Someone tell me how to do it, pretend I know nothing when you discribe it, that way you wont assume I know something that I do not.

wayne emailed me a list of things to do... if he would give me permission, i would copy and paste it here. Let me know wayne...

I'd also love to get a copy of this list. I'm afraid that I might blow up my house or kill myself from the fumes or something if I don't know what I'm doing. I know Wayne has some info on this site, but I know that some things have changed like going from Silicone and Polyester to the PAM and PAK Polyurethanes.

Doug.

im afraid of that too,
considering my work space is 15 feet from my hot water boiler, but the glue fumes havent screwed up the boiler yet, only my eyes.

That's what you would use to split the mold in any case. Use a nice thin film of vaseline between the two parts of the mold you want to separate.

My biggest hurdle so far has been getting the ratios perfect. So far I've ruined every attempt at making a two part mold because in every case I actually end up pouring multiple layers to get the "half" made just right and somewhere along teh line I inadvertently screwed up the ratio just a tiny fraction.

I'm finding that the molding material I'm using (Synair PAM333) is very unforgiving and even a 100 to 95 volume ratio is enough to ruin the mold. I'm just going to suck it up and mix larger batches together (more forgiving to the). At least I won't be ruining molds left and right, even if I'm "wasting" more of the PAM material.

hmmm...
I was considering ordering the Por-A-Mold S333. but, if this is a serious problem, then what else can i use?

Well there's nothing specifically wrong with it and when done right it works great, but the trick is you have to make sure you have the ratios down as close to 1 to 1 for volume as possible. They do say to really keep those ratios close on the web page.

As I said, pouring out larger amounts will help to keep the ratios closer to the magical 1 to 1 volume ratio. It's just that I was pouring smaller quantities to not "waste" excess PAM, but the tradeoff was that I had a very small margin of error.

i guess ill stick with S333 then.
i have a question for you Jin:
What do you use to coat the clay parts?

I don't know... I haven't gotten to the point where I'm casting custom pieces made entirely of Milliput yet. But I'd maybe give them a shot of synlube 351 and let it dry before I poured PAM over them. But so far I haven't used anything on some plastic pieces and they came out relatively easily anyway.

Anyone else know what vaseline is good for?
Speedcube treatment. But, it must be removed after a week. I know the reason,and i will post it in a few days. but, i want to see if anyone else knows first. Think of the ingridient PETROLEUM jelly

are you making your molds from existing pieces? or making clay parts to make molds from?

I'll put that stuff into the articles at some point.

After Tyler gets the list up here (I'm at work so I don't have it with me to do it myself), I'll do up another article explaining the molding process in detail with photos etc.

This message has been edited by sausage from IP address 212.120.136.18 on Mar 25, 2002 7:07 PM

I had to pretty much work it all out myself as there was noone else doing it when I started looking into the possibilities. In fact, I didn't even know that liquid plastics existed in that form. I had almost resigned to the fact that I would have to use wood to make a prototype.

I know where you are coming from with the idea of pressing pieces into a clay of some sort. But believe me, that would be bad if it was possible because you would get micro-distortions pushing a piece in and then pulling out. Best to think of it like this:

1.. Make a lego box or wall around your piece allowing a bit of space all around the piece.

2.. Place this box on something smooth and flat like an old CD case. Blue-tac it to the case or flat board .

3.. Mix up the silicone rubber and SLOWLY, pour in the mix bit by bit. You usually have a good hour to spend on it before it starts being unworkable, depend on which brand/specs you buy. Pour to half way up your piece.

4.. Cure 24 hours and then remove the piece to make sure all is ok with the first half mold.

5.. If it is, then put vasoline around the surface of the first half and put the piece back in.

6.. Mix up another batch of silicone rubber, put your piece and first half back into the lego wall, And pour in the mix to form a solid cube of silicone in side the wall

7.. Cure for another 24 hours and then carefully break open the two halves. They should split where the vasoline is.

8.. Remove your original piece form inside and you will have two good halves.

9.. Lube both halves with something like silicon spray.

10.. Mix up your polyurethane.

11.. Pour into both halves. Wait till curing is almost about to begin and place the two halves together carefully to avoid trapping bubbles in between the halves.

12.. Seperate after curing and you have a piece.

Ok, now all the above is a very simple overall guide. Your technique will vary and it really hard for me to explain exactly how I mix things and how I shove the pieces together etc. You will have a lot of failures before you perfect the art but I'm sure you'll catch on quickly enough. It is definately an art, and something each person learns to fine individually.

Let me know if this helps.

Wayne