Reusable Mold Making Material - ComposiMold

Probably a low melt vinyl, but wow does this look promising. Has anyone had experience with this stuff and knows how it works?

Reusable Mold Making Material, Making parts without the cost. - YouTube

ComposiMold Mold Making Material, heat formable, reusable mold compound

Yeah, I'm going to have to test this stuff out. Never heard of it. Cool find though.

I too will have to try this out. Making molds of parts i only need 2-3 copies for is getting kinda pricey.

This stuff would be a life saver, like Kurosawa says it's not worth it when you're only making a small run of items.

Wow, I think I am going to give that stuff a try!

edit: just ordered the test size kit. BTW, the ordering process is kinda ugly as far as the website goes.

This isnt in regards to ComposiMold but a similar product thats yet to be released. Ive worked with a products manufacturer to develop a similar product but the end result was limited to none heat cure materials, didnt respond well to pigments or brushed in powders including talc/baby powder. Its still under development to try and at least tame one of those issues. Ill give this stuff a shot though, maybe within the next two weeks.

Hmmm, interesting. Keep us in the loop.

I went ahead and ordered a quart of this stuff, so I'll report back on this stuff by next week or so. Or not at all if I forget to check the thread.

Save your $. http://www.composimold.com/files/MSDS_ComposiMold.pdf

This stuff is just glycerine and gelatin with a preservative. You can easily make your own molding material with some simple recipes found on the internet.

That being said, my trial kit came in today and it looks like this stuff is fairly legit. If you don't want to take the time to make your own, this wouldn't be a terrible alternative.

Looks beast. Might have to pick some up.

I think it would be great for someone like me who wants too learn mold and casting.that blue mold material is expensive.can anyone point me to a recipe for glycerine and gelatin with a preservative?

Just poured a mold with the 32oz Powermold stuff. Simple open mold parts. Just as with non evacuated silicone I used a stir stick to lay the first few layers on the parts to help void any potential air bubbles and pockets. Its very much like hot glue and smells like a couple athletic girls I used to know. It should be set up this afternoon so ill post some pics.

I got a 6oz sample to play with. my thoughts:

+ easy to use
+ reusable

- Lots of bubble against part
- smells like a wet dog

Now, i am going to try that trick with the stir stick or a disposable brush to see if that helps.

I would say that if you can get the bubbles off the surface, it would be great to use for small dump molds, etc. Also it is a great way to learn how to mold without it being to expensive.

sean said:

I think it would be great for someone like me who wants too learn mold and casting.that blue mold material is expensive.can anyone point me to a recipe for glycerine and gelatin with a preservative?

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20 grams 300 bloom gelatin powder
45 grams glycerine liquid
45 grams sorbital liquid
2 grams zinc oxide powder.

mix and heat the 2 liquids and mix in the gelatine and zinc powder. gelatine melts at 70 degrees. keep on heat and mix untill the powder is completly absorbed but do not let the mixture boil as it destroys the strengh of the rubber.

leave to cool and set (preferably overnight) and then re-melt as needed.

you can add more gelatine poweder to your initial mix to make a firmer rubber

Another reusable mold material I've seen before is something called FlexWax. It's a fairly stiff material, so I doubt it would be good for intricate details or undercuts.

Could see it being useful on large pieces with low detail like gun covers (thinking something like an Aliens pulse rifle here).

Keep in mind I used the 32ox Powermold and not the standard CompsiMold material when reading the following. Not too certain however any results would be different.

I cant really recommend this stuff due to its issues with bubbles. I followed the directions carefully heating the material one minute at a time, stirring and heating till it was very fluid. Even when using the most cautious and thin as possible thin stream of the stuff held at a decent height above the part, as mentioned scooped and layered over the parts with a stir stick, it has bubbles. Whats worse is you cant see these bubbles, I looked very closely before pouring more and couldnt see them. No I didnt "dump" any of the material as I was after the best possible outcome. If this were silicone the bubbles would have had the chance to rise. I also wouldnt use a chip brush to move the stuff around a part as I believe with the materials consistency the brush would just bring more air bubbles into the mix.

This was done over various parts consisting of brass, steel, aluminum, chrome, lead and plastic. The material stuck to none of the parts being molded. It did however eat into the poster board that was used for the walls and base. Normally I use styrene for that and did on a single wall. I was more or less curious to the materials reaction to either and was certain the material would eat into the poster board but silicone does not when treated with vaseline or mold release. In this instance I used both as the mold release was needed for the metal parts to held keep the shine. Seems the heat of the Composimold had its way with both the mold release and the vaseline.

One other test was to see how the material would do when you dont have enough material and need to do a second pour. I did this by molding three inert 9mm pistol rounds. The tips were left with a top layer as good as the material would take. There is no way a second pour could be done on a part. Air bubbles flock to uneven surfaces. In fact if you eye the upper right in the first picture you will see a number of bubbles near the surface. This was from trying to get a single smaller bubble away from the part! This again brings me to the theory a brush will not work with this material.

Ill pour some parts over the weekend to see how usable or salvageable they can be. I have zero hope the parts will be usable as the two smaller badges are meant to be for remastering. The other two large badges were just to test surface and material reaction to the Composimold. Not even with a super smooth surface were air bubbles impervious.

My final thought, if your on the road or location, in a pinch this stuff could pull a simple mold. The end result inst for props or items to be viewed under scrutiny.

Aliens pulse rifle.aahhh now you have me drooling.Shame the stuff doesn't work that well...

Its much like ballistics gel.

I can see it being a good mold material for stuff that has a stone or heavily textured surface.

Amish Trooper said:

I can see it being a good mold material for stuff that has a stone or heavily textured surface.

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The problem with that is silicone is stronger with flex. Although ive not used anything but the Powermold, im not too sure Composimold would hold up to rough surfaces. With silicone a good brush up layer can be done and backed with a various number of materials for a jacket. Im sort of at a loss to what you could do to back this stuff up with after any attempted brush up.
Seems the trick to this stuff is a thicker mold = better strength as I can tear the Powermold apart when its semi thin. Theoretically this leaves any real undercuts out of the picture. If the current work project didnt just get pushed I would be able to try something with an undercut this weekend which is the actual reason why I bought the stuff. Since that part will be distressed to appear exploded, the Powermold should work ok.

Ive poured a part in the least heat curing material I ever use which is also what I use for mastering. At the same time ive poured the same material out of the same mix and cup into a silicone mold. This is one of the same parts ive used as a test for the Powermold.

For the part safety ill let it sit until im certain the casting material is set. I know when I can pull it from the silicone which was 5 minutes ago. But, being the first pull from the Powermold ill let it set a little longer.

On the record ive had a zero percent failure rate with the material being used for the part. This includes first pulls from fresh silicone molds and old molds that are falling apart.