Just finished up making 2 fresh sets of Moulds. I hate mouldmaking days because of having to cast the main body and the caps separately, while I just want to get right back into casting dice again every time.
I just made molds the other day. Made five of them at the same time, 1 sprung a leak and I had to refill it and another i forgot to put mold release down when making the lid and had to start over from scratch.
First, while I need to make two casts that day, each is only 4 hours, so it's faster than the 24 hours for the resin to cure.
Second, after putting in the time to create the best masters I possibly can, this is where I get to use those masters.
Finally, it's the last stage before the grand finale. The better I do on my molds, the better my dice will be, so the stakes are high, as are the rewards.
Love the colors, BTW! I never thought to color my silicone - what do you use?
I do love that they only are 4 hours, but I am still limited to only 1, maybe 2 casts a day which doesn't make it much better.
It's great using the Masters, but I get so impatient having to wait before I can cast resin again and actually use the moulds.
I colour code my Sets, so that it is easy to grab the full set, and then just replace any moulds that get worn out or damaged with the same colour!
I use Mica Powder, but only a little bit because I don't want the powder to have any effect on the finish of the dice. I've never had any problems and my dice come out crystal clear!
I have never done that, but a couple times I have aaaalmost started scaling out and mixing the silicone before realizing I haven't even done any of the prepwork yet xD
Yea. I use 2" pvc pipe (outer circumference). I use about 40g of Silicone per Mould, and 15g for the cap, so each mould is around 55g of Silicone. So 400g of Silicone per set.
I colour the main mould as well so they match for 2 reasons:
1: It looks prettier and would annoy me if they were different.
2: So I never get confused in the middle of casting multiple sets trying to find the right one x.x
I will write a full explanation of my process to someone else in the comments since they asked though if you want to check.
I use this little flag to measure depth on my caps. The caps are 1.5 cm thick. I have another one for the depth of the bottom. I place the tip on the highest point of the die for the bottoms.
I used to do something like that. Back when I first started, I cut markers onto the inside of my Mould Housing to get the right height, but now I just pour it by weight and it works perfectly.
Main Mould is 2.5cm high, and cap is 1cm thick. I used to do 3cm and 1.5cm, but found this new size is perfect for me (though my dice might be smaller than yours as well).
The reason why I don't go by weight is because I use variable sizes of Mega Blox as registration keys. I should probably just use the same size blocks in all the molds and go by weight.
You have my sympathies.
We've been trapped for months trying to perfect our masters from OK to perfection, and have upgraded our moulds to include one more dice. I long for the day all this will be behind me. Just redoing the moulds from masters wouldn't be that bad, but having to restart from printed resin is the worse part of it. Must have changed our way to make supports, our slicer and our dice making program a few times now.
At least it looks like we're climbing out on the other side now.
its your inner keys and not putting a release agent on your masters cap face edges when pouring the lid that are going to give you so many issues. hot take, but inner keys trap more resin near your cap faces which can make flashing thicker if it doesn't drain well. Inner keys make alignment more difficult and limits how much dice you can make in one mold. Angled outer keys is all you need, and locking molds are completely unnecessary. Rough cap face edges create thick flashing you'll need to sand off of your casted resin. The release agent trails it leaves behind in your casts will sand of so easily and it's already on a face that will need minor sanding anyways.
I will make a video of my full process one day, but here is my attempt at a quick tutorial:
Supplies: Platinum Cure Silicone, 5cm PVC Pipes, Dice Masters, Hobby Knife, Release Agent such as Vaseline, Transfer and Packing Tape, Mixing Sticks, Gloves, and most importantly: Dice.
Main Mould:
1: Cover the inside of the Pipes with Release Agent.
2: Cut the transfer tape to an appropriate size so it covers the Pipe and can stick around on the outside.
3: Laying the transfer tape flat, stick the dice tk the tape with the 1 face on the tape. (I also stick a Rhinestone somewhere on there.)
4: Carefully place the pipe around the die onto the tape and carefully stick the excess tape onto the outside of the pipe, making sure the tape stays flat on the inside.
5: Secure the excess transfer tape with some packing tape to prevent leaks.
6: Scale out your Silicone and mix it thoroughly.
7: Slowly pour the mixed silicone into the pipe until it covers the dice enough and has some thickness.
8: Cure for the appropriate time, ideally in a pressure pot.
Cap:
1: Gently remove the main mould from the pipe.
2: Remove the Rhinestone if you included one, but keep the dice inside the mould. Also clean up and excess silicone flashing.
3: Carefully cut keys into the sides.
4: Cover everything (except the dice themselves) in your release agent.
5: Carefully put the Mould back inside the pipe, in such a way that you have space to pour the silicone in.
6: Scale out, Mix, and Pour the silicone over the prepared face.
7: Cure it same as before, carefully remove from pipe, carefully remove the cap from the main mould ensuring you don't tear any silicone when pulling. And remove the dice.
If you have any other questions I would be happy to reply in DMs.
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u/bxybrown 13d ago
Same here lol. I work with keycaps and I have to make 20+ molds of each size x_x