Plaster Master guide to home business                                    Work at Home pg 11

   Starting your own statuary business    

Making Production Molds    

Mix up another batch of backup shell material.

Apply the gypsum and fiberglass mixture to the rubber mold and backup shell that you just soaped.  Put  on a layer about 3/8 to 1/2"  thick. Follow the same procedure as you did for the first half . Work it into all the crevices.

You can see the one inch long strands of fiberglass in the photo to the right. The types of gypsum that would make a good backup shell  are White HydroCal, FGR -95 HydroCal, or TufCal.

"I'm still standin' after all this time"

Well here it is! After all we did to it, this mold actually stands up on the foot we made. Are we amazing or what? The board is still on top of the rubber where the cast hole is. Place a level on top of the mold.  If your mold is not level add plaster to the bottom of the foot to level it. After the mold shell has been opened the board can be stripped from the rubber.

Hold'n  'em  t'gether with:
Bolts

You may drill ¼"  holes for bolts to hold the two shell halves together as you did on the original mold. When you have a number of small molds to assemble and disassemble the use  of bolts slows down production. I have borrowed a clamping system from the ceramic hobby mold industry which immensely shortens set up and demolding time.

Rubber Bands

They use special heavy rubber bands made to hold molds together or universal banding straps to hold their molds together. This quick and simple system is a timesaver for small molds such as this. 

Straps

Medium or large molds may still require bolts to hold the shell halves together depending on the shape of the molds.

Pry the Mother Open
Insert a knife blade in the seam line and pry open the two halves of the mother mold.  Don't cut the latex rubber mold inside. If you did your work right one shell half should fall right off.

See how easy that was! Pull and tap the other shell half until you work it loose.  I truly hope you filled in those undercuts that you were debating whether or not needed filling.

The mother mold is open and the rubber is completely free of the backup shell (mother mold).  The model is still inside the rubber although the board is off the bottom. To remove the latex mold peel the rubber back and pull it  off the model.

Scrub the mold inside and out with warm soapy water. Usually the first casting will clean out any small bits of plastiline or shellac remaining. Some denatured alcohol rubbed on with a rag or brush will remove stubborn spots.

Now Make a Bunch More

Repeat this backup shell process on all the rubber molds you have made.

Congratulations you are now a latex mold maker.

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