the boy is shown not to have studied

^^ hah, but actually sanjeev seems to be one of the more educated folks on this board....

thanks for the explanation Sanjeev!

i guess it didnt look so hot after the water bath so i was wondering what happens to more complicated pieces like the kumon head when the "fingers/legs" of the head is pulled through the hole at the base of the head from the mold, will the vinyl just return to the shape of the fig naturally, or does it need to be shaped back to the way its meant to be manually?

I kinda understand how it would work when casting resin in a rubber mold, b/c the cast resin will be harden, so even if the piece was complex like the kumon head, it'll be somewhat easy to pull out from a rubber mold b/c the rubber mold will be able to flex against the cast resin while its being pulled out. Just have to be careful that the mold is not damaged in the process.

vinyl pulling it seems is the opposite, the cast is soft and the mold is hard, so the concern is maintaining the overall integrity of cast pieces shape. never working with vinyl b4, it just something i was thinking about and would like to understand the process of how a concern like that would be addressed. But obviously, it's not really a problem b/c lotsa great figs with amazing complicate designs have been made!

Hey Scott, if you really are making and pulling vinyl in Florida, can I come and check it out??

Yeah, I guess I kinda glossed over that part. This stuff is like plastisol (for those who've worked with silk-screening, I guess?): it's a liquid thermoset polymer, meaning that once it's cured/solidified, the the shape memory is locked in. So, the liquid goes into the mold, gets degassed, gets cooked (to cure/solidify a layer to the very inside of the metal mold), the excess liquid gets drained, gets cooked a bit longer to cure the liquid that wasn't drained, and finally gets cooled and demolded. At that point, the memory's already set...so the parts--again, hot as fuck and super rubbery--get yanked out (hopefully without tearing) with a little muscle. But they spring instantly back to their memorized shape and cool to room temperature.

"Hot as fuck"...it's science.

The memory of a piece seems like it can be altered over time, especially in the case of some vintage pieces. I have a couple of Popy, Bullmark, and Takatoku minis that were warped at some point and, no matter how thoroughly I hair-dryer and reposition, always go back to that deformity over time.

Ahhhhhhhh.... Thanks Sanjeev!!!

Now if only we can have our own vinyl studio/factory in the us

keep searching the boards...

Since I was looking for the post, here's a little help mangakaben
http://www.skullbrain.org/bb/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=37794&hilit=bullshark
Try search Bullshark too.

omg, awesome... thanks for the link! im inspired to start one up now!!!