I always hate stacking four pieces of whatever to make walls, and finding ways to fix it all together (without legos lol). This past project I scored one side of corrugated sign material! Hot Glued one edge and the bottom. Isopropyl alcohol helped the glue let go afterwards. I was able to get a large sheet for $10 at Lowes!
Made a mold and didn’t use enough reserve. Any solvent I can use to remove the silicone from the details to try again? Smoot-on mold Max 30, tin cure. all suggestions welcome, thanks
I want to make a replica of my own severed head (lol) but I’m having trouble finding what specifically I should buy from Amazon to cast my head. Specifically, I don’t know what I should use for the actual head replica, like what kind of “skin” do I use for that or what kind of silicone should o use and how do I emulate my skin color? How the hell do I put eyelashes and eyebrows on it? I figured I’d just put a wig on the thing and call it a day for the actual hair. I am also confused about the actual painting the skin part??? TL;DR: any curated lists for a full silicone replica bust of my own head, including hair, skin color, and paints?? I’m so confused thanks!
I need some advice on how to finish my prints for future resin casts with a smooth & uniform matte/frosted surface.
I'm testing different dremel tips to sand it but some corners are just too small to get into, which makes me think spraying it is my only option. I've done smaller mold tests and the light/dark discrepancies seen in the photos do transfer for the most part.
Are there any techniques I should look into doing a better spraying job? I'm mostly worried of getting too much paint buildup on certain areas while trying to get into others (granted I've only used regular width spray nozzles). I'm even wondering if I should contact a car body shop to do this part with matte paint?
**in the title I meant to type MJF**
Hi all, hope this is OK to ask here...
I've been 3D printing for a couple of years now, using a resin machine. Typically, I'm using it to prototype parts, before having the finished item MJF or aluminium printed, or CNC machined.
I'd like to print a mold for a rubber part I intend to cast, but I'm concerned about visible layer lines in the finished item. My question is, would a mold release spray or similar get rid of these lines?
I'm happy if the part has a 'textured' finish. TIA!
I am just beginning my mold making journey and have learned a lot in the past 4 months. But I recently stumbled across a picture of this mold and cannot for the life of me figure out what the two circled openings are for???
My request is very time sensitive as I must get to the airport in less than 48 hours. I have never silicone cast anything before but I bought this kit to cast a gift for my long distance partner I am about to visit.... anyway, when removing the object from this mold a small piece broke off! (See pictures). I need to pour the silicone in asap, every store is now closed aside from 24hr convince shops. Any advice on how to fix this?
I see basically two approaches, repair the mold with something like toothpaste and flour, or cast the silicone and delicately trim it with a knife. Instinct is telling me not to cut into the silicone, but I have no idea what I'm doing.
Edit: Outcome I trimmed the problem areas (there were more) with a razor after casting the silicone. It came out okay, you can definitely see the repairs if you look but I would have had to trim some areas anyway.
Hi everyone,
I'm having an issue when making food-grade platinum silicone molds from resin 3D printed masters, and I'm hoping someone here has dealt with something similar.
I'm using:
The problem is very specific: the silicone cures perfectly everywhere else, but the surface that is in direct contact with the resin-printed parts remains sticky/uncured.
When I use the exact same silicone with FDM-printed parts, it cures perfectly.
I've already tried different approaches:
But I haven't found a reliable and repeatable solution.
There is one strange detail that might be important:
I made one resin master where I applied approximately 3–4 coats of Montana Plastic Primer. The silicone cured perfectly on that master.
Even more interestingly, I've reused that same master around 5 times and the platinum silicone has cured correctly every single time.
However, when I've tried to repeat the same process with other resin-printed masters, I've experienced cure inhibition again.
So my questions are:
1. Has anyone found a resin that is reliably compatible with platinum-cure silicone?
2. Is there a specific washing/post-curing process that eliminates the inhibition?
3. Have you found a reliable barrier coating or primer for resin prints before casting platinum silicone?
4. Could switching from standard resin to ABS-like resin make any difference?
My final molds need to be food-grade, so I'm looking for a process that is consistent and suitable for this type of application.
Any experiences with specific resin brands/products would be extremely helpful.
Thanks!
So I seem to be having some problems with curing. This is only my second time doing a silicone mold and I had a similar problem the first time. for the first time and this time as well I am using a 3-D printed piece. The first time I used filler primer and sanding to smooth the 3-D print before making the mold. I was having curing problems that time as well and based on where the uncured areas were I assumed it was probably not reacting well with the filler primer so I sprayed it with a gloss black coat and that seemed to fix the problem. This time around I’m using a 3-D printed piece that is spray painted with a gloss black and I seem to be having curing problems. This is my first time using this silicone. It is smooth on mold star 30 and I let it cure for about six hours and 30 minutes.
EDIT: I just wanted to add that this in not a resin 3d print it is an FDM print.
I've made a few silicone molds over 3d printed positives, but this is the first time I'll be doing so over clay.
I'm assuming I need to let the clay air dry fully before pouring the silicone, its an air dry not a bake.
Is there something I should coat the clay with first, or should it be good as is once dry?
Any advice?
Thanks!
buenas, les cuento un poco mí situación;
hace poco compre en servifibras un caucho de silicona Shore a Y10 y necesitaba un ablandador para esta misma tipo slacker de smooth on pero es inconseguible, ya dejé curando una prueba con vaselina liquida por qué leí que podía servir de ablandador y leí que también se puede usar aceite de silicona, que tan real es y que me conviene antes de seguir perdiendo material y plata, necesito que sea pegajoso y tenga cierta adherencia pero sin perder estructura, no se dónde conseguir el slacker y no se que utilizar
Have this bear I made. Should I do a one part mold or two part? Im curious the best way to go about the gap between the feet (2nd pic).
Getting some mold star 15 for the job as I don’t have a vacuum chamber.
Also, do I need mold release? The figure is polymer clay with a layer of gesso over it.
Thanks for any help!
I take ceramics classes with my girlfriend and I just wanted to try something interesting that wasn’t another bowl. So I’m going to attempt to combine two of my hobbies, ceramics and boat building. I had ai draw up this plan I can print to scale to use as a template. It’s going to be a hand built slab construction. I haven’t worked out the keel yet but there will be one. Just the hull and keel will be clay. Wish me luck, I’ll need it.
hey all fairly new round here. I'm looking at making a copy of this handguard for airsoft (like paintball ) purposes.( not a real rifle but a toy ) would it be best to make a 2 part silicone mould by first filling the cavity with clay and casting with the oval opening part on the right facing down and then remove the clay and take a second casting. or would a 3 part be better again starting by filling in the cavity with clay and then casting the left side first then the right then the internals. Once the mould is made I want to cast using a polyurethane so the part will be fairly firm. and if possible make multiple parts.
note this isn't the exact part I a want but the design is similar just the part I want is rare and I have only managed to find one person with an original hence wanting to take a cast of it.
Thanks in advance
Hello all!
I'm looking for some tips, feedback, and ways to improve my puppet fabrication process. Becuase I know literally no one that does this locally and because there surprisingly not a lot of resources on the internet, I have turned to reddit. Let me first say I am a beginner in this whole fabrication business. I typically use plastisene clay and sculpt objects for animating. I also use a lot of found objects in my stop motion animation. You can see my work here. In hopes of creating more 'narrative' work, I am trying to learn more professional grade stop motion puppet fabrication. I've quickly learned its not easy, and I'm constantly learning new ways artists do this! (I've learned theres soo many different ways to make a puppet too.) So I've come to reddit to Hopefully see if there is anyone outer there who has some experience and knowledge and can give me a helping hand!
Ultimately I am trying to create a stop motion puppet using silicone rubber because I like the materials durability and flexibility over a wire armature. the surface being 'skin like' is definitely a plus too. I am definitely open to other ways of fabricating, but the workflow of sculpting master --> casting mold --> casting rubber figure seems like pretty straightforward to me.
Yesterday I pulled my first cast from the mold, and although I was successful in making the casting, I am not super satisfied with the end result. below are some struggles I had and some questions posed about the process, and trying to improve it.
Moldmaking:
Using plaster is a great material because its inexpensive, non toxic, and sets up relatively fast. It also requires little mold release when casting silicone rubber. But its fragile so it can crack or break easily, and can develop voids. One side of my mold came out with lots of little bubble holes because I think I mixed it too thick. I used wax to try to fill some of the holes, but it still left my cast with lots of little bumps and dimples .Also, at least for the first casting, the plaster left my cast quite dirty, with lots of bits of plaster bits in the surface of the model. I can also see brush marks from when I applied vaseline to my master object I was pulling a mold from.
are there other mold materials that cast? (like a hard rubber or resin molds). If so what are the perks of using other mold materials for casting?
Is the 2 part mold process the best way about this?
Pictures of my moldmaking process are attached.
Casting:
Wire amature placements. What are the tips and tricks to this? I basically just bent my armature into place so it wasn't touching any side walls, and then once the rubber was placed into my mold, I dropped the armature into place. Kinda a sloppy way of doing it, and you can see parts of my armature sticking out of the cast.
The moldlines on my cast are very pronounced. I cut away as much as I could but I am wondering there is a way to smooth over the mold lines. In general, I wonder if there is a way to smooth over the whole cast. Like can I mix more silicone and paint it on? Will that smooth it out or just make it look more lumpy?
Are there methods I don't know about for fabricating eyes and mouths with silicone? I have found some videos where the eyes and mouth are attached to the wire armature and the silicone gets cast around that. But that does not seem very beginner friendly.Typically, it seems, people use resin parts to cast the head because things can be stuck to it like eyes and mouths. I would imagine matching the colors of these resin parts to the silicone parts to be difficult, tho.
Finally the surface of my silicone mold has a 'chalky' look to it. Is that because I added to much pigment to the silicone?
Final product:
The front surface is rough and bumpy, compared to the back, have seam lines all over the place, and the figure is very jiggly. (probably due to there not being a ton of armature in the middle torso.)
Photos attached of the final product. Sorry for the long post, I'm hoping that I can find some people who can help me along my journey, as well as creating some useful resources for anyone else who is on a similar journey.
*EDIT*
Also interested in seeing how other people build puppets; Doesn't have to be liquid polymer, can be any method!
​
I want to make a two-part silicone mold of this figure for resin casting.
My main concern is the two enclosed areas marked in blue: the opening under the horse's neck and the loop formed by the tail.
What is the best way to handle these areas?
Should the parting line pass through these openings, or would you recommend a removable silicone insert/core, especially for the tail?
I want the mold to reproduce the openings completely while making demolding easy and avoiding damage to the cast.
Any advice on the best parting line for this figure would be greatly appreciated.
Hello everyone! This seems like an active subreddit with a lot of knowledgeable people, I hope someone can offer some advice.
I am casting a wearable mask in a resin (not polyester) mould for attaching to a 3D printed base for some rigidity. The casting material is Ecoflex 0020 with powermesh reinforcement around the mouth corners, on recommendation from Bentley Adv. Materials.
The mask design has large sections of block colour. Most of the mask is a mid-grey, but there are sharply defined areas of dark grey with some very dark grey/black details. My question is:
What is better to achieve this?
Mix some Ecoflex, SilPig, flocking and Thivex and pre-paint the patterns onto the inside of the mould with a brush in a thick layer/layers, then assemble the mould and pour the base colour in as a liquid cast?
Or, cast the whole thing in the base colour and manually brush the patterns on afterwards?
My goal is to have the patterns be sharply defined, very evenly toned with little/no variation in shade, and to appear as smooth as possible on the outside surface of the cast.
Thanks for your time! I hope this is the right place for this question, if not let me know and I'll take it elsewhere.
I bought this Belicone Silicone Rubber rubber probably 20 years ago from Rio Grande. I use it for miniature crafting, so it has lasted me quite some time. Unfortunately, it is no longer available from what I can see, and I am hoping somebody can suggest an alternative. I really love it because it has a built in release, and has a somewhat greasy feel when initially mixing it. It has a consistency like silly putty before it sets. The tubs describe it as ‘cold molding silicone rubber’, an equal parts a b silicone rubber by B&B Benbassat LTD. Is anyone familiar with this that can suggest a similar alternative? Thank you so much for any tips!