Clay + Box

After planning out the box, it was time to build the box and fill the bottom half of the mold with soft clay. I filled in the inside of my mold with the clay and then built up the base to set the clay+gripper on. 

From here I added clay around the main part to help fill in the box a bit. I shaved off the edges to make sure there was a smooth side to adhere tightly to the foam-core box I would build around it. 

After this I measured out pieces of foam-core to build a box around the clay. I placed them in a way that they overlapped so I wouldn't have to worry about getting the measurements perfect and that they'd still form a tight seal with the clay model. I filled in the corners with a bit of extra clay to ensure the seal was extra tight there and would prevent any potential leaking. 

Finally, once the box was set and the clay filled in properly, I added registration marks around the edge of the piece in the middle. These marks will help me accurately align the two halves of the mold to do multiple casts on the same part in the future.