Monthly Archives: September 2012

A more indepth description of the mould making process

Materials Used:

Reusable moulding rubber
Aluminum pan (Must be aluminum, not stainless steel or non-stick or for that matter bain-marie style).
Plastic container (to hold object for casting and rubber)
An object for casting. In this case a heart-shaped bottle.

Method:

Cut the rubber into tiny bits, mine were around a centimeter cubed.
Put aluminum pan onto hot plate to heat up.
Turn the heat down to medium-low.
Add a handful of rubber to the pan and stir until around half of it has melted.
Add another handful, and repeat the instruction above.
Do this until all rubber has been added.
Keep stirring the rubber continuously to make sure it doesn’t burn, and stir until smooth and all the rubber has melted.
Take the pan off the heat to cool the rubber slightly for a couple of minutes and allow air bubbles to rise to the surface. Continue to stir the rubber slowly.
Make sure the object you want to cast is in the plastic container.
Start to pour the rubber smoothly, evenly and at a constant speed into the container between the container and the object. Don’t pour over the object to begin with as this may introduce air bubbles into the surface of the mould touching the object. It’s okay to pour over the object once the rubber has risen up the sides and flowed over it while pouring inbetween the sides of the object and container.
Once entirely covered leave it to set. I usually leave it for an hour or two. It doesn’t seem to take long to set but it’s better to err on the side of caution than potentially ruin all that effort.
Take the mould out of the container and remove the object from the mould. Leave to cool.

References:

Page-Sinclair First Year Design