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Resin Prints Inhibit Curing of Platinum Cure Silicones (for mold making)

Quick note about this problem, was trying to make a silicone mold with Smooth On Mold Star and saw part of the mold didn't cure around the print. Turns out there's an curing inhibitor that needs to be coated and/or washed off. Found this good article: Preventing Platinum-cure Silicone Cure Inhibition in Resin-printed Molds

Here are the key points copied from the article:

  • I wash them properly in two baths of IPA (just like I always do): first is a dirty bath to wash most of the resin, then a clean bath. I use Mercury X and each cycle is about 10 minutes.
  • Then I do the third round of cleaning – this time in soap water. I rinse the prints properly. However, I had plenty of success without this step. It just ensures there are no uncured resin residua.
  • Then there are two recipes:
    • For any models (requires a coating solution):
      • I cure the pieces for 30 minutes in Mercury X underwater. Without water, the process doesn’t work.
      • I quickly dip dried and cured pieces into a 1% solution of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) in acetone. Once they dry, I repeat the dip. If you don’t know what PMMA is, then it is acrylic, often called plexiglass. If you have a complex model, I suggest even using a less concentrated solution with more dips so you prevent residue deposition on the surface where the acetone got stuck.
    • For thick-walled models (requires no extra equipment):
      • I cure the pieces for 30 minutes in Mercury X underwater.
      • I let them sit for at least 6 hours in the water
      • I change the water and cure them for another 30 minutes.
      • No coating in PMMA is necessary.

The underwater curing is very interesting. I've been using the same "Simple Green" bath since I first got my printer, I'm not sure what to do with it or if it needs replacing, seems to clean prints off okay still. I should get a good amount of IPA and try that out, see if it works better.

I also found that the parts of the resin print master that I sanded did not inhibit curing, so it's something on the surface of the print.

This reddit thread has a lot of comments (where I found the article), along with someone suggesting Flame Treating plastics and was successful with that

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Page last modified on October 22, 2024, at 05:03 am

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