The cost of the ticket covers the materials needed to do the workshop.
Here’s the event description from Picatic:
Ever wanted to make a copy of something you’ve got? Got some props you’d like to make some durable copies for when you go to the San Diego Comic Con? Or maybe you’ve got a sculpture you’d like to sell some copies of.
I’m going to be putting on a workshop at the Vancouver Hackspace ( VHS ), teaching you how to make a mold and how to do a resin cast. When you’re done you’ll have a mold you can use to make more castings, as well as your first resin casting!
The cost of the workshop will be going entirely towards purchasing the silicone, resin, and mold-making supplies. Because there will be a finite amount of silicone and resin on hand, I ask that people bring smaller items – preferably something that can fit into a box that’s 216 cubic inches. That’s a 6 x 6 x 6 inch box, or roughly a 8 x 8 x 3.5 inch box. If you’ve got something bigger that you’d like to do a mold of, let me know beforehand – we might be able to figure something out.
If you’ve got something that you’ve 3d printed and would like to make a mold of, I’ll have the supplies on hand to coat the part so that we can mold it. If you’d like to have something 3d printed for you, contact me and I can try to print it for you before the workshop.
There are mold release sprays we can use to mitigate paint getting pulled off.
Is the material of the model very fragile? If it is, there are very soft silicones that you can use to make a mold ( which would require a few extra steps ).
Do you have a picture or video of the model? If I can see pictures ( or better yet, see it in person ) I can help you figure out the best way to make a mold.
seanhagen, would you share which silicon/process do you use?
I tried using plain silicon tubes mixed with baking powder, but the mixture didn’t work out, perhaps the silicon was too old. I used oomoo stuff with success but it’s too expensive.
i’d have come to the workshop to see your way, but it’s sold out now.
At the workshop I used Mold Star 16 Fast and Smooth Cast 300. Both are Smooth-On products. Been super happy with the Smooth-On stuff because it’s easy to use, and any problems I’ve had were totally my fault.
I realized that after the workshop I totally forgot to take pictures ( meant to have a GoPro doing a time-lapse from behind me ) and forgot to take attendance.
Just filled out the attendance form now though, so hopefully that helps.
Yeah, that octopus won’t be available for the next workshop. Definitely learned a few things about how to do the workshop – like having stuff that’s easier to mold!
I’ve used Oomoo, Mold Star, Smooth Sil, and Dragon Skin FX Pro.
The main difference is the hardness; Dragon Skin is 2A, the Smooth Sil stuff I used was 50A. 2A is pretty flexible ( the Dragon Skin stuff is actually meant for making special effects makeup ), 50A is not very flexible at all.
Oomoo is tin cure, all the rest are platinum cure. Tin cure can’t handle higher heat resins as well – the silicone can start to degrade and crumble, especially if you’re molding something like this octopus where there will be thin walls of silicone. The way I think of it is that tin cure is for something I want to make 5 copies to give to friends – platinum cure is when I want to make 100 of something to sell.
It really depends on what you’re molding or what you’re using the silicone for. Experiment and find what silicone works best for what you’re doing.