Is anyone making silicon molds for customers?

[Andrew_Dysonian]

Just what is the rate for a Silicon Mold? Is there a market for it?

[SOC3D]

I charge by the gram of material + a $5 mold fee. I’ve never had anyone order an actual mold just the casts.

[lrdesign3d]

You have experience with silicone molds ? Have any uses for this, but only when you need to replicate several piece you normaly use. Could have market if you have any part to play on a larger scale , or a part in other material besides plastic 3D printed.

The rate depends your cost of the materials, not just the silicon, you time and the complexity of the piece you will make, if this mold is just one part, or bipartite…

[Andrew_Dysonian]

Yes i have been making multi-part molds off of 3d printed models for carbonfiber sheets/resin fabrication. Mostly high-end mods/electronic cigarette. Low volume prototype/concept… yes labor intensive but less than cnc molds.

[lrdesign3d]

everything depends the necessity of production, if the custumer needs the mold, not the piece, he probably knows about it because knows how to work with casting. I said several pieces, but could be just 5, if the 3d printed part takes 25hours to print, you could make the mold and the final casting in lass time. I think the market looks more for the final parts and not, to the mold to reproduce, but have lot of people working if this to making films efects, prototype… becouse when you have the mold you coud reproduce te piece in another material and this is the interesting about the mold. but it does not last forever mold, depending on the quality of the silicone with only 100 pieces, the quality is not good already, of course, CNC molds is on another level.

[myselfhimself]

For those caring about 3d printing for food moulding:

I use RTV-3428 (there are other FDA-approved RTV-silicones) and “Amazing” / “Sillicreation” silicons over PLA-printed stuff, sometimes dental silicon for workshops because of short curing time.

Here is more about being food safe when printing: https://all3dp.com/food-safe-3d-printing-material-filament-plastic/

Silicone food-safe 3d printing is coming soon… See https://www.aceo3d.com/ for example in Germany.

I really cannot comment on the price, because I have been prototyping mostly without looking so much at it, just look at Amazon. For a 50g PLA, you may want 1-5€ silicon.

[Aad_Koene]

We, at Koekjessteker.nl, print with foodsafe PLA and PETG ans also make foodsafe silicon molds.
Price depends on the complexety of the positive, if the positive is already a STL-file we charge only the costs per gram + the cost for the silicon mold.

Aad Koene,
Koekjessteker.nl
Aad’s Hub.

[Cal25]

Hi SOC3D, do you mould platinum catalyzed Silicone in various hardness? I was after something elastomeric which could compress and make a tight seal.

[lrdesign3d]

The better market to silicon mold is if you make parts from this mold to sell. So you can reduce de cost your production. I use when my clients request a large production, normally above 100 units.

[SOC3D]

Yes.

[Cal25]

Excellent. Do you have an example of this density?

[SOC3D]

Material Density is adjustable. We can change the hardness and density with different fillers the same way you do in thermoplastics for 3D Printing.

[Cal25]

Wow, so silicone shell with a more elastic filler? Is this easy/quick to do in 3D or is injection or vacuum casting a better way to go for 100+ parts?

[SOC3D]

It depends on a few hundred variables. In a lot of cases open air casting is the best solution, in a lot of cases printing is the best solution, etc. We generally look for the best fit for each application.