Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Trying my hand at: Mold Making and Casting with Silicone RTV [Pittsburgh Tech Shop]

2013-06-13 21.11.00.jpgToday at the Pittsburgh Tech Shop, I took a class in mold making and casting. This is a great technique for making multiple copies of a piece out of resin. It's used in sculpting, prop making, special effects makeup, and many more applications. This Instructable is the documentation of the class in which I found a piece to copy from the part bins available at the TechShop, cast a mold out of silicone, and filled the mold with resin.

I will discuss the process of casting beginning with choosing a piece to cast, making the mold, and casting a piece from the mold.

More information about the Pittsburgh TechShop can be found at http://techshop.ws/

I made it at TechShop!

2013-06-13 18.25.27.jpgIf you have a silicone mold already available to you, the casting process does not take very long. If you're starting by making the mold, however, be prepared to wait at least two hours for the mold to cure. Be sure you have the following before beginning:

Time: at least 2 hours for a small project
Tools:
-latex or rubber gloves
-utility knife
-4 paper cups for measuring
-2 paper cups for mixing
-paper or plastic cup to hold the silicone
-hot glue gun
-wooden mixers (popsicle sticks)
Materials:
-something to mold
-silicone RTV
-urethane liquid plastic resin
-Ease Release agent

You should coat the surface that you're working on in a disposable material to catch any spills. It would also be a good idea to have paper towels on hand to clean up messes. 

Necessary materials can be purchased from websites such as http://www.smooth-on.com/


View the original article here

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