DIY Silicone Injection Molding

[@11danzizzle11]

The ol' can crusher coming in clutch, with some beefy upgrades. Despite reading the title and watching this I couldn't for the life of me figure out why your resin was so thick...Then I finally realized it's still early for me leaving me feeling like a big dumb dumb. Great video, its always super fun seeing people repurpose tools for making and the creative process!

[@The3DHandyman]

Very understandable. Let's just say little to none of this channel's content was developed in the morning :)

[@justinmurphy2227]

I kept noticing your "depth stop" attachment on your drill. Not knowing you had a Thingiverse life...lol....or that these were even 3D printed to begin with, I set out searching for one that looked like yours. Using Google images all I could find were pics of "collars" and there it was.....a pic of yours! I clicked it and boom. I actually laughed out loud when I realized you had printed it yourself....I'm guessing designed as. Thank you so much. You're an amazing asset to the DIY community and I will do all I can to help you be found.

[@The3DHandyman]

Haha! Great story! The depth stop was probably only mentioned in the desk build video that I designed it for but it has be used a hundred times since then. It's easily one of my most useful prints so far. Any help getting the channel noticed would be fantastic! Thanks for that.

[@justinmurphy2227]

And damn.....there it is in the description!!!!

[@Crits-Crafts]

That ingenious

[@JohnJones-oy3md]

I have to ask - where on earth did you find that huge syringe? I don't like shots, but I REALLY don't want a shot from that! LOL

[@The3DHandyman]

The internet of course! It's full of terrifying things, haha. I think these may have been marketed with some sort of agricultural use in mind.

[@anime_reference]

I'm not a huge fan of the "no voiceover" video style for projects like this, but you did make a neat thing

[@The3DHandyman]

Thanks! For this series I tried to keep the voiceovers to videos that needed detailed explanations. The next video up is "how to make prototype packaging". That needed a VO. Far too much info to communicate through text on the screen. Otherwise this channel is still pretty young and I'm trying to find out what people like most. I hope you enjoy the rest of this series VOs or not!

[@Boblol126]

does excess silicone bond to the rubber stopper inside the syringe after use?

[@The3DHandyman]

Yes, but with stretchy material it's easy to pull it out and cut it off. If the rubber stopper was a different non-bonding material, then it wouldn't. I just used a hunk of identical material for the stopper.

[@chessewhiz527]

Inspired by this video I just injection molded some silicone with a syringe, but then I found your other video in which you use a vacuum to pull the casted material into the mold. I'm wondering which method you have found to be best, or if the best method is dependent on the material being cast.

[@The3DHandyman]

For viscus materials, I would go with this method. The vacuum casting options is great for low viscosity materials only. There were specific moments in the rubber mold making process that I would put the mushroom master mold into the vacuum chamber but that was only to pull a few small bubbles out of the gills of the mushrooms, then I would force more rubber into the mold to push those bubbles out. Hopefully that makes sense. Point being that vacuum casting this stuff in the mold can sometimes ruin the rubber pour by making large bubbles and it can overly complicate when low working-time materials are used. In the end, it's all an experiment until you get the result you are looking for. How did the syringe casting work for you?

[@chessewhiz527]

The syringe casting worked well. I hand injected as this was a single small mold for some proof of concept testing. I now have a can crusher on order to be able to do larger molds without killing my grip.

[@The3DHandyman]

@@chessewhiz527 Nice. A locking strap worked really well for the can crusher as well. It will keep the pressure on without having to do anything.

[@ivaylodoshkov3128]

awesome video. How do you prevent the mushroom from moving inside the shell while pouring the silicone?

[@The3DHandyman]

Thanks! The mushroom is held in place by a snug fit (a peg in a round hole). There is one mold in particular the is a little loose. I use a small piece of tape to make the mushroom stem a little thicker to prevent it from rotating.

[@The3DHandyman]

There are 6 videos in this series! 1: Intro kzbin.info/www/bejne/h4qbYqGie7CGnpo 2: Casting clear resin mushrooms kzbin.info/www/bejne/gnzXXmCBas93h5I 3: Casting Cement Pots kzbin.info/www/bejne/p5qrZ4uga6ihaZo 4: Growing Moss kzbin.info/www/bejne/n3LRZZShrtx5rK8 5: Prototype vacuum formed packaging kzbin.info/www/bejne/imnFnmt9q6xmis0 6: DIY silicone injection machine kzbin.info/www/bejne/iWq3h6aofZt4mMU I hope to make more specials like this in the future, so be sure to back The 3D Handyman on Patreon! www.patreon.com/the3dhandyman

[@AsbestosCrisis]

Awesome build! What do you think the advantage of having the injection molder is vs using the traditional approach of pouring into the mold then using the pressure pot? Was it to get the Silicone in faster on the small cavaties?

[@The3DHandyman]

Thanks! The outer mold was designed to replace the "fill up a tub with rubber" approach for casting. Rubber is expensive (this saves about $50 worth of silicone). A thin walled mold can also make for easier part extraction. I couldn't fill the outer mold from the top side because of how narrow the top is and how viscus the material is. It worked really well to pump it in from the bottom. The product also requires a set of more traditional parts that I use the standard method for. Mushrooms are just really complex parts to cast and this method solves a lot of issues I encountered with degasing.

[@AsbestosCrisis]

@@The3DHandyman Thanks for the thorough reply! Good point about having the thin walls to reduce cost, and ease of de-molding. The digital mold definitely helps get accurate results, and time saving on making containers the traditional way. Keep up the great work!

[@The3DHandyman]

@@AsbestosCrisis Any time! The design process for these was a lot of fun and I'm happy to share what I learned. There should also be more videos on this subject in the future. Most of my time is going in to fulfilling orders for these castings. Should be back to making videos some day soon!

[@marcusmarcusk830]

Which silicone are you using here?

[@medyk3D]

That syringe 😱

[@The3DHandyman]

I feel like this is going to be the #1 comment on this video. Lol

[@medyk3D]

​@@The3DHandyman For sure. It's ridiculously big, thing's from nightmares...

[@The3DHandyman]

@@medyk3D Maybe I should make a new thumbnail with Michael Myers holding a 500cc syringe... Halloween is coming.

[@medyk3D]

@@The3DHandyman That should increase view rate :)

[@marcins5584]

what kind of silicone is it?

[@The3DHandyman]

Sorta clear 18 from Smooth-On. Shore 18A hardness. It works well but doesn't last very long. Maybe 10 castings before the rubber is to degraded to use. I'll do a video on this in a couple months.

[@marcins5584]

@@The3DHandyman cool, I like your channel, it fits with the stuff I do to

[@The3DHandyman]

@@marcins5584 Awesome