Casting Drawer Pulls

[crokett]

I've been experimenting with making wands. I made several as gifts this year. I'll let you know what the kids think.

My wife suggested I added drawer pulls to them as finials to make them seem a bit more 'magical'. she was right. I was thinking about acrylic finials. I'm wondering about using a couple of the pulls as forms to make molds for casting to cut down on turning/production time.

I'd cast them with the pull vertical so that the wide part of the pull at the top. Do I need a two-piece mold or is silicone flexible enough that I could pull the narrow neck of the pull over the narrow part with the screw hole in it? Or, could I just pour the mold inside something like PVC and cut one side of the mold open to get the drawer pull out? with a new pour just put the mold back in the pvc. I know I'd need to attach a dowel or somesuch to the pull to create a hole to pour acrylic into.

I could create a tenon in the mold for attaching to the wand before turning, that way final fitting, polishing, etc is all done on the lathe.

 

[crokett]

I found some videos. I'm going to make a 2 part mold. It never occurred to me the easiest way to make a 2 part mold is pour one part, then when it cures pour the other part. I'm also going to start with a round pull, like a marble only because if I want to ever do embedments or cast clear with something inside I have the space to do it.