One for the handbuilders: How do you handle the making of multiple identical parts?

[and2go]

The title says most of it really.

If hand making something, how do you manage to make multiple identical pieces (within reason for hand building)?

For context, i'm making things out of card, and between eyes, hands, blades and material seem to have roughly +/- 1mm variance. Not bad I don't think, but when dealing with bits around the 2-3mm in size the variance starts to have an effect.

The other Soul destroying thing is scaling up, say 8 objects together make 1 bigger object, but this is required 10 - 20 times.

 

I'm not really in to doing enough to justify a 3d printer or CNC type setup.

Just wondering if anyone else has these grand ideas at the time until the repetition starts and motivation rapidly heads south due to the perceived lack of progress vs the ongoing effort...

[aaron moore]

Tried Resin casting? I got a kit from these guys, its fairly straightforward. I theres a pretty good guide on here done by @Stabliofarmer as well 

https://www.mbfg.co.uk/polycraft-moulding-casting-resin-kit-mini.html

https://www.mbfgfiles.co.uk/datasheets/moulding_casting_guide.pdf

[Stabliofarmer]

As Aaron says, resin casting is probably the answer. 

I'll be honest for years I had resin casting sat in my artillery and only considered it as a cheap way to make wheels when I needed loads at a time. I wouldn't consider making a mould unless I knew I'd use it 20-30 times or more. 

It wasn't until I say how @tabmodelswas using moulds for even relatively simple but repetitive pieces that I began to realise the full potential. While it will still take half an hour to make each part none of that half an hour is intensive on the brain, and 25 minutes of it you don't need to be present while the piece sets. 

It certainly sounds like the best option to do what you want, and requires the least initial outset. 

The MB fibreglass products Aaron has linked are by far the best I've used and I'd highly recommend them. You'll find cheaper on eBay, particularly for postage, but the products just aren't on the same level. 

My guide is a little dated now, a search of YouTube will show you a wealth of informative professionaly edited videos that weren't around when I started.