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Post by wrecknr0b on Jul 23, 2022 17:39:46 GMT -5
Ok, first time poster, and novice user here. I have been using an assortment of Alumilite products to recreate fairly thin, less than 3mm parts. Up to now I have the amazing mold silicone for my molds and I am using flex 80 for my casting. However after about 30 or so molds I find that the casted parts don't cure spot on, they tend to have air holes in them. My initial thought after some browsing on google is that perhaps my molds are either dirty and need to be washed or maybe I heated them up a bit too much ( I use a blow-dryer for a 15 to 20 seconds before pouring).
The casted parts do this no mater the flex I use, it could be 40, 50 or 80 and yet they no longer give me perfect replicated parts the first 20 pairs did. So I was wondering if maybe I could make a harder, rigid mold with the alumilite white and then essentially make a 2 part mold with it. Anyone have any experience with this?
Thanks in advance.
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Post by notoes on Jul 24, 2022 7:47:11 GMT -5
If you've made 30 of them then that's close to when you will need to make a new mold. You might could extend the usage of the mold by rubbing silicone oil in it (on the Amazon Mold Silicone part) but you could also make a new one with the Alumilite White like you're thinking.
Just remember that the Flex is a RESIN type material so you must use a resin to resin release agent - I think that's the Stoner one or the UMR one. I haven't used either one so I can't say exactly how they will work for you but they are what is recommended for resin to resin release. Usually when I need a release agent, I use Vaseline but I also don't use Flex with a resin mold so I can't say exactly how that will work either. When I use the Flex, my molds are always silicone and I add a little bit of Vaseline so I don't have a problem demolding.
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Post by wrecknr0b on Jul 24, 2022 8:29:27 GMT -5
If you've made 30 of them then that's close to when you will need to make a new mold. You might could extend the usage of the mold by rubbing silicone oil in it (on the Amazon Mold Silicone part) but you could also make a new one with the Alumilite White like you're thinking. Just remember that the Flex is a RESIN type material so you must use a resin to resin release agent - I think that's the Stoner one or the UMR one. I haven't used either one so I can't say exactly how they will work for you but they are what is recommended for resin to resin release. Usually when I need a release agent, I use Vaseline but I also don't use Flex with a resin mold so I can't say exactly how that will work either. When I use the Flex, my molds are always silicone and I add a little bit of Vaseline so I don't have a problem demolding. Notoes, thanks for the info, I truly appreciate it. In reality I have probably made way more than 30 molds of each one and didn't know if that was the reason for the casted parts to come out with the imperfections all of a sudden or maybe I was stirring the flex too heavy handed and allowing bubbles in. I'm super new to all this so kind of learning as I go. As for the release with the Amazing mold maker I do just that, apply the vaseline and it works great. I did not know that about resins so will look into the resin release here shortly. One more question though, I switched to amazing mold after using Tap Plastics (Silicone RTV) and one of the major reasons was the time it took to cure. It would take way to long before I could see if I made a good mold or not, therefore the Amazing Mold sold me. Here recently I just started reading up on the PlatSil 73-60 and even the plat 55 and how they would give me a more rigid mold then the red. Do you happen to know if these would give me longevity with the molds rather then having to recreate molds after casting 30 pairs? Thanks in advance --Rob-- |
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Post by notoes on Jul 27, 2022 7:01:18 GMT -5
I use Plat 25 but haven't used the PlatSil 73-60 so I can't really speak on that one. As for the difference between the Amazing Mold Maker and the Plat 25, both are about the same stiffness - Plat may be a tiny bit stiffer though. But the Plat has a longer open time and there are a few things you can do to speed up the cure for the Plat. As for longevity, that is something I haven't exactly tested out as I haven't yet tried to max out how many pours I've done with them.
But the good thing is that you can always "recycle" the mold when making a new one. There have been some times that I had one part or another not come out right in a Plat mold and I cut that part out then poured in new Plat and it bonded like it was poured as a whole piece. I don't know how much help this is but I hope it was at least a little helpful.
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