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Question for diy toymaking: silicone material

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Plummbum, Jul 6, 2021.

  1. Plummbum

    Plummbum Active Member

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    Hi all!

    I've started a project of making my own toy and I've been reading various guides and discussions on the topic but most seem to refer to casting the toys in smooth-on silicone, but I'm wondering about options for us European based folks. Granted, you can import smooth-on to here as well, it just seems way more expensive.

    I understand you need to look for body-safe silicones, but when I read about various silicone products, I get the impression that they mostly mean body-safe in the sense that they can be applied to skin while setting/hardening, not so much that the end product is safe for bodily insertions :) So I'm basically wondering if you need to find something specific with details on "body-safeness" or if the majority of platinum cure/additive cure silicones tend to be safe when fully cured?

    One option I've been looking at is Wagnersil products, https://www.zahntechnikshop.de/Laborprodukte/en/WAGNERSIL-Duplicating-silicone. These seem to be targeting dental applications, so to me it sounds like they should be pretty safe. Anyone heard of this product or any other options? In the end I could also just shoot them an email and ask about it, but thought I'd check for more options first :)

    Thanks for reading!

    Cheers,
    Plumm
     
  2. EntroP

    EntroP Well-Known Member

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    Hey, I too have dabbled in making toys myself, and used these silicones: https://www.silikonfabrik.de/silikone/sf-silikon.html

    They say "the products made from this silicone are suitable for direct contact with skin or mucous membrane", I think that's what you should be looking for. They didn't cause any issues for me, and I've been using the toy I made with it for years now^^ I'll warn you though: If you don't have a vacuum chamber, your toy will most likely have bubbles in it. If I was serious about making a high quality toy I'd definetely get a cheap vacuum pump. Also don't cheap out on the release agent, I used vaseline and while it did the job, it left patterns on the toy because it didn't spread evenly. I think a spray would be much better there.

    If you speak German, there's an AMA that was done a few days ago on reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/de_IAmA/comments/o8wap5/ama_ich_stelle_fantasy_sextoys_als_hobby_her/ He mentions kaupo.de as another source for silicone and silicone accessoires, could look into that as well.

    If you have any more questions, feel free to ask them here or PM me.
     
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  3. Plummbum

    Plummbum Active Member

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    Heya, thanks for the great pointers!

    I found those as well and I've also heard of kaupo, but a bit harder for me to browse since I don't speak much german :) But in the end, it seems it won't be much cheaper than Smooth-on's Dragon Skin, seems you can buy 0.9kg for just over 40€ from FormX: https://www.formx.eu/molding--casti...n-skin-series/dragon-skin-10-slow---09-kg.php So maybe this is the sort of price to expect for silicone.

    Regarding bubbles, so I've heard. But do they mess up the surface a lot, or is it more on transparent stuff that will look bad? I might consider a pressure chamber since I've been thinking of some resin projects as well, but I thought I'd at least give a try on casting the mold first and see how that goes without one. Still need to finish the sculpt anyway... This hobby project I'll take slow and not spend on any steps before I am actually there :D

    Now while writing this I couldn't help start googling. This looks so incredibly DIY that it must work, at least for the pressure chamber? And can you achieve 1 bar/100kPa pressure with a hand pump? I feel like this will spiral out of control for me soon :D

    Anyway, thanks again! Cheers
     
  4. EntroP

    EntroP Well-Known Member

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    I've heard about Dragon Skin as well, but Shore A10 is firmer than BDs firm, keep that in mind.

    Here's a firmness comparison chart (OO is another Shore scale that goes lower than the A-scale I believe) https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...qYC5MCIhBlLpp61ISwxM-kc6c/edit#gid=1503171235

    I used the SF13 and the SF00 from silikonfabrik mixed in a 1:1 ratio and it turned out a tad harder than BD medium. As for not using a vacuum chamber: I tried multiple times, I tried mixing and pouring in super slow motion, I tried bumping the cast so the bubbles would rise and leave the toy, it all didn't help. The lower 90% of the toy would be mostly fine (at least the surface), but the upper surface would always be covered in bubbles. If your design works with that limitation and you don't care about the aesthetics, you can get away with not using a vacuum. But I tried making eggs and they all had bubbles that made them a nightmare to clean so I would just stop using them. If I ever planned on making another toy, I would for sure not make it without a vacuum chamber. I don't know how strong it would have to be though, that's another thing waiting to be figured out^^

    >I feel like this will spiral out of control for me soon

    There's a lot of work that goes into a well-made fantasy toy, trust me. Don't even get me started on the molds!
     
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