Hello fellow makers,

I wanted to cheap out on my current project and bought neutral cure construction silicone for my (2 part) mold, which is a 1:1 bust.
Did not have time to apply both parts in quick succession and now that the first part has fully cured, I see that the silicone edge wall has retracted 3-4 mm from the shim wall, which is a mental amount of shrinkage.

This first part is also only about 2mm thick, pure construction silicone. I thought of strengthening it by applying a silicone+corn starch mixture on top of that but again; did not have time until now that the first thin layer is fully cured.

I wonder if I should take the loss, scrap the first part mold and buy proper silicone;
or if applying the 2nd part mold a few centimeters on top of the first part, overlapping the two parts, may give a good result even considering the the second part of the mold will of course shrink just as much.

Thank you for your time and advice.

I was wondering what the best way was to preserve a mold. Basically I’m getting a mold for a latex mask and I was wanting to make a master cast of it to preserve it and make a mold off it. At the same time I still wanted to be able to cast latex masks so i don’t really want to seal it unless it’s only temporary (I’m not sure how that works). I know I can make a latex master but then it shrinks and isn’t accurate to the 1st gen mold. So I was wondering if there’s any material that I can cast that has minimal shrinkage and I don’t need to seal. (Again if the sealing is temporary I don’t have a problem with it, I just don’t want to ruin the mold. From what I’ve read to do a resin cast it would need to be sealed).

hello 🦭 recently i’ve bought a lot of stress balls since i’ve always been a sensory person. last week, i had some that i wasn’t really into, so i cut them open and added foam clay into it. they turned out well, since the issue i had originally was that they were not filled enough—but now i have a new problem. the foam clay feels too hard! i thought about injecting a substance into the skin through the stopper to soften the clay. lotion seems to be the most straightforward choice, but that to me seems like a nice breeding ground for potential mold. i don’t like wasting my belongings or money, so i want these stress balls to have “permanent” shelf life. if my concern is valid and lotion will cause mold to grow, what would be my other options? maybe rubbing alcohol or baby oil, but i don’t know how they would mix with the foam clay

the brand of foam clay i’m using is calpalmy (just white, nothing weirdly colored), and the skins of the balls are TPR i’m pretty sure

(i had originally posted this on r/askchemistry but reddit so kindly recommended me to this subreddit instead)

This is my first time making a 2 part mold. I’m trying to clean up the sculpey residue, but don’t know the best way to go about it. Any tips or words of wisdom?

I am trying to make a mold of my hand. I’m seeing mixed reviews. Am I able to put plaster bandage straight onto my hand (with Vaseline underneath)

Novice here, So I’ve designed a small part that connects a basket to my desk and I’m looking to get the parts molded out of abs plastic so they are sturdy and strong. I have access to a 3d printer, but what is the easiest way to get the parts molded made? Are there companies that specialize in small batch private use molding? Or anyone here that would be willing to help?

The part is very small (7mmx8mmx20mm) and I would need 4-5 (5th one is for strength tests)

Any help would be awesome!

Hi everyone, I need to put a hard shell on top of the silicone for stability in casting, however as you can see the ball on the masks face has an enormous undercut and won't release from the plaster, any tips on what I should do would be greatly appreciated

Hey i don know if this is the right subreddit or not but here we go 😅

so i finally got my package of silicone and resin kit and i had prepared a model out of clay and it has dried and i sealed it too, except when i made a case around the model to pour in silicone i havent noticed a gap and ive wasted all my silicone and painted my entire carpet silicone lol

now im worried bc i thought the silicone might dry on my model that i took so much time making and might be able to peel it off but the thing is everything isnt drying its like all my equipments are painted with this layer of very thin sticky residue and the rest of the silicone that didnt escape the gap i poured it back to the container and has cured with no issue, why did my model and equipments leave sticky residue while the same batch cured fully? also how do i get rid of that sticky residue on the surface of my room and equipment and even my hands

Has anyone ever worked with First Mold? I have a new product design and came across them but only 2 reviews on trust Pilot. Looks like 2 plants in China and 1 in Mexico.

I have a planter I want to copy. There's no way to buy a mold for this, I will have to make it. It's just a simple looking planter that I want to make a bunch more of for a stand I am making.

The tutorials I have seen are very very rough and produce low quality replicas. They also require you to turn the planter upside down and cut the bottom off and insert a dirt mold smaller than the object for wall thickness. This can't possibly be the only way to accomplish this.

Any thoughts?

I'm trying to make a silicone mold with platinum cure 40H for TPE ( Thermoplastic Elastomer ) product which melts at 210°C which is poured in the mold

But after cooling the tpe gets bubbles and scraped

Turns out the mold isn't conducting heat uniformly and some parts of the tpe products gets air bubbles

What should I add in the silicone that would uniformly heat the mold and create a smooth tpe finish

Ciao a tutti , sono appassionato e interessato di stampaggio a soffiaggio e ho pensato di creare una comunità dedicata ,se volete aiutarmi a farla crescere iscrivendovi e magari condivendo qualcosa sarebbe fantastico!

Grazie a tutti

Hello everyone,

I'm getting really interested by fiberglass... I want to build a furniture in the style of space age design, round curve and and white glossy finition...

I've been watching a lot of videos on youtube and I wonder something.

If I work with a negativ mold, the finition will be instantly percect if I put a white gelcoat before puting the fiberglass and the epoxy?

And if work with a positiv mold, it will take a lot of time and energy to sand it and to make a nice finition right? And it will never be as proper as the finition with negativ mold and the gelcoat?

So when it’s possible it's always better to work with a negativ mold?

Thanks everyone

I know this isn't home-related, but I’m hoping someone can offer some advice. I own a large statue sculpted from polyfoam, and unfortunately, one of the eyes is broken. I’m really worried about making it worse, so I’m hesitant to attempt a repair myself. Does anyone have experience fixing foam sculptures or recommendations on how to handle this?

https://imgur.com/a/HHmHbEA

AI says smooth on platinum silicone, but I have no clue and I’ve never made a mold before

So I was making a 2 part mold but I made the dumb mistake of taking the master out of the first half and then putting it back but now it’s not sealed super tightly and its got a little bit of wiggle room. I used mold star 30, and I really hope I can still save this because that stuff is def not cheap and this is also my second attempt 💔 if anyone can help me that would be greatly appreciated

We are manufacturing polymer concrete drainage channels by using molds. We always layer (2-3 times) the mold with liquid PVA for a thin film with a hand brush which is taking a lot of time in layering and drying afterwards. Is there anyone who knows what kind of spray gun I can use for layering the PVA liquid evenly?

I thought people here might appreciate knowing there’s a budget option that works for small volumes. It doesn’t get quite as good of a vacuum as legit setups but still does the job. Two mods to make if you do this: 1, seal the containers intake, I melted mine and clamped it shut while molten. 2, some kind of clear coat seal on the plastic container, it’s got absolutely tiny little micro pores that can let in air after a few runs if not sealed.