Experiment Help....

[trav]

Got a wild idea this weekend when I was at Home Depot, and tried to make a mold using 100% GE Silicone in the tubes.  I molded half of the swimbait I carved, and the stuff is thick.  Has anyone used this to make molds for pouring before? Or would you guys recommend thinning it out with water or alcohol for the second half of the mold?

[Centigrade]

I don't know much of soft baits but i have recently read on other forums that GE silicone wasn't working and guys were using a Sealer type instead.  Something about the GE  silicone making the baits hard maybe.  I had googled DIY soft baits.  good place to start if your waiting on the experts 

[Roger Linnell]

I tried that and couldn't get it to work

[Jig Man]

I've mixed corn starch with silicone to make molds. 

[mark poulson]

I've used GE 100% silicone for molds.  It works, but it is difficult, because the thicker the 100% silicone is, the longer it takes to cure.

A TU member told me to try adding a few drops of water to the silicone to get it to cure more quickly, and that worked, but it made the silicone hard to apply to details because it changed the consistency.

I wound up putting a thin coat of pure silicone onto the baked, sealed Sculpy master that was already glued down onto my mold base.  Once I had fingered the silicone into all the nooks and crannies, I glued the mold box down around the master, and filled the box in layers with silicone that was mixed with water.  The mixed silicone set in a couple of hours, but the pure stuff needed longer to cure.

I waited 48 hours, just to be on the safe side, and then I was able to remove the mold box from the base, and remove the master from the silicone mold itself.

The mold works, but I found it was too much trouble for me to make any more.  I'm lazy.

[Baitjunkys]

http://www.theengineerguy.com/Mold-Star-30.html

This stuff is awesome.

[trav]

So, after reading a bunch of links and a few posts, I've found that specifically GE is not good to use.  I found a post that says the Mainstay brand at walmart is a lot better to use, and to use lighter fluid to make it thinner.  Ill try that next

[Cami]

There is a very known recipe about the common Acetic Silicone (that one mostly used in bathroom) to realise molds: simply adding few drops of water and one/two drops of tempera or acrylic colour. You will not obtain the same details of RTV Silicone, but it really works and in two hours you can obtain the first halve.

FYI: with only few drops of tempera/acrilic colour (no more water) added to Acetic Silicone you can obtain a real soft and odourless silicone that can be spread on a "1000 rows carpet" with a spatula to obtain coloured Jig skirts (24 hours). The "1000 rows carpet" is a plastic table protection (a little plastic carpet), used mostly in mechanics, to avoid that tools and instruments can ruin on the floor: its V shaped rows are perfect to realise silicone skirts and a releaser is not necessary.

Bye

 

Cami

[Slammingjack]

I have made 5 or 6 molds out of  household Silicone. I used Ace Hardware cheapest they had. Must be 100% silicone. I used 1/4 tsp of water. The whole thing about the water is it speeds up the curing of the silicone. Also make it smell about 5x stronger. Will take your breath away. Make a mold box, I used wood. Make sure you have four sides, a top and bottom. Just use clamps to hold it together. I used clear silicone and add the water and mix it so all the silicone turns a off white.You only have about 10 minutes before it starts setting up. Spoon in the silicone and fill the box  to the top, place your model in and place the top on the box and push down to help remove air pockets. Let it set for 2 hours. Remove the box and any water. Start pouring. Yep two hours and you can pour. If you get any voids in the mold, just mix up some more  silicone and water and fill in the void. put the model back in and your good to go. The model must be sealed and if it's shiney. Your baits will come out shiney 

[mark poulson]

If you coat your master using your finger to spread the silicone into all the details before you push it down into the already filled mold box, you can get more details.

[Centigrade]

Do you recommend silicone over plaster of Paris molds?  I'm thinking of giving it a try and POP seems very simple  minus a bit more time to complete the mold.  

 

Side note if a dried out a crayfish on my dock for a few days and coated in Vaseline could i turn that into a mold? 

[trav]

So, since I haven't had time to buy a different brand of silicone, or fiberglass resin, I tried mixing another batch of the GE Silicone.  I mixed about 1/4 of the tube and added a few tablespoons of charcoal fluid to thin it out. It thinned out a bit and cured a lot faster when I added some water, but I noticed that the silicone is not quite as tough when its cured.  Should be too much of an issue for the 5 inch bluegill and 7 inch shad molds I carved.  Im open to other ideas if anyone is willing to share.  Im trying to avoid buying more Oomoo 30 or Mold Max RTV, seeing how its more expensive and I have to wait for it to be shipped to me.

[Slammingjack]

Do you recommend silicone over plaster of Paris molds?  I'm thinking of giving it a try and POP seems very simple  minus a bit more time to complete the mold.  

 

Side note if a dried out a crayfish on my dock for a few days and coated in Vaseline could i turn that into a mold? 

 

Well, the pop smells better then the silicone. But if you drop the silicone on the floor it just bounces. The pop not so much.

 

As far as the crayfish, I don't know ... try it and let us know.