How to Make a Two-Part Mold (of a Lightsaber!)
Frank Ippolito joins us at Adam’s shop for another step-by-step tutorial in prop making. This time, we learn how to make a two-part silicone mold that we can use to cast resin copies of complex objects. We demonstrate the technique by duplicating a lightsaber prop made by Adam! It’s not that difficult! (This video was brought to you by Premium memberships on Tested. Learn more about how you can support us by joining the Tested Premium community!)
Video shot and edited by Joey Fameli
Music Library provided by Jingle Punks
Thanks to Smooth-On for providing materials for this video
41 thoughts on “How to Make a Two-Part Mold (of a Lightsaber!)”
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How sad will Norm be when he see’s that the video doesn’t have any lightsabre effects? =(
Furthemore, excellent video!
Cool how-to! Easy to understand and Frank’s knowledge of these processes is always impressive. Molding and casting parts always seemed daunting to me, but I might try this sometime now (when I finish building my workshop! )
And for us Tested readers that are using metric, Frank’s equation using centimeters instead of inches works out to: (L*W*H) *1.13 = weight of silicon in gr.
Hah! I just completed my first two-part mold, thanks to Frank (and Smooth-On’s great starter kit)!
I’ll pour resin into it tonight (or tomorrow, if life gets in the way).
Loving these Frank how-to videos.
I used plasticene, so it was MUCH more time consuming to do the initial clay-up (bottom half), but the de-clay was SUPER fast. Fortunately, there was a sealant included in the sample kit, along with a de-molding agent.
BTW, this is a GREAT video, Norm, Frank, & Joey!
Hey, how can I get a resin casting of this? 🙂
thanks sean!
*A
I can’t get enough of them! 😎
These are great, really enjoyed this video and felt like I learnt something, keen to go experimenting.
it’d be really interesting to see something like this lightsaber cold cast to give it the metallic effect.
You have to show the metalizing process and Adam finishing it now.
These would be a really cool thing to give away to members of the Tested community.. 😉
So much knowledge from Frank! THanks for another great video.
Frank’s videos are by far some of my favorites that are done on Tested. I can’t wait to see what else they decide to mold and cast. Great job guys!
Has Adam seen this yet? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0pnTm-KK9k
TIL Norm can’t snap his fingers properly.
My favorite Part was when Norm looks off camera to say that there will be no permanent damage from the krylon spray after the cut. Great Video, love this series, new nothing about casting, now i feel i could try it.
I’m going to shamelessly put my hand up ans say: “Give me that first casting, please” bubbles flashing and all.
As to what you can cast in silicon, I’ve been casting concrete in my brush-on molds. You can even cast wax in it that you can the use to cast bronze.
Either way, thanks a mill for this video. I loved it. give us more.
give us pictures. We want to see results!
Starwars kid allover again 🙁
I want to see that too!
Yes Adam Tweeted about the ERB video
Lets see the Fan edits of Norm and his saber!
Is it wrong that I’ve watched this video three times already today?
Great video guys! Infact, awesome!!
Norm, you really ask the right questions to bring out Frank’s wisdom! 🙂
Cool! What are you modling!?
Learned a lot from this video. These have been great! I have a lot of resin parts on my 1:1 R2-D2 cast by other club members. This gives me a bit better of an idea as to how they were made.
Joey left Norm totally out to dry and looking silly without those effects. Ha!
I’m casting replacement pieces for a board game, helping a friend. The starting pieces were done on my 3D printer, sanded, Acetoned, re-sanded, and re-Acetoned, and then molded, as seen above. I’m going to try to put some resin in it tonight, and I’ll take more pics if I can.
Couldn’t help but think it looks like a very nerdy Fleshlight. New item for the Tested store? ….I’ll show myself out.
The Fleshsaber, I’m sure Disney would love that :p
Great work guys. I run a photo booth business and this would be a great way to replenish my stocks of broken and stolen props! Perhaps these would be more resilient.
some relevant pieces of info that i didn’t hear discussed in this video:
– when doing the clay-up and using oil clay make sure that the clay does not have sulfur in it. While it might not react poorly with silicone it WILL react poorly with urethane rubber.
– if you don’t have a vacuum chamber to evacuate the air bubbles you can pour the mold material from like 3 feet from the mold box and in a thin stream. what happens is that if there are any bubbles in the mold material they’ll get stretched and popped in the long thin stream.
– When you pour the mold material in the mold box it’s best if you pour to the side of the pattern and allow the natural level seeking nature of liquid flow around and over the pattern. this avoids artificially adding air pockets which pouring directly over the pattern might cause.
– when calculating the volume of the mold box plus the embedded pattern to measure out the mold material (some mold material will go by volume instead of weight) you can use uncooked rice to approximate the needed volume. Simply pour the rice into the mold box to the desired depth that you want the mold material to be. then pour out the rice into your measuring bucket and ta-da! you have a pretty accurate approximation of the volume of mold material you need to mix. this takes out the guess-work when it comes to trying to figure out how much material your pattern displaces. This also works when you’ve finished your mold and need to know the volume of the pattern so that you can accurately mix the right amount of casting material so you don’t end up short or with too much of a surplus.
while not a tip i gotta say I’ve never seen anyone spray paint the pattern with clear coat considering they sell mold releases that can be washed off with some soapy water. That seems ill advised especially if it’s something you wanna keep and especially if it’s something that has paint on it that might be removed by rubbing it down with rubbing alcohol. If it’s just a bunch of MDF and styrene and you don’t care about the pattern too much after molding then go for it.
This was an awesome video guys, Frank is great.
I filled in the gaps….
http://youtu.be/JCslPcN2Clw
Hey Frank, what kind of glue gun are you using? I’ve been looking for a better gun than my 20 dollar mastercraft version, would you recommend yours?
thanks, those are great tips
You are awesome and I’m a big fan so please don’t take this as an insult but these videos might be better with just frank. It seems a lot like you are in the video as a commentator rather than to actually learn. These videos will be much higher quality if you are a bit less host and more student.
Looks like something got away from someone on the disk sander.
Great video, and excellent information.
I will be doing some mold making and casting soon.
This stuff can get expensive though.
This is so great! Hmm… what can I mold and cast now… *looks around the room*
Idea for the next casting: cast one or more LEDs (RGB maybe?) with flyleads wired to them inside the resin so you can make the whole thing glow. OK, it isn’t the same as a shaft of light that cuts off limbs but it could look cool to have the whole handle glowing!
I thought they were going to use the molded hand with the molded lightsaber and have it be Luke’s chopped off hand.
Awesome video once again.
Not stirring the pot, but this is where working out volumes in the metric system shines. 🙂
Awesome video once again.
Not stirring the pot, but this is where working out volumes in the metric system shines. 🙂
Guys. Check out this fella. It’s not a real light saber but it’s the closest thing we’ll have at this time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXEGlfKmspc
Can someone tell me what vacuum chamber size brand and what pump was used?