tigerfire Posted April 9, 2020 Report Share Posted April 9, 2020 I need to make a two piece mold for my 3D printed bait. It's printed in PLA with a lot of thin walls, like a ring worm but the rings are a lot closer. I was just wondering if anyone has tried something like this with POP and if the POP will separate fine with all those thin walls? Is there something I can spray on the PLA master that would help when it came time to separate the two pieces of POP? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark poulson Posted April 9, 2020 Report Share Posted April 9, 2020 The only mold I've made of a ribbed bait was with Solarez Dual Cure Polyester Resin, because it is runny enough to fill the grooves by itself. The soft plastic masters I used were commercially made baits, not rigid masters. I've made lots of POP molds, but I wouldn't try to make one of a deeply ribbed rigid bait. My rule of thumb, learned here on TU, is hard master/soft mold, soft master/hard mold. That has more to do with being able to get you master back out of the mold afterwards than with mold quality. I'd suggest you make your initial mold out of a pourable silicone, so you can get all of the rings filled and still pull the master out when you're done. You can pour you soft plastic baits from the silicone mold. Smooth On is one such silicone maker. There are others, but I don't know them by name. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tigerfire Posted April 9, 2020 Author Report Share Posted April 9, 2020 That makes sense. In this case, I'm not worried about getting my master back, but I just think the POP will crack and the mold will look like it's missing some teeth! I've always used POP to make my molds, but I'll try using silicone. I'm sure it's similar to POP. Any tips would be greatly appreciated. I'll take a look at Smooth On. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aulrich Posted April 13, 2020 Report Share Posted April 13, 2020 I think as long as the shape is (and i am digging back into engineering education 30 years ago) "self releasing" and you have the parting line dead center you should be OK. I suspect making a POP mold is a lot like making a green sand mold. Now if you could print that shape in a flexible filament you would have a bit of wiggle room. Depending on the prints orientation, the layer lines maybe the fly in the ointment. I am thinking a coat or two of high gloss finish but a really thin type of finish should help smooth the layer lines. just about any mold release should work after that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
