Kinetic Sand

[cavx]

I have not had a chance to test this yet, so asking here to see if anyone has given this a go and had success or a fail.

I am thinking of using Kinetic Sand as a filler in my molding instead of the more traditional clay/Plasticine. The compound that binds the sand is not supposed to stick to anything, but will it cause a reaction or prevent RTV silicone from curing? I learned the hard way that an air/moisture curing silicone reacts with the chemical silicone I use to make my molds.

I found a YouTube video where a guy used Kinetic Sand to mold a part from molten alloy. In the video he noticed that the sand became more 'liquid" at the high temp but it held its shape well enough for his cast to work.

Given the time and sometimes mess you can get from using traditional clay/Plasticine, I was wondering if this would work for RTV silicones.

 

[kruleworld]

I asked about it on scale auto forum whether it'd be any good for mold-making. Please try if you have the opportunity.

 

[cavx]

Good to know I am not the only person who thinks this might work. I am hoping it allows for change to the way molding is done.

 

[wolfchild59]

Just keep in mind that the sand needs to be pressed/pounded really, really, really hard and well to be solid. When I did sand molds in high school metal shop we usually used two to three times more loose sand than would fit in the mold to compact it all in tight enough. And we had just a hand press to do the final compacting, so we almost always had to deal with some loose grains falling into the mold cavity. Professional sand molds use thousands of pounds of pressure to compact the sand firmly enough to be handled. And since the kinetic sand isn't specifically designed to permanently hold a shape beyond a child's play mold, I'd test how much pressure it takes to get it really tight and also it's durability once packed. Because you certainly don't want to risk any coming loose during the pour and settling on your original during the molding process.

 

[Goldie1471]

I dont know if this helps any, Kinetric sand seems to be a bit weird in my opinion to use as a mould, I am goldsmith (28yrs) and have used a casting sand that is called Delft casting clay - completely different to kinetic sand which i believe is kinetic because it is always moving or not being able to stick to itself so would be useless as a mould - the delft casting clay/sand is basically a fine sand with some silicone oil to added to stop it drying out and helps to hold its shape - Also some more useless info, the "Magic" sand that you can get is basically sand that has been sprayed with scotch-guard to make it waterproof and that enables it to stay dry when removed from water - so not sure how Kinetic sand differs.