3D printing molds and the benefits

A lot of people think the only way to make a mold from a 3D print is to print the positive, silicone it and create a hard outer shell. There is nothing wrong with doing it that way but there are other ways that can be very cost effective and help speed up the process as well.

We were making our molds like so (by printing a positive)

https://www.patreon.com/posts/feline-fursuit-32929203?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copy_to_clipboard&utm_campaign=postshare 

It got me thinking if I wanted to have more than let's say 4 molds this process was going to get very expensive very fast. Plus having to wait on silicone to cure and having the materials handy can sometimes be a pain. I live in florida so we have a lot of humidity issues so when you are waiting for materials to dry it can take a whole lot longer. My time is important so I wanted to figure out a way to maximize the amount of time it took me to create new molds that were ready to cast into.

Since my heads are made out of expanding foam I could get away with printing the mold and saving myself a lot of time and materials. You still get the same detail and just as easy to pull from a 3D print than it would be from a silicone mold as long as you are casting a flexible material. If you are wanting to cast resin heads or hard foam with no flex then you would not be able to use this method. The rule of thumb with molds, if the mold is hard you can only cast flexible materials. If the mold is soft like silicone you can cast both flexible and hard materials. 

The mold in the photo shows how I go about doing my 3D prints now. The first 3D printed mold I wasted a lot of filament making a giant box around the print which was not necessary. The larger the box around the print the longer the print will take to finish printing. I decided to do a "shell" in 3D around the head mold and created a box at the end of the muzzle to be able to put the head nose down while I pour expanding foam into it.

Registration points are a good idea to have. I keep them very simple by using spheres. You can make these any shape you want but have at least one if not two to make your life easier when it comes to aligning the mold.

Once the two halves are together you can see how the mold looks. Since I have a flat surface at the tip of the muzzle I can easily put this down on a table without the fear of it rolling off or trying to fit it somewhere so it stays upright.

What about mold release? We like to use melted wax and rub it on the mold itself. It is probably the cheaper/easy to find mold release and works really well. We will take a video on how to apply the mold release to get an even coat to avoid the foam sticking to the print itself.

How do we attach both sides together while the foam is curing? Usually we use duct tape or any strap that will put pressure on both sides. Duct tape along the seam helps, and since we have so much of it around why not use it.

The last part I need to finish designing and printing would be the plug that goes inside the head. The plug will be a simple shape that I can easily slip inside once the liquid foam has been poured. This will work as back pressure while leaving a mostly carved out hollow look for the head. Back pressure is very important when casting foam, this avoids all the giant bubbles you might get from the lack of it. Plus if it has a plug inside while it cures it cuts down on material cost and less time carving the head out.

Pros to printing a mold:

-Relatively cheap if you tune in your settings and know how to print (just make sure to watch how much infill you do and use PLA which is the cheapest filament around)

-Fast! Even though it can take 2 days to print a mold or at least one side of the mold depending on how you set up the printer you are also available to do pretty much anything else. Let the machines do the hard work while you focus on other projects.

-You can make molds in different sizes. If you like a design enough why not print it in different sizes without having to do a whole new siliconing process all over again.

-No need for silicone or material for the outer hard mother mold. This saves you a lot of time and money. Silicone is expensive with reason so why not save a bit in skipping this step.

-Light molds. 3D printing a mold is a lot lighter to work with and easier to handle overall since you are not working with a silicone skin and hard shell that you need to strap together.

-If your mold breaks just print another. I have had so many molds rip from overuse and it is a to do to get another mold going. By being able to print the molds (as long as you have saved the file) you don't have to worry about having to spend days working on a mold doing it the silicone way.

What if you do not have a printer. Many out there including myself offer printing services for people wanting to get these sorts of molds printed. 

What if you cannot make your own mold or do not know how to work in 3D? Not the end of the world, you can commission these services from me, I open a few times a year for them :). This includes the design, the printed mold, the file and the rights to sell the expanded foam bases.

Cons:

-You need a 3D printer or need someone with one.

-You can only cast flexible materials (such as expanding foam or latex) Resin will not work with this method.

Will be working on a video tutorial on how to make the mold from an already made 3D sculpt. This way you can follow along and create your own molds at home with the file you have in hand. I will be doing the tutorial using Zbrush (I have the full version of zbrush which the free version does not have all the features you will see in the tutorial) and Meshmixer (Which is a free program).

If you are curious on the main printer I do most of my prints on I highly recommend these. Not just because they are relatively inexpensive for everything they do, but really easy to use and maintain.

https://www.anycubic.com/collections/anycubic-mega-3d-printers/products/mega-x 

Currently have 3 of those and one Artillery sidewinder X1.

If you have any questions do not hesitate to ask.