so far so good

[RAdams]

Well i have decided to attempt to cast my own blanks. So far i have got my paint pot and the silicone for one form.

At $8 a tube, i was hoping to get a pen mold and a bottle stopper mold out of the 5 tubes i purchased, but i will need at least one more tube for the stopper mold as it took 4 tubes to do the pen mold.

The trick with putting it in water first helped tremendously. It becomes like a weird dough or something and you can handle it and hand tool it right into the voids.

i used some handy dandy 1/2 inch corrugated fiberglass board to make the form for the mold, so it should turn out really smooth and clean. I just slathered it with petroleum jelly before mashing the silicone cookie dough into place.

The neat part is that i can make as many of these molds as i want. the form is totally reusable!

I will be buying the mica samplers (regular and pearl) from the make up company, and i think i will try out the poly resin from the online source spoke of here ($45 a gallon i think)

I just need to get the little oven. is there any specific requirements for the little toaster oven? or any model preferred?

 

[RAdams]

just out of curiosity, about how many blanks can you get from a gallon of resin? say if you were not casting anything in the resin, but just solid resin, 3/4 by 3/4 by 5?

 

[Glass Scratcher]

Ron,

Congratulations! you have now wandered to the darkside. HEHEHEHEHEHE.

Now I have a question or 2 for you. Please, I don't mean to insult, I applaud your use of gorilla/gangsta casting methods to make your mold. BUT, you say you spent $8 per tube for 5 tubes of caulk? Correct my math but that is $40.00, yes?

I know I have posted this in the past and some smarter cookie thought I was nuts for actually using a molding product to make molds with but a starter kit of OOMOO 25/30 is $24.26 plus S&H and it will make 2-2cav 3/4x5.5" molds. Look in my photos and you can see an example of the molds.

http://www.reynoldsam.com/index.php?cPath=2_1113_1136&catdepth=1

For bottle stoppers how big do you want them? You can use Amber Polypropylene RC5 pill bottles or other found molds without having to go to the expense of making a mold. I use 50ml poly lab beakers for small stoppers
http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/va...gory_name=4&product_id=12658&variant_id=76075
and 100ml lab beakers for large stoppers.
http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/va...gory_name=4&product_id=12658&variant_id=76076

One beaker lasts for hundreds of casts

My 2 cav molds take 4oz/120ml of resin per cast. So I get roughly 64 blanks per gallon. Closer to 60.

 

[MesquiteMan]

Or for $9.95 at Sam's club you can buy a 15" x 20" x 1/2 white plastic cutting board and make 3 molds that will produce 5 blanks each. There is a brief tutorial on my website at www.turntex.com under the penturner's resources page.

 

[RAdams]

my impatience is the sole reason i bought the expensive silicone. I knew i could have gotten it cheaper online, and next time i will. I just wanted to make a mold, so i bit the bullet.

My mold should make three blanks at a time, allthough i just looked at the tutorial for the chopping board mold and will be trying that as well!

 

[ngeb528]

We bought 3 tubes of silicone for 2.97 ea at Wallyworld and made a 4 (separate) blank mold. That way we can make 1, 2, 3 or 4 blanks at a time.

 

[RAdams]

i looked at silly cone at wallyworld but didnt find anything that said acetic cure. the stuff i got from home depot is super heavy duty stuff. i am pleased with the results. i unformed it a bit ago, and it came out nicely! the next one will be near perfect i think!