making dreads out of cold foam help ,suggestion ?

[juiceredrum]

hello everyone ,

well i just used cold foam for the first time yesterday and i foam filled my mask that is some nifty **** , really cool and for the life of me i cant find a
dread build on the forum , ....well again i stumbled onto something before but paid it little mind because i was too early in the build i believe the thread referred to using a pool Que too mold the dreads , here is what i used for my foam fill in the mask would this foam be adequate for dreads ? smooth-on flex foam-it 3 , and what would be a good molding material for dreads , or i was thinking of getting some silicone rubber mold material and brush it on to a pool que then add release agent and foam i dont know any tips suggestion pointers would be greatly apriecated what would be a good starting point

 

[VinMan]

I have never attempted to make dreds. But I have, over the course of a couple of years here, seen many who have.
Most with many trips back to the drawing board and many dollars and hours gone by the wayside.

In my very humble opinion, If there was ever a product on the Lair that is worth it's weight in gold
it is Bambooie's Dreds. He has got a very finicky process down to a science. and the end result is a work of beauty.

You WILL easily spend as much money in supplies alone as you will on a set of is dreds.

Unless you love an incredible challenge and the right to say "Hell Yeah I conquered these Bastards!"

do yourself a favor and save for a set of his Dreds.

Just my humble opinion for what it's worth. And this is coming from a guy who has made a shitload of **** myself from scratch.

VinMan

 

[juiceredrum]

bro i totally agree and before yesterday i dont think i would have even considered making my own seeing the quality of dread that i could purchase
without the mess and hassle or trial and error from bambooie or hez but honestly by accident i came real close to having except able dreads and i thought with a couple of pointers i think mainly common sense i could bang out some dreads for myself how's the saying go teach a man to fish and what not lol
i dont think it would hurt to give it a shot when i was foam filling my mask , i was using a long funnel ( because its what i had )inserted into a dread hole
when i was done and the foam was all in the mask i laid the funnel down so i could roll the foam around the balloon i had in there when i was done and i went about cleaning up i picked the funnel up and it was filled too with foam i reached in pulled it out and whamo i could totally see the potential i think its all really in the mold and release agents .....

I have never attempted to make dreds. But I have, over the course of a couple of years here, seen many who have.
Most with many trips back to the drawing board and many dollars and hours gone by the wayside.

In my very humble opinion, If there was ever a product on the Lair that is worth it's weight in gold
it is Bambooie's Dreds. He has got a very finicky process down to a science. and the end result is a work of beauty.

You WILL easily spend as much money in supplies alone as you will on a set of is dreds.

Unless you love an incredible challenge and the right to say "Hell Yeah I conquered these Bastards!"

do yourself a favor and save for a set of his Dreds.

Just my humble opinion for what it's worth. And this is coming from a guy who has made a shitload of **** myself from scratch.

VinMan

 

[juiceredrum]

i know its not going to be easy ..... but its not impossible , please only words of encouragement or tips
believe me if or when i fail ill without any shame be hitting up our dread makers here , i just think it would be a fun attempt
im really not a sculptor at this point so anything i can make from scratch on my build i wanna try

 

[strigoi]

I know others have used the method you mentioned, getting a pool que or wooden stake to the desired thickness and point and then coating/dipping in latex and filling that with some sort of webbing or what have you. I believe that is the easiest way to make your own and still have a nice fleshy wobble to them. Like Vinman said, Hez and Bambooie have it down for the right ratio to make a good dread. I say if you have the time and have the money then keep going till you get down to the right dread.

 

[VinMan]

i know its not going to be easy ..... but its not impossible , please only words of encouragement or tips
believe me if or when i fail ill without any shame be hitting up our dread makers here , i just think it would be a fun attempt
im really not a sculptor at this point so anything i can make from scratch on my build i wanna try

If you have the inclination and the drive, you will find a way.
good luck bro. please keep us posted on your progress.
these are the coolest threads to follow!

 

[Blasturbator]

word if you figure that ouy il picm somne up from up from you

 

[hez1]

OK here's what I got for ya. Reshaping a pool cue will work just fine, but be prepared to spend some time at it.

As far as molding materials go, you have a couple of options. The cheap one is ultracal 30, the expensive one is silicone. If you want to experiment with the brush on method, feel free, but I would not recommend it. What I did was build a box, and suspended my dread to be molded from either end. I then poured in silicone up to about halfway, and placed some clay pieces at the sides (these are keys for fitting the two halves together later). Let that cure, then remove the clay pieces. Spray with mold release, and pour in more silicone to cover everything up. Let it cure, remove the box, and pull everything apart. Hopefully you used enough mold release that the two halves haven't bonded at this point.

You now need a couple of bits of wood, and some way of clamping them around the mold so that when you pour the foam in, it doesn't just squeeze out the sides when it expands.

You can do the above with ultracal, but you'll need to substitute vaseline for mold release. You'll also probably be looking at seam lines no matter what you do.

The flex foam 3 will work, and if you use silicone, you will not need any mold release for around 80 pulls. After that, the silicone will start to lose its 'slipperiness' and will start sticking to the foam. Flex foam 3 is also NOT a self skinning foam, which can make it very delicate to remove from the mold. There are other cold foams out there that are self skinning, but they need much more precise measurements than the smooth on's 1:1 volume mix. I'm talking a gram either way will make a difference to the end result.

Also, and not to put you off, but the end result can be affected by how long you mix it, temperature, humidity, amount of dye, size of the mold opening (i.e. whether there is any back pressure on the foam, or if it simply spills out the end of your mold), and whether you sneezed while pouring. OK, not really on that last one, but the others, definitely. Different mix rations will give different results, even with the flex foam. Feel free to experiment. Worst that can happen is you'll be scraping your mold clean before you can use it again.

If everything works out perfectly, you'll probably still spend more than you would simply buying a set from someone. Again, this is not meant to put you off, but so that you're going in with your eyes open to how this could go.

Good luck.

 

[juiceredrum]

If you have the inclination and the drive, you will find a way.
good luck bro. please keep us posted on your progress.
these are the coolest threads to follow!

thanks man will do

 

[juiceredrum]

bro thank you so much your advice is ******* greatly cherished here thanks for the tips i was really excited to see your post man
knowledge is invaluable definitely on this project thanks again for the words of wisdom and without a doubt ill be using this info and
taking the advice to heart

OK here's what I got for ya. Reshaping a pool cue will work just fine, but be prepared to spend some time at it.

As far as molding materials go, you have a couple of options. The cheap one is ultracal 30, the expensive one is silicone. If you want to experiment with the brush on method, feel free, but I would not recommend it. What I did was build a box, and suspended my dread to be molded from either end. I then poured in silicone up to about halfway, and placed some clay pieces at the sides (these are keys for fitting the two halves together later). Let that cure, then remove the clay pieces. Spray with mold release, and pour in more silicone to cover everything up. Let it cure, remove the box, and pull everything apart. Hopefully you used enough mold release that the two halves haven't bonded at this point.

You now need a couple of bits of wood, and some way of clamping them around the mold so that when you pour the foam in, it doesn't just squeeze out the sides when it expands.

You can do the above with ultracal, but you'll need to substitute vaseline for mold release. You'll also probably be looking at seam lines no matter what you do.

The flex foam 3 will work, and if you use silicone, you will not need any mold release for around 80 pulls. After that, the silicone will start to lose its 'slipperiness' and will start sticking to the foam. Flex foam 3 is also NOT a self skinning foam, which can make it very delicate to remove from the mold. There are other cold foams out there that are self skinning, but they need much more precise measurements than the smooth on's 1:1 volume mix. I'm talking a gram either way will make a difference to the end result.

Also, and not to put you off, but the end result can be affected by how long you mix it, temperature, humidity, amount of dye, size of the mold opening (i.e. whether there is any back pressure on the foam, or if it simply spills out the end of your mold), and whether you sneezed while pouring. OK, not really on that last one, but the others, definitely. Different mix rations will give different results, even with the flex foam. Feel free to experiment. Worst that can happen is you'll be scraping your mold clean before you can use it again.

If everything works out perfectly, you'll probably still spend more than you would simply buying a set from someone. Again, this is not meant to put you off, but so that you're going in with your eyes open to how this could go.

Good luck.

 

[juiceredrum]

bro you know what your really not that far from me we could go down on materials man and get us both some dreads two metal-heads are better than one lol
what these guys say is no joke is gonna be a project no doubt be cool to split the head ache

word if you figure that ouy il picm somne up from up from you

 

[Getal Gratua]

That's a very useful tip, hex. Thanks juiceredrum for asking!

 

[hez1]

Oh, forgot to mention, if you use ultracal as a mold, you will need mold release, otherwise the foam will bond to the mold.

You're welcome! I wish someone had been able to tell me this stuff when I tried it!

 

[Usurper]

I went a slightly different way.

1 reshaped pool cue.
then spray release agent all over the cue and bolted the FAT END into the centre of a plastic waste pipe approx 1 inch longer than dred.
blocked up the FAT END ( or tape it over as i did )
poured silicone from a good height SLOWLY and in a thin trickle to reduce any air bubbles. stopping every now and again to jiggle the mould, ( again air bubble reducing )
then when the silicone had set, cut a 1 inch wide section down the length of the plastic pipe, pop out the silicone mould, and SLICE as straight as possible a LINE down the length.
pop out the pool cue, then put the silicone back into the plastic tube, with the SLICED LINE, opposite the missing 1 inch section. ( this means ONLY 1 seem, and if you do it well you hardly see the seem at all )

pour foam

wait 20-30 mins.

smile with smug glee when you make your own 1st dred.

 

[juiceredrum]

aaahhhhhaaaa that sounds really practical man bro im really humbled by the advice of the masters thanks a million usurper i can really use your method
it cuts the box making process out im gonna really apply this to the info hez inputted we got an awesome comunity man lots of great helpful people
im really glad i found this place

I went a slightly different way.

1 reshaped pool cue.
then spray release agent all over the cue and bolted the FAT END into the centre of a plastic waste pipe approx 1 inch longer than dred.
blocked up the FAT END ( or tape it over as i did )
poured silicone from a good height SLOWLY and in a thin trickle to reduce any air bubbles. stopping every now and again to jiggle the mould, ( again air bubble reducing )
then when the silicone had set, cut a 1 inch wide section down the length of the plastic pipe, pop out the silicone mould, and SLICE as straight as possible a LINE down the length.
pop out the pool cue, then put the silicone back into the plastic tube, with the SLICED LINE, opposite the missing 1 inch section. ( this means ONLY 1 seem, and if you do it well you hardly see the seem at all )

pour foam

wait 20-30 mins.

smile with smug glee when you make your own 1st dred.

 

[skunk]

I did exactly as Usurper but didn't cut a1"strip out of the waste pipe..just cut it half CAREFULLY with a cutting blade in me dremmel....and I didnt bother to cut a staight line in me silicone.....just use good release agent and roll the mould around whilst putting pressure on it (particulary at the oposite end to where the hole is) and you end up with a totaly SEAMLESS dread.

best of luck.....remember it's gonna get messy till you get it right.

 

[juiceredrum]

thanks lee you are the man bro every tip seems to improve the plans a little more lol in all reality my dreads are gonna be made to accomadate the dread beads i got from you lol

I did exactly as Usurper but didn't cut a1"strip out of the waste pipe..just cut it half CAREFULLY with a cutting blade in me dremmel....and I didnt bother to cut a staight line in me silicone.....just use good release agent and roll the mould around whilst putting pressure on it (particulary at the oposite end to where the hole is) and you end up with a totaly SEAMLESS dread.

best of luck.....remember it's gonna get messy till you get it right.

 

[juiceredrum]

man i was just lucky to get some tips from the top dogs here

That's a very useful tip, hex. Thanks juiceredrum for asking!

 

[Beaker]

You could use our Sorta Clear either in an 18 (soft) or 40 (harder) durometer
http://www.smooth-on.com/a70/Sorta-Clear%3...ticle_info.html
helps when trying to slice open the mold... has good knotty tear strength so the rubber won't 'unzip' when cut

 

[SgtFang]

You could use our Sorta Clear either in an 18 (soft) or 40 (harder) durometer
http://www.smooth-on.com/a70/Sorta-Clear%3...ticle_info.html
helps when trying to slice open the mold... has good knotty tear strength so the rubber won't 'unzip' when cut

Beaker- What would you suggest for the actual dreads? Do you guys have any really easy-to-use self skinning foams? If so, what's the minimum order amount for getting it pre-pigmented?

Thanks!

-Sarge