It's that time of the...decade were I do a bit of spring-cleaning, and I've got many old and out of commission molds. I kept saving them because I wanted to recycle them by chopping them to tiny bits and mix it with new silicone, but I'm about to change rubber brands and types.
Should I just throw them away? Would any of you be willing to buy it to recycle it yourselves? If I must throw them away, is it safe for the environment to toss them with the rest of the garbage? What do you do?
Will different brands not meld together? I have used different kinds over the years and not had a problem with different ones fusing to each other. I usually cut into chunks to fill space in simple one piece molds.
What molds do you have ? Could you put up a small list ? Sometimes it could be interesting to buy molds instead of pieces.
Buy a food processor, grind some up and use them for filler for future use and save yourself a ton of money on future molds.
Some molds are good, and I will be selling those.Davlin said:
What molds do you have ? Could you put up a small list ? Sometimes it could be interesting to buy molds instead of pieces.
....Droidboy said:
I'm afraid to mix former blue silicone from Silicon industries with Smooth on orange molding rubber.
Guess the big Question is what are the molds in detail ???
Been there, tried it, lost a lot of rubber in the process. Mixing types does not work. You'll actually be able to pull the bits out of the new mold once it cures.GuntahKela said:
Some companies can recycle silicone, but its not like its something you can toss in your bin to the reclaiming factory. I've thrown some away and always felt a little guilty about it, seeing as how it doesn't really biodegrade...
Shoot them with a shotgun
THANK YOU! That was my #1 fear. Recycling is out of the question, then.Volpin said:
Post a list, i'd love to see what ya got before you toss them!
You could get all artsy and maybe create some sort of sculpture or framed art piece.
Most of the stuff I have are from films and movies RPFers couldn't be less interested about, which explains my lack of popularity, although I work on props on a daily basis.silverskyes402 said:
Guntah-Who-la?GuntahKela said:
Post a list....this is so dragged out..
I've mixed silicones from the same company, and the same type (platinum OR tin) with success. Silicones Inc. P45 mixed 50-50 with their P-60 produces a light purple silicone that's about halfway between the two in stiffness.Volpin said:
One time I tried using Smooth-On thickener in P-60. Didn't work. It made the P-60 thinner and it looked like it was never going to cure so I had to toss that mess.
This is a good question because I often wonder what the hell to do with extra trimmings of my silicone, besides tossing it, that just build up in my trash bin.
What do people recommend for chopping up the silicone and what should the consistency be (how fine should the bits be)?
I got a small 3 cup food processor off eBay and tried chopping up some Rebound 25 silicone rubber and it can get some pieces down to about 2 mm cubes but some of the pieces were as large as 5 mm cubes. The motor also burned out on me (probably a combination of it being old and pre-used and me running it too long at one time).
So I'm mainly wondering what other people use and the size of the chop/grind.
Definitely post a list. There may be some interest in molds you don't think has any value.
I'm a virgin to this whole mold and cast thing.but I sure would like to try.so If I could get an old junk mold that would be great.I know It would be working backwards in this field probably. but most of my builds seem backwards.old builder still learning modern stuff.and since I'm going over all of my old builds to try and bring them to the standards of this wonderful site.If I cast something and It came out bad. which I'm very sure It would. I would just use It as a learning tool.....
I would offer it to others if it was a good mold. I was in the process of molding something and the print coat of one side didn't cure properly until about a week after I de-molded it from the master but by then it had already destroyed the print coat. I'm chopping that half up and will be reusing it for future applications.Kerr Avon said:
OP is over a year old now. Molds are probably gone...
I bought a used hand crank meat grinder at a flea market for doing this and it worked fine. I just cut the molds into smaller chunks and then ground them up to use as filler the next mold I did.pandamajik said:
I was thinking about doing that but I read some people just using food processors so I figured it would be faster and less work.Flagg said:
I'll probably try and pick up a cheap $5 meat grinder off Craigslist - seems like there's always a few out there.
Most processors you can only run for so long at a time. Bit of a pain.pandamajik said:
That was probably a large part of the problem then. I've never really used a food processor before and the mini ones seem to not be rated for anything more than quick pulses. I was running it for a minute or two continuously and then the motor burned out.
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