# Simple Mold Making



## docwatsonva (Jan 2, 2008)

SIMPLE MOLD MAKING

I want to start off by saying that Richard Kapuaala, in my opinion, is, by far, one of the finest mold makers I’ve ever seen. His products are fantastic and his recent videos on mold making are extremely informative and I hope he keeps producing more. But then, there are the rest of us. Before I describe one way to make simple molds, let me give you a little background to help explain some of my experience.

I’ve had an interest in making molds for many years. Back in the day I owned a hobby store in Colorado. Of course, there was a great interest in narrow gauge railroading in that part of the country, to say the least. I loved passenger cars but there were only a couple of manufacturers of HON3 passenger car kits (Labelle) and they were expensive and time-consuming to build. We designed and developed a simple kit made out of cast resin. I remember that the process of manufacturing those suckers was a bear and, after a short run, decided I would never do that again. Here’s a picture of the car kit. The entire car was cast in only three parts – the roof; the sides and ends; and the floor.










In more recent times I came upon a need to do some more casting but wanted to keep it simple and avoid the tedious process I used before. After some research on the Internet, I came across a product that seemed to be just what I needed. It was a food-safe silicone mold material that comes in several forms that have the consistency of soft dough, buttercream or a thick liquid similar to standard mold materials we are used to seeing. The product goes by the name of Silicone Plastic.

I wanted to make a number of corbels for a structure I was building and did not want to individually hand-make them. The product I chose was their dough-like material that you literally mix by hand like you would Silly Putty. Below, is a picture of how the two components come packaged? This happens to be their 1 lb. kit.










To preface the following steps you need to remember that you have about 20 – 30 minutes total working time.

Here is the master I made out of basswood. Before making a mold, I sanded and sealed the master.










The first step is to weigh the each of the 2 components to ensure they are equal.










In the second step, you mix the 2 balls of mold material, by hand, until the color of the material is totally uniform. This only takes a few minutes.

The third step is to lay the master on a flat surface and begin applying the mold material. I found that by breaking off little pieces of the material at a time and pressing it into the sides and crevasses of the master you can help ensure that voids can be eliminated. I then build up consecutive layers of the silicone until I have enough of the silicone enclosing the master to ensure the mold will have sufficient strength to minimize distortion. The mold should be fully cured in about 2 hours. Don’t worry about the different layers bonding. If you finish within 20-30 minutes, the different layers will actually flow together giving a solid mass with no visible signs of layering.

 Here’s a tip. When you’re done enclosing the master and have about a 1/8”-1/4” thickness built-up on top of the master, take a piece of glass or some other non-porous, smooth material and carefully press it onto the top of your mold as level as possible. This will create a flat surface so that, when you turn over the mold, you will have a level base.

The next picture shows the mold after the master is removed.










The final step is to mix and pour the resin of choice. This image shows the results of the effort. Well worth it I think.










There’s one huge benefit to using this kind of silicone mold. You can wash it and make chocolate versions of whatever you’ve modeled.

The web site for information and pricing can be found at:

http://www.makeyouownmolds.com

What I have shown here is how to make very simple molds. You can also use this product and other components sold by this company to make very complex two part molds.

I hope this information can be of some help to those of you who may be intimidated, like me, by others who have greater skills.

Doc


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## Dr Rivet (Jan 5, 2008)

Hey Boss [former] 

That would be ==> http://www.makeyourownmolds.com You left out the "R" in the link above. Looks like cool stuff. 

I might try it after June 3, 2011. Paperwork is done. 

Regards


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## docwatsonva (Jan 2, 2008)

Thanks for the correction Jim.

I'm sure you'll enjoy retirement.

See you in a few weeks.

Doc


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## Mike O (Jan 2, 2008)

Doc, 

You got Jim's attention when you indicated the molds could be used for chocolate. 

Mike


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## SE18 (Feb 21, 2008)

don't sell yourself short, he and you both do great work 

haven't seen anything posted before using this technique. I've heard of it though. I'll click on the website you posted. Looks like you could even pour cement or plaster in there, tho it might suck the life out of the mold (dry and crack). WOuld be interesting to see that mold making used for figures or something as well 

Dave


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## SE18 (Feb 21, 2008)

could pull up the site; seems it is missing an "r" 


EDIT

yeah, the r is missing; got in. Price is about same as for RTV but looks friendly from the point of being easy to work and WYSIWYG


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## docwatsonva (Jan 2, 2008)

OK.

I don't know why I can't go back and edit my post so here's the correct url for the mold making site:

http://www.makeyourownmolds.com/

Dave, I think you could cast almost any material. The manufacturer claims the mold can take temperatures up to 400 deg. You could probably even cast low temperature metals. The mold shown in my post is over 9 years old and is still flexible and useable.

Doc


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## rkapuaala (Jan 3, 2008)

Thanks for the compliments and the introduction to this material. I definitely have to try this technique out as it is useful for many applications the liquid molds are not suitable for.


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