Quest/ silicone molds & WW casting,,,

[stevers]

Question for the casters.

If I am using silicone molds that are 3/4" x 3/4" and say 5.5", do you find you can get enough PR (or alumilite) in the mold to account for impregnation, or what soaks into the wood? Say my blanks before casting are 5/8" square. Do you find that when they suck up the liquid, they loose too much and leave some of the wood exposed?

I have some molds coming and I am a little curious if I will be able to use them with worthless wood casting. Or are they basically good only for solid casts. Add to that, how about cactus? I have seen snake skins in them. Do they have that much less soak in?

Any help is appreciated.

 

[gketell]

Most WW works OK. The only time I've had problem is when I cast wood shavings. Then they ended up a little skinny with shavings sticking out the top. With PR I would say "vacuum then top off and revacuum before pressure" but with Alumilite you may not have enough time. The benefit of Alumilite is that it is water thin so it fills all the voids quickly. PR takes a while to work its way in.

GK

 

[stevers]

Thanks Greg.
Who else out there has any input? Come on guys, my molds should be here some time late this week or early the next. Picked up some great mica and pearl colors from Kathy's Coastal Scents. Cant wait to try them out. I have been using rectangular molds that force me to cast two blanks side by side instead of length wise. Can make it tough to grain match WW or match swirls in PR.

 

[JayDevin]

steve,
the only thing that I had soak up alumilite when casting was.....a sea sponge...Duh!!

other wise loofa rice ww and others you have almost no shrinkage....
some ww will float, I have used a stir stick to hold it down while the alumilite begins to harden or just put another mold on top. I have done 3 molds at a time

 

[sbell111]

In my opinion, the 'single blank' molds are good for casting around tubes, like when making snake skin blanks. While they are also good for some worthless wood projects, such as those blanks with as great deal of open area, I think that the 'slab' molds are generally better for encasing 'stuff' into PR.