Casting the Foot

In my quest to build my own speedskating boots from scratch I need a last pair to build the boots around.

Step 1: Find a victim. Pictured is my 13 year old daughter. I gathered her together with everything I needed: two rolls of plaster gauze (4 by 180 inch roll, about $5 each at Pat Catan's craft store), Vaseline, thin aluminum strip, utility knife, bucket of water, a towel, something for the foot model to sit on, and not shown in any photo - paper towel. I won't go into the process myself because it can be seen in detail in an online video on the Simmons Racing website here. The molds turned out well after drying for a couple of days.

Step 2: Make the foot last. I poured plaster of Paris into the molds and stuck paint roller extension handles in right away as handles. A lesson learned is that plaster of Paris sets very quickly and it is best to mix small batches according to the directions which in my case was two cups of plaster to one cup of water. It is very liquid when first mixed and you might be tempted to think that it is too runny. Not to worry it will set up fast.

Step 3: Remove from the mold by peeling the plaster gauze away. Let them dry some more, sand, patch with plaster, sand some more, and finally I paint them.

More photos of the process can be seen in this Flickr set.