Best material to print silicone mold-makers

[MBuser]

If you are going to print a part and make a silicone mold from it, and the silicone mold will be used to cast resin parts, would PLA or ABS be best to start with?

[Damian Gto]

I would choose ABS. After all its more resistance then PLA, but if I had only PLA I should try that to.

[Jetguy]

Just go with PLA.

Reasons behind that:

Less chance of warping

Less shrinkage

Easier to get ultra low layer heights and better surface finish

 

Other factors:

You don't care about the part's temperature resistance since all it's used for is to make a mold.

 

Alternatively, in some cases, ABS might be a good choice when:

You need to glue parts together with solvent (PLA can easily be glued with superglue and this is rumor of a DIY mixture to solvent glue PLA).

You need a strong, heat resistant part

You want to acetone vapor smooth before making the mold.

 

 

Without seeing the part, I would default to PLA if I am personally printing something..

[Robo]

I've printed several molds in PLA that I've used for casting silicone pieces, and it has worked great so far.  The silicone does mirror the mold very accurately, though, so I would recommend low layer height and high infill.  If you're making a mold of the 3d printed piece and not printing the mold directly, though, you would have the opportunity to smooth it and touch it up first.  I use Smooth-On Dragon Skin and OOMOO silicones, and Smooth Cast resin.  They have a couple of good release agents as well.

On Thursday, July 11, 2013 7:17:29 AM UTC-4, MBuser wrote:

[Dominic McAndrew]

Theres also this stuff called Bendlay from the same company that distributes Laywood and Laybrick.

I dont have any hands on experience with it yet but it sounds like its just right for the job. Low warp like ABS, extrudes like PLA on a rep2 and is bendier than either of them.

[Bottleworks]

I agree with Jetguy's assessment.

[MBuser]

Well maybe the ABS-2x is not a must-have after all for some parts. I did watch all the Smooth-On vids, and it would seem that pouring Smoothcast resin into a silicone mold made from a PLA master would be much much quicker that printing the part in ABS. Probably stronger too.

[Bonekollector]

I just picked up a couple of kits of Smooth-on Mold Star 30 for just this purpose - Ill report back with how it goes :-)

[CreativeDaemon]

This is exactly what my business does: Casts silicone and expanding urethane foam into PLA molds.

PLA does a great job. No issues up to this point.

That being said, if you're doing a high run, I'd print a PLA plug instead and create a more durable mold from that.

On Thursday, July 11, 2013 7:17:29 AM UTC-4, MBuser wrote: