My Flexfoam gets softer every cast. Please help!

[Phaederkiel]

Hi, I am new, this is my first post.

I use flexfoam IT 3 and a silicon mold to make some LARP-daggers.
The original is very thin, so I hoped the cast daggers would not be too soft, so that they do not bend.

The first dagger I made was surpisingly hard, and did not bend any.

Unfortunately, ever since, the daggers get softer and softer.

Is my batch of flexfoam decaying already? This would be very bad, i did not even use 1 / 10th of it.

Does anyone know other possible causes?
Or even better: a solution?

Can I perhaps change the proportions of the substances to get tougher foam? I do not mind having a bit substance left I cannot use, because at the moment it seems I cannot use any of it.

Thanks in advance!

 

[robn1]

I'm not familiar with Flexfoam, but it may be it needs to be stirred. Some resins have fillers that need to be stirred before the two parts are mixed. It sounds like you got a lot of filler (or whatever's in it) in the first mix, and less in each later batch.

 

[Exxos]

The most glaring thing is that you're using Foam-IT!3, that is way too soft and squishy for LARP weapons (it's usually better for things you are making pillowy). For bladed weapons, you'll usually want 17 or 25.

As for the mix, as robn1 said, you have to mix the individual compounds a lot before mixing them together for the final pour. You probably got most of your stiffener in the first one so it came out on par as if it was 17 or 25. Foam-IT is really fickle on this front and really easy to get a ton of air bubbles in because you have to mix everything to death if it sits for more than a few days.

I can't really suggest how you might fix what you have on hand though. When I've used it, we almost always had dozens of molds at a friend's place and we ended up basically making the entire supply, so it was just mix it all, split into four buckets, pour like mad b!@#$es in the tiny work time.

 

[Phaederkiel]

first: Thanks for your answers!


I stirred it as good as I could, the 2 substances before pouring them together, and afterwards as well.

Afterwards is really difficult, as I have only 35 seconds, before the foam starts to rise, if I stir after this point, the foam collapses and does not move anymore.

we bought IT-3, because we thought we would have more error margin if we bought something one could foam a hundred daggers opposed to something you can foam 20. And I am quite sure it is stable enough for a dagger, even if it sure is not stable enough for a sword.


Has any of you experience with the substances decaying?
Three days seems exessively short.

 

[Viking]

Foam It comes in flexible and rigid. The flexible also known as (Flexfoam It) cast as a thin blade will always be soft like a limp noodle. The rigid foam known as (Foam It) is better for thin blade casts as they will tend to keep there shape. In either cast I have never used anything lower than a 10 for anything, a 3 seems like the wrong product for what your doing in my opinion.

 

[Phaederkiel]

is the rigid foam not far to hard to use for something which will be used by fools to stab other fools?opcorn