Monday, May 9, 2011

Making Your Own Silicone Mold



I love working with silicone molds because of the removal ease. When E. told me he wanted a Lego birthday party, I was on the hunt for some Lego brick molds. The only place that I could find them was on ebay for a highly inflated price. I would need to buy a couple of molds, and in the end, have to worry about the temperature (since the molds only work in temperatures less than 140 degrees). Even so, I was ready to click the "buy it now" button on ebay until I read a post on making your own Lego mold on instructables.

It wasn't until I did a little more research and found a local supply store that sold food grade silicone that really prompted me to make the leap and try making my own mold.  Amazon also sells the exact same Smooth-Sil 940 kit as well now.  I wanted food grade silicone because I knew I wanted to pour chocolate and make gummies from that mold. I ended up buying Smooth-Sil 940. There are other options you can find online like Copyflex, which I would have preferred to use because of the 1:1 ratio, but I was impatient and wanted to start right away, opting for what was available in the store. The Smooth-Sil 940 has a 10:1 ratio so a little math is in order when calculating how much you will need of each item.



Each package comes with two parts, Part A and B. You need 10 parts A to 1 part B.



I started making my Positive for my mold. I placed all the lego pieces that I wanted on a regular base plate. I surrounded the edge with two rows of legos to contain the silicone while it hardened.



In hindsight, I had enough silicone to make an entire lego baseplate, but I wanted to play it safe and didn't want to come out short so I made it a little smaller.


Since I had no idea how much silicone I needed, I decided to get a rough estimate by measuring with some alphabet pasta I already had in my pantry.



I filled my mold and then measured in a measuring cup.



Next came the math. I had to convert the 1.5 cups into lbs since you needed to measure part A in pounds and ounces. I had to convert that to grams to get the correct amount of part B since my gram scale measures with grams for smaller amounts.



I stirred part A before measuring it out.



Next, I added part B.



I stirred the two compounds for 3-4 minutes until they were completely mixed. It was so thick that it kept breaking my chopsticks. I suggest using paint stirrers instead. I didn't have any on hand so I used some disposable chopsticks.



After my great workout, I poured my mixture into my mold. The website suggests, holding the mixture up high and pouring over only one spot, allowing the silicone to spread itself over the mold.



In the end, I had a little too much silicone, so I quickly built a mini mold so that I could make a base plate using fondant or chocolate.



I let it set for 24 hours.



Then, the fun began. I removed all the lego pieces.



The pieces just popped right out



to reveal my negative mold.



I used a razor blade to clean out the edges since the silicone had seeped through the edges of the mold. Here is my base plate mold.



I envisioned having a huge base plate at the top of the cake so that prompted me to make this mold with my excess silicone.

I can't wait to start using my mold! In the end, the silicone cost of $35 was equivalent to buying two molds on ebay, but I was able to create the exact lego pieces that I wanted and more of it so I am super happy with my decision. Imagine all the things you can make with silicone? The possibilities are endless.

30 comments:

  1. You absolutely amaze me! You are soooo creative! I love how you show the step by step procedures, too! I just might have to try this on my own! Thanks for sharing the info!!!

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  2. You'll have to tell me how it goes!

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  3. Just completed my silicone mold using Copyflex and inspired by your post. :) I am eager to uncover it in the morning! My son's 5th birthday is coming up in October so I am starting preparations. Your posts are invaluable to me as you have such great ideas! Thank you so much for sharing your brilliance!

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  4. You are absolutely welcome. Uncovering the mold is the best part!

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  5. Hi- this is a wonderful site and you have such great ideas. Thank you for sharing! I have the blue Minifig mold; I assume mine is Lego brand but mine did not come with the label. Is it not safe to use with Wilton Candy melts?

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  6. I think the blue mini figure mold should be safe because it was made for ice, correct? I bought another blue mini figure mold to make yellow mini figures for cupcakes.

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  7. would you be willing to make me one and sell it to me!?

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    Replies
    1. Sorry, I just don't have the time, but they should have some brick molds on ebay.

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    2. please, make it and sell to us :'(

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  8. Hi! Great tutorial! Do you think this would be suitable for making the legos out of fondant? Thanks :)

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    1. I think using candy melts would be easier for the mere fact that it hardens. When it does so, it is easy to pop out of the mold whereas fondant has more of the consistency of play dough so you may lose some of the details of the lego when you try removing it out of the mold.

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  9. I have a question for you, how should you start this the other way around. I mean this is negative to make cakes or even chocolade for example, but I'd like to make a baseplate out of silicone (so not for pastry).
    I think you have to do it in two steps then, or use a separate first mold material, because I think silicone into silicone will stick to eachother (or not?). Can you send me a hint (if you have one...) lexhoya@hotmail.com
    Highly appreciated in advance!

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    Replies
    1. I have no idea if silicone will stick to each other. I do know that when dried, almost any candy or chocolate that I pour into it, pops right out. Even soap and crayons so I would *think* that if you let the negative fully cure, than the positive, even with silicone should pop right out, but I have never tried it to be sure.

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  10. just wondering if the moulds made like this are safe for oven use or for use in a frypan like silicon egg rings?

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    1. The particular silicone that I used is oven safe up to 400F, but I'm not sure that you can use it to fry. I would definitely read the silicone packaging and find out before you try it.

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  11. Thank you, thank you, thank you...

    I'm doing this!!!! can't wait to get started creating a custom ice tray that I'm sure baby Miles will love when he gets older

    Hope I can find the right silicone locally.

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  12. Crafty Girl,

    I was wondering do you sell these molds? I would love to have one. Thanks for sharing.

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    1. Sorry. I made the mold purely for my the birthday party. I did notice some brick molds at Lego Land the last time I was there. The bricks are bigger than the norm, but it may be an alternative if you don't want to make your own mold.

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  13. The quality of your blogs and conjointly the articles and price appreciating.
    inficone

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  14. Did you use silicone mold release spray on the legos?

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    Replies
    1. I didn't use any sprays on the legos. The legos popped out quite easily.

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  15. Thank you for posting this project. My son loves legos and this will be another thing we can do together. I will be making this as soon as I get the materials.

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    Replies
    1. Good luck! I'm sure it will turn out fantastic.

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  16. Thanks for your post! I just finished pouring the silicone for my mold following the instructions here. I can't wait to see how it turns out! My son's birthday is this month and I know he is going to love this :)

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    Replies
    1. I'm sure it will be great! Thank you for reading!

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  17. Did you use the entire kit when making this? I am looking at purchasing the exact kit you did, but I want to make more than 1 mold, or at least a very large one. If you did have more unmixed, about how many of the exact size mold you made, do you think you would get out of the 1 kit?
    Thanks so much!!

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    Replies
    1. I did have extra. I made what you see and also another one that has about 4 duplo blocks so that I could make some larger bath soap bars. The size of the duplo blocks mold was probably half the size of the mold you see in my blog. I hope that helps!

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  18. Thanks for sharing. I am trying to make one. I will make one exactly like the size you make. You mentioned that you converted the part B to grams. Would please give me the exact of your the #grams. Thank you so much. Kelly

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    Replies
    1. I honestly do not remember how many grams it came out. I am sure I used an online conversion calculator to come up with the right measurements. Good luck!

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