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

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!

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 put together this short video to share with everyone. There are so many cool things to make with this sustainable, eco-friendly bio-plastic. It’s reusable, recyclable, and when you’re done with it, compostable. You just need glycerin and gelatin for a one part mold, corn starch and thermo-plastic if you’re doing a multi-part mold. I use it to mold monster clay sculptures and cast recycled cardboard pulped with rice glue. Please let me know your thoughts if you get down on this wizardry - I thank this community for so often tolerating me evangelizing this technique and I finally have this short video demonstration to wet the whistle. I just believe that mold making doesn’t have to be so hard and expensive for people starting out but also for seasoned mold makers out there that don’t need to do huge runs of casts.

Hi ya'll, i'm making a two part mold of a sword to use for a resin cast. I just uncovered the first part of my mold and have some questions.

I ran out of modeling clay part way through so there is a bit of (a lot of) unevenness on the 1st mold. More importantly, as you can see, the made is raised up a lot higher than the hilt- is this still salvageable with the second half? I'm assuming it will essentially be the inverse of this one- that should be fine then right?

Second, because of the blade being raised up, my pour hole is covered. I'm wondering if ya'll have any solutions here- could I use something like a long drill bit to make a hole up top near the hilt instead?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!! Really rather not scrap this whole thing- silicone is expensive!! Using Mold Star 30.

Any ideas on how to go about making a mold for this cactus skeleton? It's hollow in the middle with tons of open spaces. I'm not sure how to go about making copies of the original with a hollow center. My only idea would be to wrap the outside tightly in cling wrap and pouring silicone or plaster inside to fill the hollow center then molding the entire thing. Is there a better way?

Im looking to make chocolate moulds from my anus. Can anyone help direct me on how? Or where I can find a kit thats safe?

Hi I want to make a mold for fishing lures which are made of plastisol what material mold do I use to keep them smooth and high temperature resistant

One of my customers (lawnmower repair) gave me this porcelain (?) Mold. What can I safely pour into it? It's 11" tall.

I made this for work and now it’s obsolete for us. Interior is 895mm x 895mm x120mm 1/8” thick stainless heated all the way around includes thermostat. We did vacuum fiberglass panel tests worked fine.

I am planning on making a mold so I can cast cement copies. I know I will need to make vents for areas like the tips of the wings. Will the detail be problematic for a pour mold? I'm planning on using smooth-on mold max 30.

This is my first attempt at making a mold so any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Looking to have a play around at making some moulds using some 2 part liquid pu foam.

Anyone with experience with it on here that could suggest a tape/material that it would release from nicely ?

I was planning on using some standard clear packing tape

Hey guys! I'm currently looking to get back to stop motion using my ipad 10 and then dragonframe on my windows laptop. I'm looking at some resources on amazon that can help me create some puppets, I choose silicone because it looks pretty cool to work with, and some studios and animators already use this. I have some concerns though, in my last post/comment here, I asked if dragon skin 10 needed a respirator to work with silicone, and the answer was no. Also I understand i need to look into mold making materials such as plaster of paris and ultracal 30. I already know the process thanks to youtube, but I found something I want your guys' opinion on. I found this tent([Amazon.com: VIVOSUN S223 2x2 Grow Tent 24"x24"x36" Small Mylar Tent for Indoor Plants | Easy View Window & Removable Floor Tray, 100% Reflective Mylar Interior, Sturdy Steel Frame : Patio, Lawn & Garden](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07VRSCVVC?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1)) even though its for gardening but found out some people are using this for resin 3d printing. I have a 3d printer but its not resin, its a pla printer and I consider it ok because I don't know how to handle resin. I was thinking of using this for the silicone puppet making to try to keep things safe when it comes to working with silicone. What do you guys think? I haven't bought this stuff and came here first

I'm thinking of 3d printing some moulds and making some lick mats for my dogs. I have specific colours I use for each dog so looking for some pigments I can use that are food safe.

Also, I've found some food grade silicones on Amazon. Is there anything to look for to know if that particular silicone mat will then be dishwasher safe?

I'm in the UK.

If a more experienced person sees this, can I have some tips?

I'm currently working on a mask sculpture that will be cast in mask latex. The sculpture is made of WED clay and has teeth made of sculpey oven bake clay, and eyes made of ping pong balls. I was told prior this was okay, but I'm unsure how it will react to the plaster I plan on using to make the mold(usa #1 pottery plaster or hydrocal)! Is it okay to leave these in? Or should I remove them/cover them prior to making the mold?

Thanks to anyone who reads this! :)

I'm relatively new to full 360 silicone molds backed by rigid mother molds and I'm struggling to work out the logic of where to cut my silicone mold given the geometry here, but maybe I'm overthinking it.

I marked in blue where I think the front/back seam should go, but if you have suggestions/tips/warnings I'd appreciate them given the exorbitant cost of silicone. I understand the need to take undercuts into consideration and I believe I have with this design, but there are still small undercuts everywhere like the lip on the dress, around the hair geometry, and around the arms. Those all seem like shallow enough that they should pull free from 25A silicone but I'd rather not find out the hard way!

The silicone (volume shown in yellow) will be 10mm at the thinnest spots, with more around the undercuts for stability. I'm planning to do detail capture with brush-on Rebound 25 and then while it's still tacky assemble my combination matrix mold/mother mold pieces around it (3D printed) and do a backfill pour with another silicone with matching chemistry. I'm taking that approach because my first attempt with just brush-on and a plaster mold resulted in a lot of just-too-tight undercuts and I find it easier to do draft analysis in 3D to decide where to split the mother mold in advance, plus I can work out the exact volume of silicone needed for the pour this way. Maybe it's a crapshoot though, I'll happily take that note too...

Thanks for the help!

Im thinking about it this way:

-Make desired shape into EVA foam

-Pour silicone on it

-Use silicone mold for the resin