Beau Nidle said:
Well, I haven't used it yet, but for a very specific reason. One is that it requires a gram scale for mixing, mixing by volume is a no-no with mold max. The other is that most of the variations of it require a vacuum degasser. If you were to mix a batch up and pour it over your original, there's a good chance that all the air bubbles trapped inside will stay there, weakening the mold, and worse still, if any happen to come into contact with what you're molding, when you pull your first cast you could find it has lots of little bubbles all over it.
Mold max stroke does not mention the need for degassing anywhere in the tech bulletin, so I would guess that that would be fine for using, and would be the only one I would recommend for exactly this reason. You do still need a gram scale to mix it though. So it's not that it's not good stuff, it just requires equipment that the average hobbyist may not have in his garage. Overall, they work out to about the same price. You get a little over half as much of the mold max stroke as you do of the rebound, and it is also a little over half the price of the rebound.
Hope that helps a little. I do plan on using the mold max stroke in the future once I get a couple of things sculpted, so I'm not recommending anything that I haven't researched thoroughly myself.
rube said:
Brush on rubbers don't need degassing since bubbles are broken as you brush. You do need to be careful not to introduce air pockets by moving your brush too fast and folding the rubber over itself though. If you are planning to keep the mold for more a couple of years go with a platinum rubber. I'd just bite the bullet and go with Rebound, you'll find something to do with the remainder.
That's kinda what I was afraid of. The only thing that really concerns me was the bubble problem, which would present serious issues with recasted components.
I do have a gram scale, so that part wasn't actually an overt concern to me.
Time wise, I don't really think I want to hold onto the mold for a particularly long stretch of time. Maybe 6 months or so. If I feel the need to make a longer lasting mold, I'll just buy a gallon of Rebound-25 when I have money. I'm pretty much a high school student living on a limited budget, so I'm pretty much willing to sacrifice everything excluding quality for the sake of saving money.
Since I don't want to sacrifice quality, it's the reason I have this thread.
From what I've seen, the molds will pull a high amount of detail, and can be used the same way we recast helmets, so use-wise, it seems ok.
From what I understand from Rube and Beau Nidle, the only thing I need to look out for is the bubbles, right? Like Rube said, that may be solve-able by brushing carefully. Now, Smooth-On has something called Thi-Vex, which I can only assume is thixotropic additives for thickening the molds for most of Smooth-On's silicone rubbers (excluding Mold Max 40 and 60). Thi-Vex is what would be used to make most of the Mold Max varieties brushable.
There's also a variety of Mold Max called STROKE, which is brushable Mold Max, and it sells for roughly the same price. Aside from issues regarding longterm use and durability, can anyone think of any potential issues that would come from using it? I would think, that since the STROKE series is meant for brushing, the bubble issue would be resolved.
