Hey Uncle Jesse! Great idea melting down old filament into molds; I never thought of that before. I wonder if putting the mold with the melted filament into a pressure pot would help with bubbles. That would be an interesting experiment. Thanks so much for mentioning my channel, I really appreciate it!
I think the coolest part of this process is that after you make the silicone mold, the mold box becomes another old print that you can melt down to make things.
I came up with the idea (not saying I originated it) of building a box abound my designs some years ago in order to pour silicon molds. However, I wasn’t planning on pouring plastic into the silicon molds but rather melted chocolate. Other candies may have worked too. The important thing being that if food is involved your silicon has to be specifically food safe. I also used the walled technique to create molds for chocolate using cookie presses as the positives for the mold.
@@christobeverleyjoubert558 I wouldn’t think so. On a 3D printer it melts at about 220 degrees Celsius or 430 Fahrenheit . Silicon (food safe) is generally rated at 450 degrees Fahrenheit for cooking but doesn’t melt at that temperature. Regardless, whatever you use needs to be rated as food safe. Additionally, 3D printed molds need to be cleaned well after use because food particles can get trapped between the layers.
Just a heads up.. If you print your molds from RESIN they will prevent the silicone from curing at the surface that contacts the mold and you'll have a sticky mess. Resin printed molds will need to be primed and painted and mold released.
You need a barrier so the 3D print never touches the silicone. PVA works well. you can brush on several coats and let it dry. Then use your normal mold release spray.. PVA dissolves in hot water so cleanup is easy. @@ranmanolov8631
I've been doing this same process for my products for the past couple of years. It's helped me prototype a lot of stuff for both myself and my clients.
The rice trick isn't for checking weight, it's for checking volume. Airsoft BBs are better media for that technique because they won't get rice dust in your molds.
@@carriebecker1097 I guess, if you want to go through all the trouble of washing it out and then ensuring that the mold contains **absolutely** no moisture, because that will foul the resin. Or you can just use something that's not dusty or dirty right from the start.
I used to melt my supports & failed prints down inside of large silicone brownie molds. Then when I had a nice stack of them I'd seal each one in Stone Coat Countertops epoxy resin with various glitters & mica powders mixed in. Stick some rubber or cork feet on & blammo, easy coasters you can give away on the holidays or just toss in as a little bonus gift with commission projects.
You could try taking some kind of metal container as a crucible. Put the shredded plastic into it, put it into the toaster oven, bring it to melting temp and then pull it out (with some kind of heat resistant gloves or tongs or something) and then pouring the molten pla into the mold. You'd probably have to work quickly if the ambient temp is low but youd solve a lot of the voids.
Great vid I used to do this almost 2 decades ago at Nova product development when studying. Used 2 parts urethane and silicone years ago. If you have any questions send me a message I will gladly share what I know.
Just a thought for avoiding the divots - rather than filling the moulds completely, just put a little bit in at a time, let it melt, add some more, let it melt, rinse & repeat until the mould is full and all the plastic has melted.
The bubbles seemed to form in your first casting, but not the second. They are all round, which usually indicates a trapped gas or an off gassing from the materials. You mentioned that your heating was at two different temperatures 380 F (193 C) and 400 F (204C). The temperature difference will determine which is the problem. My guess is that you used the 380F first. If the 380 was first, the issue is the flow rate at standard pressure. The material melted, but was still too viscous for the bubbles to release. Using smaller layers and/or more heat will help, and so might tapping or stirring the molten plastic to release the trapped gas bubbles. If the 400 was used first, then you are getting off gassing from either the silicone or some other material (e.g. the mold release spray is not for high temp use). Making sure the mold is cleaned out (Washed and heated to about 100 C for a few minutes) and the scraps dried before melting would be the solution there. Also a powdered mold release may help release the surface tension so the bubbles don't stick tot the surface, but I would try to do everything else before going that way.
This was insanely stellar dude. Recycling PLA is something I am striving for and the paperweights seem to be the best go. Thank you for showing how to make your own molds to enhance the creativity in the printing community!
I've thought of this awhile back, procrastination and work kept me from trying it out. Glad to know the concept works in practice. Now if I get around to it, casting one of my prints in tin. Some silicone can survive high temperatures.
Cool! You could coat that skull with holes with that clear resin. And there is a way to use silicon tube stuff to make rough molds. I don't know how it would hold up in the oven though. Interesting project!
@@UncleJessy You could also try to direct colors to certain areas, (black in eye sockets for instance, pearl white in teeth areas, mowhawk etc) incorporate glitter, or glow filament or other things. The silicon tube stuff as mold material is on TH-cam.
Very cool idea. Love mold making from 3d prints. You may need to melt the PLA bits into a liquid or semi liquid before putting them in the mold to avoid the little bubbles. or perhaps heat them in a low temp kiln to ensure completely even heating, im not sure how even that little oven would heat something considering the heating coils are usually on top or on bottom. Can't wait to see more.
For the molds, Punished Props is also a great resource. Also, Smooth-on goes into detail on aaaaall of their different products. I know they have one that's for high temps like molten aluminum. While these are melting, maybe try using a hot air gun to heat up the most exterior most print scraps to prevent the pockets? I'm excited to see more experiments using this method
dope stuff! my pals who was probably ones of the first people locally who even started to work with 3d printing like 5 or 6 years ago are doing same kind of stuff, but they don't melt plastic right inside the molds, but melt first then pour into molds. and those are coming fine :} also, yeah, may be a small oven with a vacuum thing will do the job
I love the idea of making molds. I ordered some Smooth-On also and didn’t realize how short the life span was. Never got around to it because of it solidified. It’s not cheap either.
You really should get a vacuum chamber to de-gas the silicone. Oomoo is nice in that you can get by without de-gassing it, but you still get little bubbles on the part that have to be cleaned up.
I've wanted to try something like this for making plaster molds, for clay slip casting. The designs would have to be tapered to slide out, but that's the case with the clay casts anyway.
@@UncleJessy this is my first printer and first time using a slicer. To me it's great and easy to use as a beginner. I did make a custom profile for the Kodak PLA+ that I'm using. I can't wait to see how it advances and I'm looking forward to your video!
Two things: I'd include some draft angle on your printed molds in order to make removal of the silicone easier You could use an old pressure cooker to consolidate the plastic while heating it
Billie Ruben showed us how to get smooth molds by applying candle wax / modeling wax to our 3D prints BEFORE applying silicone for the mold (corrected)
Here is an option for those who do not want to mess with melting plastic. It does involve using resin for this though. Instead of trying to melt the wasted plastic, simply get a blender and chop up the pieces as small as possible. Once you have all the extra plastic bits chopped up, fill up the mold as best as you can and pour the resin over it. Allow the resin to fill in any gaps and wait for it to cure. Please note that it's best if you layer on the resin as you fill up the mold, but pouring the resin at the end also seems to work.
Now imagine breathing in blended microparticles of plastic that never really degrade during your lifetime and stay in our lungs and blood vessels for the rest of our life...
@@vicnaum Every time you strip models off the build plate; every time you remove support, you are creating micro-dust. I would suggest that fumes were considerably MORE insidious as the particle size is so much smaller.
@@vicnaum no need worry about breathing microplastics, we are already eating or drinking microplastic. since like it or not. it is already contaminated
I need to do it the other way around, gotta make a casing to fill with silicon and use the cover on a controller. It's surprisingly hard to get it right.
Even though Smooth-On sell Oomoo 30 in one of their starter kits, when I went to a mold making seminar at Reynolds Advanced Material (not sponsored) they used Mold Max and Mold Star for all of the demos. But they can also go bad in the container. The important thing is to not let it get cold or hot. Also, platinum cure rubber molds will last longer but without extra work they will not work with resin prints because of sulfur and sulfur compounds in the resin.
May be worth investing in higher temp silicone for this kind of work so moulds will last longer in the oven. Also some kind of funnel + reservoir system could help with bubbles. Melt the plastic in the reservoir and have it trickle into the mould molten. May take longer and use more silicone but it'll fill up the mould better
I might try melting the plastic first. I'm thinking of meat grinder with a 2 mm nozzle in a heating block. It just needs to be liquid(ish) not really high precision.
It looks like air pockets might be causing bubbles to form inside the mold during “cooking”. Try vibrating the molds a few times during the cooking process to bring the air bubbles to the surface.
The resin uv printers use inhibit platinum cure silicone. At least it does for us, been trying to find a way around it. Tried the stuff for it smooth on had and it didn't work sadly.
@@Resin-Queen-Shop perhaps varnish the resin print with a spray lacquer then use a mould release that doesn't have any sulphur in it ( that's probably the underlying issue as it inhibits silicone curing), otherwise, instead make a hard mould with gypsum based strong plaster so that you can loosen the print with heat gun. Otherwise I wouldn't make negatives with this, I'd usually just make positives and coat with primer then cast with custom moulds jacket in fibreglass or 3d print the jacket (with an fdm printer) if you prefer
Great video! Especially loved the part where you used rice to measure the volume of the mold🤣I would have used water, but it seems like rice works too lmao
Have you thought of melting the plastic down and filling it by pouring the plastic into a warm mold? I think you might be able to get a smoother cleaner look if you are able to do that.
Would it be worth trying to melt the pla in an oven proof jug first and then pouring the pre-melted pla into the mold to try and avoid the holes in the cast?
I started saving my scrap PLA right after I saw the last video. Sadly, my Bambu poop chute was a mix of PETG & PLA so I had to dump it before I restarted. Oh well! To the future! Looking forward to designing stuff to reproduce this way, also to sell!
Kinda funny to think that you make a mold for a mold. My sister wants me to make a mold, but worry avout how no filament is flexible enough to make a mold. Thought of making one on a video resin printer, but it's currently not plugged in and there is no room to do the possessing. But this right here is perfect. Going to try this out. It's a mold for candle wax by the way.
Great video. The rice is for volumetric matching not for weight as far as I know. And also use a very very thin layer of silicone, pouring it in slowly from high up and roll it around to coat it evenly and let it cure before you dump the whole lot in, then you won't have ANY bubbles. Also did you add registration marks when you connect them together?
Been making molds at our family-owned bronze art casting foundry for about 20 years. Never thought to see what other people are doing with mold making in TH-cam. Thanks for the new youtubers too stalk haha. Hit me up if you ever want to make some 3D prints into cast bronze:D Denver Bronze Works is where you can find us
Curious if you could do this but instead of FDM Use Resin to create the mold. It could almost be completly line free if you were able to do that... Also, Random thought would adding some form of vibration to the mold once the plastic is melted eliminate the holes to shake the air pockets out.
P.s. I use a sain smart 300 printer. I love it . Discontinued now. I don't know why. 3d printing is the best why to cool down my mind . I can make what I see in the mind . Nothing is better . Never stop the craft of making. Ever . No matter how old you get .
I'd use such tecniche to rese my residual sprues and to clone certain terrain features and peculiar parte of the mold that wpuld problematic to 3D print and then disassemble
I'm really curious about this, I don't have a 3d printer but I've been looking to get a resin printer lately. Could I apply this same idea to the leftover resin I get when I filter out my alcohol for reuse? The idea would be to create a mold of many small items (nothing thick) and sorta just smear the leftover resin paste and then cure normally.
Pressing question⁉️ Presuming you get it hot enough to remove 90%+ of the air pockets, how strong would a 1 inch (25mm) by 6 inch bar be? I need to make a part that's going to experience some load and low torque (a low speed axle adapter/bushing) I'm thinking about using a plaster mold, reusability isn't a goal. please advise 🙏🙏🙏
Those look like bubbles released out of the silicone itself. Notice how you have zero bubbles on top! It's a thermo-chemical reaction. Either due to some mold release or again, because of the silicone itself. Low degassing silicone is a must in this case, or proper degassing before use. You should try with preheating.
Pressure cookers often require water in order to build up pressure, that water and vapor may interact with the melting plastic, which we all know doesnt like humidity. Plus most pressure cookers only apply a max of 15 psi, which has a temperature of 257 F (125 C if you are using imported water), as opposed to the normal 212 of water boiling at standard pressure. This is more than many filament's glass transition temperatures, but lower than their melting temperature and considerably lower than nozzle temperature. Estimate of chance of success is low. I would recommend instead a vacuum chamber to be used as soon as the plastic comes out of the oven. Get them as hot as possible to make them liquid, then simply suck all the air out. Note, design a mold with a raised edge to account for the expansion of the liquid and bubbles while under vacuum. Chance of failure due to the filament solidifying due to taking too long and the drop of temperature from a decrease in pressure. Make sure to repressurize once the filament starts to thicken. Also note, when making a mold, use a volume instead of weight to determine how much resin and or silicone is needed, it is more accurate as rice has air gaps and is a different density than resin and/or, and those materials often have a variety of densities across brands
regarding your air bubbles - you don't necessarily have to apply pressure, a god shaking should do the trick. Like (carefully!) taking the molds out while the material is still hot (and malleable) and agitate the mold to "shake out" the air bubbles. Or do multiple "layers" of casting - so don't fill your mold completely but only like 1/3rd, melt, agitate, add more plastic, repeat till your mold is full. This should give you a fairly even result and since you are recycling leftoversmaterials anyway, you might aswell invest a little bit more time for a decent result.
How are these 3D prints so smooth despite being FDM? Did you smooth them in any way or did they come out straight like this, please tell me about print output
This is so dang cool!!! Probably the easiest and most useful way of reusing PLA so far. 👌
and a wild Maker's Muse appears!
@@UncleJessy always lurking 😳
@@UncleJessy- can you create loved ones like family members, friends and pets in 3D model ?
Hey Uncle Jesse! Great idea melting down old filament into molds; I never thought of that before. I wonder if putting the mold with the melted filament into a pressure pot would help with bubbles. That would be an interesting experiment.
Thanks so much for mentioning my channel, I really appreciate it!
but there is no way this can work can it? Where is the Sticky wax? 🤣
Came to say this, a pressure cooker should help reduce bubbles by quite a bit.
@@OddJobEntertainment a pressure cooker is not a pressure pot.
A *vacuum* will also suck the air out.
I think the coolest part of this process is that after you make the silicone mold, the mold box becomes another old print that you can melt down to make things.
I came up with the idea (not saying I originated it) of building a box abound my designs some years ago in order to pour silicon molds. However, I wasn’t planning on pouring plastic into the silicon molds but rather melted chocolate. Other candies may have worked too. The important thing being that if food is involved your silicon has to be specifically food safe. I also used the walled technique to create molds for chocolate using cookie presses as the positives for the mold.
@Unclejessy.. yeah, I don’t think so, jerk.
I would love to make moulds to use for little flowers ect. Is tpu save for baking
@@christobeverleyjoubert558 I wouldn’t think so. On a 3D printer it melts at about 220 degrees Celsius or 430 Fahrenheit . Silicon (food safe) is generally rated at 450 degrees Fahrenheit for cooking but doesn’t melt at that temperature. Regardless, whatever you use needs to be rated as food safe. Additionally, 3D printed molds need to be cleaned well after use because food particles can get trapped between the layers.
Just a heads up.. If you print your molds from RESIN they will prevent the silicone from curing at the surface that contacts the mold and you'll have a sticky mess. Resin printed molds will need to be primed and painted and mold released.
Dude. I've spent half gallon of silicone and it is exactly what happened. So if I prime my resin, will it work you think?
You need a barrier so the 3D print never touches the silicone. PVA works well. you can brush on several coats and let it dry. Then use your normal mold release spray.. PVA dissolves in hot water so cleanup is easy. @@ranmanolov8631
Use tin cure silicone instead of platinum cure. Problem solved.
@@EweCantSeeMeyep. ❤
Man, thank you !! I knew it was contaminating my silicone, but I didn't know how to solve it
I've been doing this same process for my products for the past couple of years. It's helped me prototype a lot of stuff for both myself and my clients.
The rice trick isn't for checking weight, it's for checking volume. Airsoft BBs are better media for that technique because they won't get rice dust in your molds.
Damn! I guess I need to go buy a new BB gun now 😬😂🤘
He can just clean it out. Right?
@@carriebecker1097 I guess, if you want to go through all the trouble of washing it out and then ensuring that the mold contains **absolutely** no moisture, because that will foul the resin. Or you can just use something that's not dusty or dirty right from the start.
@@ricketron Aye you're probably right, also I'm no expert but i would have thought bbs would be better for checking volume as they're spherical.
I use dry old rice, but I'm sure BBs work just as well!!
I used to melt my supports & failed prints down inside of large silicone brownie molds. Then when I had a nice stack of them I'd seal each one in Stone Coat Countertops epoxy resin with various glitters & mica powders mixed in. Stick some rubber or cork feet on & blammo, easy coasters you can give away on the holidays or just toss in as a little bonus gift with commission projects.
You could try taking some kind of metal container as a crucible. Put the shredded plastic into it, put it into the toaster oven, bring it to melting temp and then pull it out (with some kind of heat resistant gloves or tongs or something) and then pouring the molten pla into the mold. You'd probably have to work quickly if the ambient temp is low but youd solve a lot of the voids.
Robert Tolone and TheCrafsMan are two great molders and conduct useful experiments for the rest of us. I highly recommend their channels to anyone.
1000% these two awesome makers
craftsman is so so funny
Yeah they're both great, learned a lot from watching them both.
Great recommendations they are both awesome.
Great vid I used to do this almost 2 decades ago at Nova product development when studying. Used 2 parts urethane and silicone years ago. If you have any questions send me a message I will gladly share what I know.
Just a thought for avoiding the divots - rather than filling the moulds completely, just put a little bit in at a time, let it melt, add some more, let it melt, rinse & repeat until the mould is full and all the plastic has melted.
The bubbles seemed to form in your first casting, but not the second. They are all round, which usually indicates a trapped gas or an off gassing from the materials. You mentioned that your heating was at two different temperatures 380 F (193 C) and 400 F (204C). The temperature difference will determine which is the problem. My guess is that you used the 380F first.
If the 380 was first, the issue is the flow rate at standard pressure. The material melted, but was still too viscous for the bubbles to release. Using smaller layers and/or more heat will help, and so might tapping or stirring the molten plastic to release the trapped gas bubbles.
If the 400 was used first, then you are getting off gassing from either the silicone or some other material (e.g. the mold release spray is not for high temp use). Making sure the mold is cleaned out (Washed and heated to about 100 C for a few minutes) and the scraps dried before melting would be the solution there. Also a powdered mold release may help release the surface tension so the bubbles don't stick tot the surface, but I would try to do everything else before going that way.
Nice!
Yes, Molds will expose any imperfection in the original😎
10000000% haha but also adds a little character ;)
Great video! Love your energy, I was literally smiling when you were demolding! haha what a success.
I love the idea of using filament scraps. Great job.
This was enlightening, thank you for that. I was looking around wondering how to do that for candle molds and now i know a bit more, thanks
This is so cool and inspiring! Love it!
This was insanely stellar dude. Recycling PLA is something I am striving for and the paperweights seem to be the best go. Thank you for showing how to make your own molds to enhance the creativity in the printing community!
Been doing this for a while now, the fun starts when you have parts with holes, hollow centres etc, you have to get creative :)
I've thought of this awhile back, procrastination and work kept me from trying it out. Glad to know the concept works in practice. Now if I get around to it, casting one of my prints in tin. Some silicone can survive high temperatures.
Cool! You could coat that skull with holes with that clear resin. And there is a way to use silicon tube stuff to make rough molds. I don't know how it would hold up in the oven though.
Interesting project!
omg love that idea going to try that out! or dipping them to fill the voids
@@UncleJessy You could also try to direct colors to certain areas, (black in eye sockets for instance, pearl white in teeth areas, mowhawk etc) incorporate glitter, or glow filament or other things.
The silicon tube stuff as mold material is on TH-cam.
Very cool idea. Love mold making from 3d prints. You may need to melt the PLA bits into a liquid or semi liquid before putting them in the mold to avoid the little bubbles. or perhaps heat them in a low temp kiln to ensure completely even heating, im not sure how even that little oven would heat something considering the heating coils are usually on top or on bottom.
Can't wait to see more.
If I had this I would make Lego molds to have unique Legos to use on other lego stuff
I would recommend doing this with larger parts of failed prints. My skull I made turned out really good.
I'm excited that you're getting into casting. Such fun!
For the molds, Punished Props is also a great resource. Also, Smooth-on goes into detail on aaaaall of their different products. I know they have one that's for high temps like molten aluminum.
While these are melting, maybe try using a hot air gun to heat up the most exterior most print scraps to prevent the pockets? I'm excited to see more experiments using this method
dope stuff! my pals who was probably ones of the first people locally who even started to work with 3d printing like 5 or 6 years ago are doing same kind of stuff, but they don't melt plastic right inside the molds, but melt first then pour into molds. and those are coming fine :}
also, yeah, may be a small oven with a vacuum thing will do the job
Wishing everyone a happy new year and looking forward to the amazing 2023 with all of you. Be well be you
I love the idea of making molds. I ordered some Smooth-On also and didn’t realize how short the life span was. Never got around to it because of it solidified. It’s not cheap either.
Like the concept.. I notice Cura has a Mould setting in special modes, not used it yet. Time to experiment.
say what?! time to investigate that
You really should get a vacuum chamber to de-gas the silicone. Oomoo is nice in that you can get by without de-gassing it, but you still get little bubbles on the part that have to be cleaned up.
For the outer layers, what about doing a shallow melt and pushing it up the sides, and stiring it before filling it up then melting/filling to full?
Make a second skull mold scaled 5%ish, then put the filament skull into that mold and fill with clear resin.
I've wanted to try something like this for making plaster molds, for clay slip casting. The designs would have to be tapered to slide out, but that's the case with the clay casts anyway.
This is 🔥- my inner child is going nuts right now❤ Happy new year
just a thought, melt the scrap externally then pour, or after heating in mold put it in a vacuum tank . great video!!!
best video so far, thanks for the information
The moment that I saw people melting scraps into silicon molds the FIRST thing I wanted to know was how to make my own molds. Thanks!!!
Why not completely melt the filament in a pot like one used for pouring tin, then just pouring the molten filament into the mold?
Excellent video, i want to make copies of my biggest designs and save time of printing, here you have pretty cool ideas, tanks for the tips
I'd like to see more of these. Thanks
I used this method to make high temp silicone moulds with my Mono x Resin printer to cast Pewter pendants
Have you tried preheating the silicone moulds? It might encourage faster surface contact melting & lower the number of voids
The pocked appearance of the first mould tests leaves a texture a bit like stone, could be great to paint them with that in mind.
Can try coating the inside of the mold box with a thin layer of elmers glue. It will settle in the layer lines and leave less in the mold
I just got my AnkerMake M5 and I'm looking for ways to recycle my scraps. Thanks for the ideas!
Congrats! my video is in the works on mine. Fantastic so far... well the slicer on the other hand could use A LOT of work haha
@@UncleJessy this is my first printer and first time using a slicer. To me it's great and easy to use as a beginner. I did make a custom profile for the Kodak PLA+ that I'm using. I can't wait to see how it advances and I'm looking forward to your video!
As a heads up if you add the filament in smaller quantities it will help get rid of the air bubbles!
Have you did this
Two things:
I'd include some draft angle on your printed molds in order to make removal of the silicone easier
You could use an old pressure cooker to consolidate the plastic while heating it
heck yeah! I actually did a small draft angle inside the molds but realized it should be a good bit more. Will be looking into a pressure cooker!
Billie Ruben showed us how to get smooth molds by applying candle wax / modeling wax to our 3D prints BEFORE applying silicone for the mold (corrected)
Here is an option for those who do not want to mess with melting plastic. It does involve using resin for this though.
Instead of trying to melt the wasted plastic, simply get a blender and chop up the pieces as small as possible.
Once you have all the extra plastic bits chopped up, fill up the mold as best as you can and pour the resin over it.
Allow the resin to fill in any gaps and wait for it to cure.
Please note that it's best if you layer on the resin as you fill up the mold, but pouring the resin at the end also seems to work.
Now imagine breathing in blended microparticles of plastic that never really degrade during your lifetime and stay in our lungs and blood vessels for the rest of our life...
@@vicnaum If you're that concerned about it, maybe 3D printing is not for you period.
@@Martial-Mat fumes is one thing, but blending seems quite different
@@vicnaum Every time you strip models off the build plate; every time you remove support, you are creating micro-dust. I would suggest that fumes were considerably MORE insidious as the particle size is so much smaller.
@@vicnaum no need worry about breathing microplastics, we are already eating or drinking microplastic. since like it or not. it is already contaminated
you can 3d print molds directly in SLA printers with special resins. cut your number of steps in half.
print the mold, cast your part.
aside from pressure you could use a hot air gun to melt an even, thin layer into the mold before filling it completely with plastic.
I need to do it the other way around, gotta make a casing to fill with silicon and use the cover on a controller. It's surprisingly hard to get it right.
It's amazing how you get such a hight resolution print i thought it could only be possible with resin printing machines?
Even though Smooth-On sell Oomoo 30 in one of their starter kits, when I went to a mold making seminar at Reynolds Advanced Material (not sponsored) they used Mold Max and Mold Star for all of the demos. But they can also go bad in the container. The important thing is to not let it get cold or hot. Also, platinum cure rubber molds will last longer but without extra work they will not work with resin prints because of sulfur and sulfur compounds in the resin.
love your video's. im going to have to try this on for sure.
much appreciated! It was a fun project and the silicone I picked up was like $15 onsale at JoAnn fabrics
May be worth investing in higher temp silicone for this kind of work so moulds will last longer in the oven.
Also some kind of funnel + reservoir system could help with bubbles. Melt the plastic in the reservoir and have it trickle into the mould molten. May take longer and use more silicone but it'll fill up the mould better
I might try melting the plastic first.
I'm thinking of meat grinder with a 2 mm nozzle in a heating block. It just needs to be liquid(ish) not really high precision.
It looks like air pockets might be causing bubbles to form inside the mold during “cooking”. Try vibrating the molds a few times during the cooking process to bring the air bubbles to the surface.
Could you melt the filament scraps with solvent and pour it in instead of the oven
I have a lot of ABS scraps I'll try to make something like this, reserching some high temperature silicone.
That's fantastic!
Great video! I would probably use a resin printer to create my silicone molds to get rid of the layer lines. I will give it a try 😊
The resin uv printers use inhibit platinum cure silicone. At least it does for us, been trying to find a way around it. Tried the stuff for it smooth on had and it didn't work sadly.
@@Resin-Queen-Shop perhaps varnish the resin print with a spray lacquer then use a mould release that doesn't have any sulphur in it ( that's probably the underlying issue as it inhibits silicone curing), otherwise, instead make a hard mould with gypsum based strong plaster so that you can loosen the print with heat gun. Otherwise I wouldn't make negatives with this, I'd usually just make positives and coat with primer then cast with custom moulds jacket in fibreglass or 3d print the jacket (with an fdm printer) if you prefer
I soak my prints in caustic soda then clear coat they create great moulds too and you don’t have to use tin cure either
Great video! Especially loved the part where you used rice to measure the volume of the mold🤣I would have used water, but it seems like rice works too lmao
Have you thought of melting the plastic down and filling it by pouring the plastic into a warm mold? I think you might be able to get a smoother cleaner look if you are able to do that.
Would it be worth trying to melt the pla in an oven proof jug first and then pouring the pre-melted pla into the mold to try and avoid the holes in the cast?
Were layer lines visible in the big skull mold? It looked so smooth.
.1 layer height + ironing in prusa slicer is magical but took about 11 hrs to print haha
There is a setting in Cura that will turn a model into a mold.
I started saving my scrap PLA right after I saw the last video. Sadly, my Bambu poop chute was a mix of PETG & PLA so I had to dump it before I restarted. Oh well! To the future! Looking forward to designing stuff to reproduce this way, also to sell!
For the rice trick you're going by volume not weight, so pour the rice into a cup and Mark a line where it sits.
Kinda funny to think that you make a mold for a mold. My sister wants me to make a mold, but worry avout how no filament is flexible enough to make a mold. Thought of making one on a video resin printer, but it's currently not plugged in and there is no room to do the possessing. But this right here is perfect. Going to try this out. It's a mold for candle wax by the way.
Crafsman is my favorite! Can you use this for chocolates?
Great video. The rice is for volumetric matching not for weight as far as I know. And also use a very very thin layer of silicone, pouring it in slowly from high up and roll it around to coat it evenly and let it cure before you dump the whole lot in, then you won't have ANY bubbles. Also did you add registration marks when you connect them together?
Been making molds at our family-owned bronze art casting foundry for about 20 years. Never thought to see what other people are doing with mold making in TH-cam. Thanks for the new youtubers too stalk haha. Hit me up if you ever want to make some 3D prints into cast bronze:D Denver Bronze Works is where you can find us
You didn't need pressure, you needed to vibrate it to get all the air bubbles to come to the top I think, this was a very cool project, thank you
What is the hardness of silicone shore?
Would it be possible to melt the old filament separately, something like a kiln, and then pouring the liquid into the molds to then cure?
Curious if you could do this but instead of FDM Use Resin to create the mold. It could almost be completly line free if you were able to do that... Also, Random thought would adding some form of vibration to the mold once the plastic is melted eliminate the holes to shake the air pockets out.
P.s. I use a sain smart 300 printer. I love it . Discontinued now. I don't know why. 3d printing is the best why to cool down my mind . I can make what I see in the mind . Nothing is better . Never stop the craft of making. Ever . No matter how old you get .
I'd use such tecniche to rese my residual sprues and to clone certain terrain features and peculiar parte of the mold that wpuld problematic to 3D print and then disassemble
I left this comment on the previous video, but I wonder if using a 3d pen would work to fill/partially fill these molds
Hi, can you make a video of the print quality in the 0.06mm layer height mode announced by the manufacturer? Thank you so much
Wait can’t you just print in tpu or some other flexible filament to make it easier to get the silicone mold out?
What if you brush the first bit of the silicone into the mold to try to eliminate the bubbles?
I'm really curious about this, I don't have a 3d printer but I've been looking to get a resin printer lately. Could I apply this same idea to the leftover resin I get when I filter out my alcohol for reuse? The idea would be to create a mold of many small items (nothing thick) and sorta just smear the leftover resin paste and then cure normally.
other people are saying that the resin is sticking to silicone, but I would think it'd work with the right material
I also want to do this, but make wargame/D&D terrain/tiles, since that's what I mainly use my printer for.
Pressing question⁉️
Presuming you get it hot enough to remove 90%+ of the air pockets, how strong would a 1 inch (25mm) by 6 inch bar be? I need to make a part that's going to experience some load and low torque (a low speed axle adapter/bushing) I'm thinking about using a plaster mold, reusability isn't a goal. please advise 🙏🙏🙏
I`m the 420.000 suscriber lol. pretty cool stuff man thanks!
Rice calculus does work if you work by volume instead of weight ;)
wouldn't it be easier to melt the filament first and then pour it in the molds?
Those look like bubbles released out of the silicone itself. Notice how you have zero bubbles on top!
It's a thermo-chemical reaction. Either due to some mold release or again, because of the silicone itself.
Low degassing silicone is a must in this case, or proper degassing before use. You should try with preheating.
Cura has a mold slicer setting that automatically changes your positive object into a negative for casting. Not sure if it would work the same or not.
Can you do a video like this of the Ender 3 s1 pro?
You could have used some filament which you can smooth, like ABS, so the mould would not have the layer lines. Just an idea.
Pressure cookers often require water in order to build up pressure, that water and vapor may interact with the melting plastic, which we all know doesnt like humidity. Plus most pressure cookers only apply a max of 15 psi, which has a temperature of 257 F (125 C if you are using imported water), as opposed to the normal 212 of water boiling at standard pressure.
This is more than many filament's glass transition temperatures, but lower than their melting temperature and considerably lower than nozzle temperature.
Estimate of chance of success is low.
I would recommend instead a vacuum chamber to be used as soon as the plastic comes out of the oven. Get them as hot as possible to make them liquid, then simply suck all the air out. Note, design a mold with a raised edge to account for the expansion of the liquid and bubbles while under vacuum. Chance of failure due to the filament solidifying due to taking too long and the drop of temperature from a decrease in pressure. Make sure to repressurize once the filament starts to thicken.
Also note, when making a mold, use a volume instead of weight to determine how much resin and or silicone is needed, it is more accurate as rice has air gaps and is a different density than resin and/or, and those materials often have a variety of densities across brands
Hey uncle Jesse! Love the video! I just bought my first elegoo saturn s. I'm super excited. What would be the best resin and settings for it?
regarding your air bubbles - you don't necessarily have to apply pressure, a god shaking should do the trick. Like (carefully!) taking the molds out while the material is still hot (and malleable) and agitate the mold to "shake out" the air bubbles.
Or do multiple "layers" of casting - so don't fill your mold completely but only like 1/3rd, melt, agitate, add more plastic, repeat till your mold is full. This should give you a fairly even result and since you are recycling leftoversmaterials anyway, you might aswell invest a little bit more time for a decent result.
Can I use high temp resin instead of the silicone for this purpose?
just a heads up if you make a mold of resin 3d print you have to wait about a week or 2 before molding it..
How are these 3D prints so smooth despite being FDM? Did you smooth them in any way or did they come out straight like this, please tell me about print output
If I remember correctly I did a low layer height with a .4 nozzle & enabled ironing on all top layers & did a variable layer height option