Collapsible silicone mold for DIY casting. Liquid silicone for molds. Characteristics, application, prices

About ten years ago, no one could have imagined that baits made of such a soft material as silicone would appear. The bait is so similar to an animate object that a predatory fish does not spit it out, but tries to try it, which gives it time to hook.

What silicone to use for filling

Effective silicone baits can, of course, be purchased. Or you can make it yourself. Especially if you have a lot of old baits in your arsenal that were damaged during fishing.

It’s easy to melt down old baits and make a new bait. In addition, this will save money. And when you make it yourself, you can “play” with color and taste, as well as with shape and size. Among the disadvantages of homemade products, it is logical to note the time required.

You can also make silicone baits from purchased material. For example, for injection molding machines. Its advantage, of course, is the quality, but the price of this material is not cheap. In addition, most likely, you will have to order silicone and wait for it to be delivered.

Note that a non-shrinking silicone compound based on a tin catalyst, for example, “Elastolux (TV 25)”, has a low viscosity, thereby filling all small parts and it is possible to paint it in a different color. The product does not shrink, which can be attributed to its positive properties. Shrinkage product, for example “Petallast 710”, “Pentallast 718” - shrinks by 1.5% of the volume of the mold, which must be remembered during manufacturing.

Silicone cost

If we compare the costs of producing silicone baits, the conclusion is simple - it is more profitable to make them from old baits. As for the cost of purchased silicone, you will have to fork out some money. For example, a two-component non-shrinking product from Elastolux (TV 25) and Elastofor costs from 830 rubles and more. Shrinkage component “Pentalast 710”, “Pentalast 718” in the range of 300-400 rubles.

Making silicone baits

Silicone molds

To make silicone baits, first of all, you need a mold to fill the material. You can also do it yourself. For example, from plaster or plexiglass.

What you will need:

• Dental or building plaster.
• Dishes where the plaster will be mixed.
• Tablespoon.
• Scales.
• Water.
• Liquid soap.
• A sample of the product that will be copied.
• Dishes for plaster.

All dishes are used in their pure form, without plaster residues. The ratio of gypsum and water is precisely maintained: for 25 ml of water you will need 100 grams. powder. The temperature of both ingredients should be 20 degrees. The bulk mixture is slowly added to the water and mixed for one minute. Monitor the solution for bubbles, if any, and remove them by tapping.

There are two types of matrices:

• one-sided;
• bilateral;

Let's consider the first type of matrix

We'll use gypsum as the material for it. You will also need a sample nozzle. It can be made from clay, wood, or use a finished product. The model should be lubricated with petroleum jelly, grease or silicone grease.

This is done to ensure that the sample does not stick to the plaster. Next, we fill the container with gypsum, the thickness of the fill is taken to be twice as thick as the sample. The model is immersed in plaster to a depth of slightly more than half of it. We wait for the plaster to dry completely (10 minutes) and remove the sample. The matrix should be covered with construction sealant, the one-sided matrix is ​​ready.

Double-sided matrix

For a double-sided matrix, you will need a rectangular container. Half of our container is filled with plaster and now the bait model is lowered onto its half. Leave all this overnight and only then start pouring the second part of the matrix. So that the molds can separate into two halves, they should be lubricated, for example, with Vaseline. Here the solution is made more liquid to allow bubbles to escape.

After pouring, we send it out to dry again for a day. Then separate the matrices, remove burrs, and take out the sample. The parts take several days to dry. Cover only the area for the layout with construction sealant.

Now you need to make air vents and sprues. From the beginning of the sample to the edge of the mold, scratch a groove with a sharp object, which then needs to be worked out with a drill.

Air vents should be made with a thin knife, up to 8 pieces, this is dictated by the complexity of the bait.

Using this mold makes it possible to prepare voluminous baits that are more realistic with live bait. This effect cannot be achieved in a single-sided mold. There are, of course, disadvantages. For example, there are more complex models when you can underfill silicone into some cavities of the prepared mold.

How to increase your fish catch?

Over 7 years of active fishing, I have found dozens of ways to improve the bite. Here are the most effective ones:

1. Bite activator. This pheromone additive attracts fish most strongly in cold and warm water. Discussion of the bite activator “Hungry Fish”.
2. Promotion gear sensitivity. Read the appropriate manuals for your specific type of gear.
3. Lures based pheromones.

The process of making silicone baits with your own hands

• First of all, you need to melt the silicone. To do this, for example, the old parts of the nozzles are put into a container and melted (over an open fire or in the microwave) or immediately put into a syringe and sent to the microwave. The first case is convenient when several people are involved in the process and a large amount of material is melted, or there are Several prints available.
• In the second case, the syringe should be filled with waste, close the syringe nozzle and place in the microwave. The beauty of this method is that there is no fumes.

Color of future bait

The color of the future bait depends on the wishes of each fisherman. You can melt baits of the same color together, you can mix them - then the color will change.
When using ready-made silicone, you can add dye and glitter, for example, from Glitter. They are applied as the first layer to the matrix. Food coloring of any color is mixed with the material and sent to the print.

Taste of bait

To increase the number of bites and improve fishing results, the bait can also be given taste. To do this, during the manufacture of bait, you can add salt, fish oil, attractant, etc.

It is worth remembering that if the bait is impregnated with an attractant after its manufacture, it loses its properties after the next fishing. You need to additionally coat the bait with flavoring after fishing. This is done in this order: the used product must be washed, dried, placed in a bag and an attractant or flavoring agent dripped inside. Stir and leave for 3 days in a dark and dry place.

Form fills

Having melted the silicone, pour it into the prepared mold. If a one-sided mold is used, then pour our product on top, wait a few minutes and remove the finished bait from the print.

The casting process for double-sided prints is slightly different. Here two halves are used, which must be connected to each other. Then, hot material is poured into the impression injection channel until the die is completely filled. Hold the matrix at an angle.

Removing the bait from the mold

After hardening (about 5 minutes), the rubber products are removed from the molds and placed in a container with water, where you can add ice until it cools completely.

Trimming the shape

If necessary, ready-made nozzles must be freed from excess silicone: we cut off the excess with scissors, making the product completely similar to the used sample.

What baits can you make yourself this way?

You can make many attachments this way:

• worms that have many tails and legs;
• passive vibrating tails without snout tails;
• crayfish with tentacles;
• two-tailed twistors.

Additional elements move expressively when retrieving and create a hydrodynamic wake, to which predatory fish actively react.

Safety precautions when making bait yourself

In the process of casting baits, do not forget about safety precautions:

• Check the syringe for heat resistance if this melting method is chosen.
• Wear gloves.
• The syringe should be wrapped with electrical tape.
• There is no need to draw a lot of material into the syringe.
• When melting over an open fire, it is better to use a respirator or work in a well-ventilated area.

• The matrix should be larger than the sample on the sides and in volume.
• For a double-sided matrix, use the correct consistency of gypsum. To prevent the sample from being heavily immersed in the solution under its weight, it must be clearly half. Too thick a batch can cause the matrix to break off.
• Waste should be crushed as finely as possible, this is the key to rapid melting.
• Don't ignore safety precautions.

Almost everyone is familiar with such a material as silicone. Men use sealants made from this material. Women often use molds made from it for baking. Many different items are made from it. I wonder if it is possible to make silicone on your own at home, as well as forms from it? Yes, you can! Read below for information on how to do this.

What is needed to make silicone

The following materials are required:

Before you start making a rubber-like material, you need to ensure safe conditions. The work must be carried out with rubber gloves, because this material itself is very toxic.

It is also necessary to choose the right place to carry out the work. The room should be good ventilate. The ideal conditions for working on silicone are outdoors. But if this is not possible, then you can do the work on the balcony.

It is also worth knowing the peculiarity of the material - fast hardening. Therefore, it is recommended to produce the material in small quantities or carry out all actions quickly.

Other materials can be used to make silicone:

Place sealant in a plastic cup. Add glycerin and paint to it. To do this, it is convenient to use a pipette or straw. Add white spirit. Now you need to mix the mixture thoroughly so that the mass is homogeneous. Silicone is ready! It will remain liquid for about 4-5 hours and then harden.

First of all, to make the material you need to mix ethyl alcohol with liquid glass in equal proportions. This can be done in any plastic container. During mixing, you need to add dye to the mass according to your own preferences.

Both a wooden stick and a regular spoon are suitable for kneading. After kneading, you will get a mass resembling plasticine or rubber. It can be used in several ways in the future. For example, knead with your hands. You can also put the mixture into a regular cooking bag or syringe with the necessary attachments and squeeze out the amount that is needed. You can also use regular cookie cutters. Or another option is to cast the required shape.

Important! Repeating the shape of an object will only be possible if you apply silicone mass to the outside of the object. To put it another way, apply the mass not into the mold, but from the outside.

Another important point: before applying the rubber mass, the surface should be lubricated with vegetable oil or soapy water.

How to make a silicone mold

For this you will need special material - compound, which consists of:

• catalyst (hardening agent)
• silicone pastes.

Thanks to these components, any shape can be cast. True, this is not exactly silicone (it is more reminiscent of rubber in its properties), nevertheless.

To make an analogue in the form of a silicone mold, you need to do a number of steps:

The required silicone mold is ready!

How to make a mold on a plate

To do this you will need liquid/cast silicone.

The stages of work are as follows:

1. A plaster or foam plate must be treated with soapy water.
2. Take a brush and apply silicone to the surface.
3. Now we need to work out the details. Particular attention must be paid to the top layer.
4. Wait until the silicone dries.

Now all that remains is to remove the silicone and the required shape on the plate is ready!​

How to make a mold from silicone sealant

There are no difficulties here either. You will need any silicone sealant.

Stages of work:

You can also do this. Roll the silicone dough into a ball and press the dough into it. Align the edges. After a few hours, check whether the silicone has hardened or not. If yes, then the workpiece can be removed. The resulting form is ready!

Work very interesting with the material, especially creative people. You can do whatever you want with this material. However, if you want to use such a silicone mold for baking, then you should refuse such a desire. It is better to purchase an industrial silicone mold.

You can find many videos on the Internet that detail how to make silicone and molds with your own hands.

Every year there are more and more fans of spinning fishing, this leads to an increase in pollution of water bodies with baits; silicone baits, which are so fashionable today, pose a particular danger. The thing is that if part of such bait gets into the body of a fish, it cannot digest it and may die. Silicone can also be eaten by birds, and this can also cause their death. In addition to everything else, a lot of bait remains lying on the bottom, because the probability of the hook getting caught on a snag or other underwater obstacle is quite high.

One author proposed a homemade option for making environmentally friendly baits. Their main feature is that after a certain time in water they completely dissolve. Of course, the composition for their manufacture is not yet ideal, but the idea already deserves attention.

Materials and tools for making baits:
- a couple of packets of gelatin;
- water;
- fish oil tablets;
- dye;
- a bowl for stirring the mixture and a stove;
- mold for casting baits;
- a tablespoon and other small things.

Bait making process:

Step one. Mixing ingredients
To create the mixture, you will need to take 3/4 cup of water and pour it into a small saucepan. If fish oil is used as a flavoring, you need to pierce the capsule with a pin or needle and squeeze the contents into the pan. Next, you need to pour four bags of gelatin into the pan.

For the gelatin to dissolve, place the pan on the stove and turn on the lowest flame. As the gelatin heats up, you need to stir it until you get a uniform mass. According to the author, this takes about two minutes. After this, dye can be added to the gelatin.

Step two. Casting baits
At the next stage, the prepared mixture is poured into the mold. It can be made from gypsum. After this, the form is placed in the freezer, now all that remains is to wait until the gelatin hardens. It takes about 15 minutes to harden, after which the baits are removed and a new batch can be cast. For easier removal, the molds can be greased with sunflower oil or fat.

Step three. A simple way to make worms
If you need to make a lot of baits in the form of worms, then it is not necessary to use a mold for these purposes. You can use straws from which you drink drinks. They need to be cut as indicated in the photo, and then installed in some container. After this, gelatin is poured into the tubes. Subsequently, the whole thing again goes into the freezer. Then all that remains is to extract the gelatin from the tubes and the edible rubber worms are ready. They can be cut to the desired length if necessary, and cuts can be made along the body for better flexibility.

Step four. Checking baits, their advantages and disadvantages over silicone
Perhaps the most important advantage of such baits is their low cost. Anyone can make such baits at home in the shortest possible time; all you need is gelatin, which costs a penny. And of course, such baits are environmentally friendly, since gelatin is absolutely safe for the environment and completely dissolves in water.

Among other things, the advantage of this method is that baits of any size, shape and characteristics can be made. You can cast a variety of beetles, toads, fish, worms and other living creatures that fish feed on. You can also use real beetles to create the shapes.

Among the disadvantages, the most important one is that gelatin dissolves quite quickly in water, therefore, with such bait you can make about 1-3 casts, and then it needs to be changed. But this problem can be solved; you need to experiment with the composition, adding various substances to it. For example, if you coat gelatin with fat, it will repel water, and the bait will last much longer. Gelatin is also afraid of heat; it becomes soft when heated, so baits should be cooled.

The next drawback is that gelatin is quite difficult to break through with a hook; it is too hard. In this regard, it is best to immediately install the hooks into the mold, that is, cast the bait immediately along with the hooks.

Well, another disadvantage of gelatin is that if a fish takes the tip of the bait, it can bite it off and not be hooked.

To sum up, we can undoubtedly say that this technology for making baits has its place. After all, in this way you can make quite catchy baits in large quantities just in your kitchen, and very cheaply and quickly. To make such baits even more attractive, you can use various attractants.

Today we will create a complex silicone mold for reusable castings.

To do this, you will have to dive into some interesting subtleties. Taking impressions opens up enormous opportunities for all kinds of homemade products. Usually, to make a cast of a figure, you need to make two halves. One half is covered with sculptural plasticine, and the second is filled with silicone.

Then remove the plasticine and pour silicone into the free half again. This way you can make impressions of excellent quality.

But what to do if the entire figure is made of sculptural plasticine.

No, it’s not a tree, not a mushroom, or even broccoli. This is a model of an atomic explosion from the largest bomb in human history, AN602.

The author tried to make this model more or less similar in shape to that very explosion. We will make a cast of it. To then cast it from epoxy.

Everyone loves explosions and it's nice to have such a small glowing atomic explosion on your desk.

Materials and tools:
1. Silicone
2. Vaseline
3. A couple of boards
4. Screwdriver and screws
5. Knife
6. Pliers
7. Plastic caps
8. Sculptural plasticine

When taking an impression, it is very important to think about how the model will be positioned, so that when pouring silicone it does not turn out to be unable to fill some areas. Or in the future, when you pour plastic, epoxy, gypsum, wax or anything else into the mold, there should also not be a place where air cavities may appear, into which the composition simply cannot enter.

For this purpose, the author bought a bucket of cheap Chinese silicone and, probably, this is the cheapest silicone that exists. Hardness thirty. That is, it seems like medium hardness. Just what you need for collapsible forms.

The layer of silicone around the figure should be at least two and a half centimeters.

You'll have to make a box of the right size.

All seams must be covered with plasticine, otherwise it will leak.

The silicone won't leak much, but it's still unpleasant. At the top the model is much narrower than at the base. You can’t leave it like this, otherwise a whole kilogram of precious silicone will be lost. Therefore, the filling had to be made from the bars. Unused corners and nooks and crannies can also be covered with plasticine to save money.

To make it easier to peel the silicone from the wood, all walls must be thoroughly treated with Vaseline. Where would we be without him?

In order to secure the model inside the formwork we will use self-tapping screws. Plasticine
sculptural, not too soft and holds its shape well. So, in principle, it should work. In order to know to what height to fill and not guess later whether you poured a lot or a little, you need to roughly mark the desired level with a pencil.

And now there's silicone. It comes with a tin hardener, and sometimes with a platinum hardener. Tin is naturally cheaper and more unpretentious.

There are rumors that silicone does not interact well with plasticine and may not polymerize. In this case, the plasticine begins to melt and the model can then be thrown away. To save yourself the hassle and not worry about this, just pour a little silicone into a mold made of the same plasticine as your model. After some time, see what happens. Most likely everything will be fine and there will be no mistakes.

If the silicone does not want to harden, then you need to cover the plasticine with a layer of Vaseline. Or, as an option, purchase special aerosol separators. They are sold in the same place where silicone is sold.

Having estimated the required volume of silicone, taking into account the fact that it will also spread throughout the container when stirred, the author decided to prepare one and a half kilos. When mixing with the hardener, you need to mix very carefully, by hand, so as not to create bubbles in the silicone. Usually, even if bubbles appear, they basically come out of the mixture well. But not in our case. Chinese silicone snatches air just like before death. Even with gentle stirring, there are a bunch of bubbles inside. The author tried to do degassing using a small vacuum pump.

The process went on, bubbles came out. But this volume is too large for such a pump, and silicone cannot be kept idle for a long time. It needs to pour. You need to pour slowly, carefully, so as not to touch the model with the stream. Otherwise, you will have to cut off excess silicone from it before pouring the second half.

Now you need to make the locks. The form will be collapsible, which means it must fit together clearly. The author suggests using these plastic caps.

Plastic is lighter than silicone, but not by much. You need to experiment before pouring. Mix a little silicone and choose something suitable that will not sink completely and will be easy to remove. We press plasticine inside the caps to make them heavier.

But not so much that they sink completely, but so that they stick out slightly from the silicone. You need to place such locks as often as possible. There won't be any extra ones - that's for sure.

After the silicone has completely hardened, you can pull out the caps and cut off any protruding burrs.

When pouring the second half, silicone will be poured into the resulting recesses and you will get locks that will help to accurately join the two halves.

Next, lubricate the surface of the silicone with Vaseline so that the next layer does not stick to it. We finally close the formwork with the last board. Then pour silicone to the mark that you previously marked with a pencil.

In order for the silicone to better wet the model and release gases, you can lightly vibrate it with a spoon.

Now you need to wait for the second half to completely harden. This should take about 16 hours at room temperature. In general, this particular silicone sets within an hour, but it gains full hardness in almost a day.

The silicone remaining in the container polymerized, but not completely. As usual, it is not possible to mix the silicone with the hardener well at the bottom and in the corners. It remains forever a sticky mess.

Therefore, it is better to use disposable utensils for kneading. Or the one you don’t feel sorry for. But if you happen to mix silicone in the favorite cup of your mother, wife, or God forbid mother-in-law, then you will definitely have to wash it. Basically, just like your hands. Regular soap, to be honest, does a terrible job. More precisely, it does not wash off silicone from your hands at all. Most silicone from dishes and hands can be wiped off with rags. And hand cleaning paste works well with the remaining silicone.

This paste is something like concentrated soap mixed with a fine abrasive. It scrapes off all the silicone and prevents it from sticking again. After wiping with the cleaning paste, simply rinse off all the silicone with water. And no solvents or other cleaning agents are needed.

Well, you can disassemble this miracle box. Any excess protruding pieces are immediately cut off. You can see how the silicone leaked through a small gap.

Even after smearing with Vaseline, the pieces of wood do not want to come off. You have to make an effort to separate the silicone. The halves stuck together quite strongly, but they were still served. Plasticine, even without Vaseline treatment, does not stick to silicone at all. The model turned out to be absolutely undamaged. Except for minor mechanical issues that are easy to fix. This method of making copies turned out to be very gentle.

Despite the large number of bubbles in the silicone, the impression seems to have turned out without noticeable jambs. But only after pouring will you see what actually happened. The cast is covered in roughness due to the fact that the surface of the plasticine was not smoothed before pouring.
Perhaps it was still worth using a brush with a solvent to remove too fine texture from the surface of the model.
Let's try to connect the two halves.

They fit together perfectly. The joint line is practically invisible. Even when pressed, the two halves move as one. It's as if there is no connection at all.

The author deliberately left the sides flat to make it more convenient to fix the two halves before pouring, pressing them on both sides with two pieces of board. You don't need to squeeze it too hard, but you should at least hold it lightly. Epoxy tends to leak through any cracks. So we'll see how she behaves.

It is advisable to store the form assembled, so that if it suddenly moves, then at least let it deform evenly.
Well, the silicone brick is ready.

Thank you for attention. See you again!

Video clip:

Somewhere a couple of months ago, I got caught here this video is on YouTube, where a man made a mold from gelatin and glycerin. I really liked the video, especially because all the components of this recipe are easily accessible and not very expensive, at least for small volumes of forms. The video itself, although in bourgeois language, is nothing special to delve into; it was enough to hear fifty-fifty, after which it became clear how much glycerin and gelatin should be mixed. Therefore, I decided to try to repeat this recipe for homemade silicone or rubber, whichever is closer.

At the nearest pharmacy and grocery store, several vials of glycerin and the same number of packets of gelatin were purchased. Here everything will depend on the size of the mold; if you want to make a mold for something large, then accordingly you will have to purchase a little more of all these components.

Mix everything approximately 50/50, that is, by eye. Experimentally, I found out that if you pour more glycerin, the mixture turns out to be more liquid and fluid. But if there is not enough glycerin, then this gelatin paste will stretch like drying Moment glue and at the same time it is difficult to stir even in a water bath, let alone pour it into a mold with a part that has complex detailing. In general, 50/50 seems to be the best option. I have not tried adding glycerin more than twice (to find out the limit at which the mixture would remain strong and not sticky after hardening).

It’s ideal to heat the whole thing in a water bath, because you don’t have to control the temperature, but you don’t always have access to a gas stove, so for now I made do with an ordinary candle. The main thing is not to let the gelatin boil, otherwise it will start to burn and smell terrible, as if you were frying some kind of animal carcass :-) I heated and stirred this substance for about 10 minutes so that the mixture was homogeneous and without any lumps. There in the video he heats the whole thing in the microwave, but in order not to look for dishes for it and not to conjure with the required heating time, for now he decided to make do with ordinary heating over an open fire.

I tore this glass crystal off the chandelier for the duration of the experiment. I also bent a mold from a strip of plastic to a size slightly larger than this stone.

I poured a little of this silicone into the bottom of the mold and left it to cool to make something like a base for a stone. I decided to do this so that the thickness of this rubber would be more or less uniform on all sides of the crystal. Otherwise, if the mold is thin, it will not hold the desired shape well, moreover, it may tear when the prototype is removed from it.

After that, partially dip the crystal into a bowl of gelatin to get rid of air bubbles from the bottom of the stone. Then we quickly transfer this pebble and place it on the bottom of the mold, along with the gelatin stuck to it, as if gluing it.

Now the simplest thing is to fill the form with gelatin to the edges of the formwork.

What's good about this homemade rubber is that it hardens literally before your eyes, as soon as it cools down you can cut it. There is no need to wait a week for this form to set completely, as is usually the case with acidic construction silicone. After the mass has cooled, unwind the plastic from this cube.

We make a cut at the top and carefully remove the glass crystal from our mold.

Then mix and pour epoxy resin into the mold.

The epoxy resin casting no longer came out of the mold as easily as the glass prototype. Therefore, I had to carefully cut the mold in a circle and tear it apart so as not to scratch the epoxy crystal with a knife. I don’t know yet what this is connected with, but the casting turned out cloudy and not transparent. Either the presence of water somewhere in the gelatin mass is affecting it, or something else. On the other hand, if you cast something colored in the mass, then it will no longer have much significance.

Also, purely for the sake of experiment, I tried to cast a fragment of this stone, but from plaster (alabaster). The results were disastrous. Gelatin begins to absorb water from the gypsum and as a result, at the end we get a sticky plaster stone and a form spoiled by water. Maybe something rough and without much detail can be cast from plaster in a gelatin mold, but then you will have to somehow clean the surface of the plaster cast from fragments of sticky gelatin.

In general, I liked the fact that this homemade silicone mold allows you to make castings from epoxy resin. While there is a lot of fuss with acid (assembly), and aspic is still expensive. Another positive feature of such gelatin forms is that they can be adjusted with a hot spatula, that is, if there is an unnecessary hole somewhere on the form, you can simply cover it up by melting a fragment of this gelatin mass in a spoon. You can also easily melt and refill old molds into new ones. I remember how much I tinkered with this radiator, although with the help of this gelatin mold, it could have been copied even faster and with better quality. Of course, there are also disadvantages: this mold is afraid of water and temperature (it melts), so if excessive heating occurs in a massive epoxy casting, the mold may simply float along with the resin.

Afterword 1

After some time, I tried to polish this epoxy crystal to find out exactly whether it was cloudy in bulk or only superficially. I also created a separate page about hand polishing epoxy, in case anyone is interested. The results of polishing, of course, were not particularly impressive, because I had never really polished the resin myself. But some shine still appeared on this pebble, this is especially noticeable in the video that I added at the end of that topic. In general, epoxy castings in gelatin molds turn out cloudy only on the outside, at least for me, so keep this in mind if you want to cast something in such a mold.