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I'm having a good time with my printer (though I do have to swap out the FEP again annoyingly enough!) but I'm still interested in the use of regular silicone-mold casting for some purposes (notably for clear parts, as my previous attempts at clear printing were...questionable...). In addition I have ideas for making supplementary parts/figures to go with JoyToy's 1:18th figures, including bendy wire tentacles (for Chaos or Tyranid creatures) which I was planning on creating by printing a resin mould and then casting the parts in silicone.

 

There is, however, a problem. 3D resin and regular platinum-cure silicone seem to hate each other. Apparently the sulphur in the resin majorly inhibits silicone from curing, causing it to turn into chunky goop. I found this out the hard way and wasted both a resin mold and a lot of silicone...whoops.

 

I have heard of two solutions to this problem. The first is to use primer or other paint on the mold first, effectively sealing it in and preventing the sulphur from stopping the rubber from curing. I am tempted to try this out (though I will need to make a new mold first...) as colourless 1:1 platinum cure silicone is fairly cheap and easy to get, and for a relatively minor expenditure of extra effort it would solve the problem. The second is to use tin-cure silicone instead, as this apparently has no issues with sulphur inhibiting curing. The only issue is I can't seem to find it anywhere near as easily. Amazon has countless affordable platinum silicones available, whilst tin-cure seems to be limited to US imports or is only sold in massive amounts for a high price.

 

I'll be sure to run some tests with "sealed" molds, but if that doesn't work, is there any good retailer for getting tin-cure silicone for non-horrific prices in the UK?

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