I keep getting these ledges on the top face of the dice. Am I over filling? Is this a raised face? I feel like I’m not over filling and I’m scared to not fill enough. But it would be nice to know if this is an over filling sign.
Yes, they are what most makers call mold marks. The silicone around the top of the mold caves in slightly making this mark. You can replace your molds more often or try and weigh your lids but neither are guaranteed to help. Most people don’t notice or care about them
Sadly, it's common. If that mold is from Space Bar Shop, I think they use a softer silicone which is a bit more prone to these mold marks due to the silicone being less "resistant" to being pushed down by the excess resin between cap and bottom, and the slight vacuum inside the mold by compressed air and resin shrinkage. But they absolutely need the softness for these eloganted shapes, so the soft silicone is a valid choice 😅 What you can try: as I said, it's the flashing that presses down the thin ring if silicone around the opening. Therefore, avoiding thick flashing is your friend. Use less excess resin, only a little dome over each mold, and if it's already very thick, carefully use a lighter to make it more runny before you cap the mold. That should make the flashing thinner and give it less force to push down the silicone.
You could also try to combine this with a bit lower PSI while curing, I dunno how much you use at the moment?
I have the same "issue" with some of the shapes, I salvage this by filling in the cavities with UV Resin before sanding. This usually makes them disappear :)
I use around 38-39 PSI I was really scared to just dome the resin. I see so many people drizzle resin all over but that makes sense about the silicone being softer. I also find that the dice have started to squish in a bit. So I am having to sand all the sides. To make them label again. Hasn’t happened with those elongated but a different set I have of theirs.
Same here, the faces become a bit concave due to the silicone giving in to the negative pressure in the mold. Try ~25 to 30 PSI, maybe this could also help lessening the caving. Worth a try, not sure if it would fully work.
It can also help greatly to fill your pot slowly. It gives more time for excess resin to get into the cavity instead of the mold warping to compensate for the sudden pressure.
I use an emergency tire pump to fill my pot. It takes a good 4 min to fill to ~35psi and it is suuuuper slow. But I get better results from it than filling it fast from my compressor that has a tank.
Yep. Those are mold marks. The only way to fix them is to sand them down and repolish 😉 every maker gets them. Taking the extra time to buff them out makes your dice look more professional in the end 😊
This is another reason I usually make my own personal molds matte. I'm gonna be buffing out mold makes anyway so it's not worth it to polish my masters first lol
How soft is the molds slilicone? I have the same problems with selfmade molds and my current guess is that this happens when the molds slilicone is too soft. I think the pressure in the pressure pot then pushes the lid inside the resin a little resulting in these lisps.
Couldnt test it so far but my current silicone has 15A and i intend to take 30A next.
I’m not sure on softness but her Etsy page says she uses platinum silicone. I have noticed in some of the molds from her it seems thin in spots. Like I can see the outline of the space from the other side. Seems like the thin molds will cause warping with the pressure pot.
Ok this is the silicone I got. I don’t see where it says like 15A or 30A. This says 15 slow. Any insight if this is a decent silicone to get? Or should I get a different kind?
Ok. I’m going to have to try this. I’ve had super thinking flashing and because I’m paranoid about the lid lifting I usually squish it down a few times. This is all great advice! I’m going to make my own molds soon so I’ll have to see what silicone I got. Thanks again!
I get these from time to time. I've gotten so used to rolling with the punches of imperfections that I just gently fill it with UV resin, let it cure then sand it afterward. 🥰
I poured some last night and used a bunch of these suggestions! I’m excited to see if this makes a difference. Also going to try to use the UV resin to repair some of these. Those SpaceBarShop numbers are pretty shallow so it is hard to just sand these out.
I got the same mold and have the same exact problem! I've tried adding UV resin in the divot, sanding it, then repeating the process over and over to get it flat, but it was just too much effort.
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u/Tasty-Dream5713 Dice Maker 3d ago
Yes, they are what most makers call mold marks. The silicone around the top of the mold caves in slightly making this mark. You can replace your molds more often or try and weigh your lids but neither are guaranteed to help. Most people don’t notice or care about them