Coming Together

Here is the blade with the post secured on one side. I was planning on making a permanent mold of just this portion. Unfortunately, to keep the blade detail, I would have to do a two part mold. This kind of defeated the purpose of doing one side together. I sanded the other side of the post to make it lay flush against the other side of the blade. This was a bit too long for the tips to touch to I shorten it as well until I got the fit I wanted.

I had to find a way to keep the points connected while the UV resin cured. I don't have any clamps to hold it, so I improvised with a twisty tie than came off  the packaging for my son's toy. I cut that in half and put it around where the hearts and oval connected. This actually worked out better than I expected. I was also able to adjust the tension by giving it another twist and it did not harm the blades in any way.

I was so impatient waiting for it to cure. The sun had already set by the time I had this portion ready. When I woke up I went out to my patio to get the shuttle and test to see if the resin had finished curing. It had! I was a bit apprehensive when I took off those twist ties. If it didn't set right I would have to cut off that post cast another one and redo this step. I only have half a day, a week to work on my projects, outside life takes up too much of my week. So if I had to start over it would be another week before I was able to try to fix this.
 I felt like it was Christmas morning. It worked and my shuttle retained the tension. The finished shuttle!

 I still have to decide whether to drill a thread hole into the center post or to leave it as it. For this one I think I'll leave it as is. I don't use the hole when I load my other post shuttles, so I see no need for it. Even though the center post is a bit more opaque than the rest of the shuttle, it still has those translucent flakes in it. I want my shuttle to match all the way through. There is still a small bit of sanding on one side and I'm thinking of adding some more resin to help stabilize the joining of the hearts to the center oval. The sizing compared to other shuttles in my collection.