RTV Silicon and Resin advice

[blu58spider]

I like 1/43 for a lot of reasons, but many of the cars I'd like aren't available w/out some scratch building. Lots of choices in die cast but metal is kinda heavy for a slot car body -- so I want to cast some resin bodies for the track :)

I'm wondering what type of RTV Silicon for the molds and what casting resin's you guys have had good luck with? Any pros and cons of the types you've tried? I don't mind a little trial and error, but if you have any advice that would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

John

[LloydL]

Where are you located John, that would affect the choice of Silicone and resins.

regards, Lloyd

[blu58spider]

I am in the Washington State, in the NW part of the US.

Thanks!

[Tsooko]

John
I have been casting for years now and only use Smooth-on products. Oomoo-30 for the mold making silicone rubber and Smooth Cast 300 series resins. The resin can be gotten in different " setting times " which determine the time you have to pour the resin into the mold before it sets in the mixing cup and how long you have to wait before you can pop the cast out of the mold. I started with a fast resin and now am using #305.
#305 will give you a pot life of 7 minutes and a demold time of a few hours. Plenty of time to degass the resin in a vacuum chamber and/or get the mold into a pressure pot. Of course you do not need either devices to get a good cast. Both will help to eliminate air bubbles. Remember your cast time will get shorter when the ambient temperature is warmer, like in the summer.
You can google Smooth-on and I believe there is a distributor close to you in Washington. They have a distributor finder feature on their website. There are also lots of videos on you tube.
Starter kits are in the $25.00 to $30.00 dollar range so one of the silicon and one of the resin will be in the $50 - $60 dollar range. This will give you four or five molds and 15 to 30 casts, perhaps more.
There is no Trial and Error with smooth-on products.

Casting is a great way to get the car you can't find but want to have. I use Diecast models, Plastic models for bucks to make my molds but some guys carve their cars out of wood.

Hope this helps.
Cheers Ted

[blu58spider]

Thank you, Ted,

That's exactly the kind of information I was looking for!

Cheers!

[Datto]

The Smooth-on products are a good way to go, they have so much information on line, downloadble instructions, and so-forth. Ted uses the Oomoo, I've been using the mold-star 30 lately because of its longer pot-life (30 minutes work time) The oomoo is cheaper though, and since it's a tin-based RTV it's compatible with more materials. The Resin I use is from another company, Silpak, in Southern Cali.

[LibertyFLHTC]