Silicone mold tip

[rherrell]

This is for all of you who bought the FABULOUS molds from Gadget.
I have found that when you cast tubes with snakeskin or anything else if you cut the little pieces of wood that you glue to the corks so they fit tight in the mold, you don't need any weight inside the tube.
This does a couple of things. First ,it saves a step and some cash and second, if you do get a leak(knock on wood,haven't had one YET!)it should make it easier to save the blank since there won't be anything in the tube,except resin, to drill out. Works for me!

 

[OKLAHOMAN]

Great tip. Thanks alot..[]

 

[Gadget]

Thanks for the great reviews, I love using these molds myself and if you want to see what rherrell is talking about I have a picture of that setup under personal clasifieds look for silicone casting molds.

 

[Mudder]

Originally posted by rherrell
<br />This is for all of you who bought the FABULOUS molds from Gadget.
I have found that when you cast tubes with snakeskin or anything else if you cut the little pieces of wood that you glue to the corks so they fit tight in the mold, you don't need any weight inside the tube.
This does a couple of things. First ,it saves a step and some cash and second, if you do get a leak(knock on wood,haven't had one YET!)it should make it easier to save the blank since there won't be anything in the tube,except resin, to drill out. Works for me!

Another tip:

If you CAREFULLY coat the inside of the tube with petroleum jelly the resin will not stick if there is a leak. I use waxed paper to roll the blank in and then use a cotton swab to coat the inside of the tube with the petroleum jelly.

Another method is to coat the inside of the tube with petroleum jelly and then clean off the outside of the tube with acetone or another suitable solvent before gluing on your skin or what have you.

Seems like a lot of work for a leak that may not happen but if you take the time to carefully fit a nice piece of snakeskin to a tube, cast it up, and then discover that you have to drill it out you might consider the prep time to be worth it.