what do you use for your smaller molds?

[hydin]

i saw an episode "how its made" earlier in the year, and they showed how those acrylic trophy setups are made, and the mold box they poured the acrylic into was made of posterboard/cardboard.

i use anything from pvc pipe to just michaels art boxes when i make my molds, but i was wondering what other people used.

so... post up.

chris

 

[Kylash]

ive seen legos used really good, you can make them taller, take them apart easily, make weird custom shapes...ive never done it but it seemed very good. I ususally use tag board taped together or clay.

 

[voice in the crowd]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Kylash327 @ Feb 19 2007, 07:32 PM) [snapback]1422051[/snapback]</div>

ive seen legos used really good, you can make them taller, take them apart easily, make weird custom shapes...ive never done it but it seemed very good. I ususally use tag board taped together or clay.
[/b]

On one of the tutorial sites I have seen they used lego and it seemed to do the job great.

 

[vaderdarth]

Lego idea sounds superb.... Reusable and cheap if you have the legos. I do not have legos unfortunately, but what I've used is foam core board and hot glue. You throw it away afterwards, but it's been great for moulding small stuff.

Dave

 

[Lord_Gita]

1/2 wood boards screwed together and clay around the edges.

 

[Jimbo890]

I've used Legos, works great for silicone , bad for anything else unless you use a lot of mold release.

 

[Dustin Crops Boy]

I used Lego (the plural of Lego is Lego) before and found it to be too tediously long to construct (if molding anything larger than, say, a pack of cards) and the silicone had a tendency to seep in bewteen the bricks.

 

[robstyle]

Styrene sheet and hot glue. You can reuse the styrene, just remove the hot glue.

 

[jdboushh]

We use 1/2 boards cut to the right size..about 1/2" extra around the object you want to mold. Then we can unscrew the sides and reuse later or if you want just flip the mold over and put back in the box to have support and retain it's shape..easy to stack up and save for future use.

Jeanne

 

[tk5378]

I've used pieces of HIPS, as well as foamcore...but I always do my seams and corners with silver waterproof aluminum tape (used for HVAC work) as it really keeps the molding materials inside the box. It's also really easy to remove and reuse.

 

[Stampedemag]

I love threads like these.

I have used rubbermaid-type containers, Plastic bottles, Cardboard (realy fast and easy), foamcore, cups, .... cant think of any others just yet.

I used card-stock for this mould. It is real easy. Just cut out a length of paper that will surround the item you are going to mould (notice the top where I got it too close... don't do that) Then staple it together. Put a mould release on it and also your base (I used foam-core board) and then pour in the mould making material. That's it.

You just let it harden and then peel the paper away. Sometimes it gets a little soggy from the plaster but it still works. Quick and easy and VERY Cheap.

 

[badger]

Lego's work very well. I use them all the time for my molds. I do mostly small stuff at the moment, so they work well for small molds.

In fact I need to get some more brick.

badger

 

[exoray]

Plain corrugated cardboard and hot glue, quick simple and pretty much free...

I have used Lego building blocks, but find sealing the bottom edge with clay is more trouble then it's worth probably more so since I like to tap out bubbles and the clay never holds well enough...

 

[Blad]

Cardboard and clay, but I mostly use Depron sheet (Foam) and POR glue at the moment, very cheap, can be cut to almost any shape and strong enough when glued to stop any leakage.

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

I just use foam core board and masking tape.

 

[CaptCBoard]

If its a small part that will be duplicated for a gang-mold, I use a paper cup. Anything else I use Sintra. For all the molds I make, I have to keep the box and mounted master in case I need to make the mold again. So everything I do I go the extra bit so that I don't have to repeat the entire process to make a duplicate mold. I store the mold box and master in a zip-lock storage bag. This keeps everything needed to make a new mold in one place.

The box is made of two end/side pieces-- that is one side and one end glued permanently together. These fit around the base (and master) and I secure everything with blue masking tape. Nothing leaks, its easy to strip the tape off and take out the mold.
Scott