molds to to make de-molding easier the large pot was easy, the small pot because i used two sides instead of four was harder.
I don't have to worry about frost in SoCal, well maybe one night a year, every decade or so.
I am open to suggestions, thoughts, etc. Sorry I don't have pictures in progress, I just have before and end as things got a little messy in the middle and didn't have anyone to help me take photos
I'm sure there's a mixture where you could get it right. I'm curious, have you checked out Richard Kearney's work? He's on Instagram-richardkearney.nz and is doing some phenomenal work by 3d printing molds and filling them with a viscous clay mixture. His stuff is awesome!
