
Metamolds: Creating ideal 3D printed silicone molds faster and cheaper - ceoloide
http://www.3ders.org/articles/20180903-metamolds-creating-ideal-3d-printed-silicone-molds-faster-and-cheaper.html
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syntaxing
It would be great to try the algorithm out if they ever release the code. I've
made molds through "traditional" CAD software like Solidworks and the process
takes about 30 min. It works pretty well for the typical stuff but I have not
tried it with something with a lot of organics shapes like a figurine. The
biggest downside about silicone casting though is that its super messy. The
costs adds up too since you either need a small vacuum chamber for the
silicone or you have to buy the more expensive variant with platinum in it.

Side note: If any one is looking for a lowcost (~$500) "SLA" (it's really UV
DLP) printer, you can go for the Anycubic Photon[1]. It should be good enough
to make a master pattern without the visible layer lines. A caveat though, the
resin based prints are super messy and is a pain to use.

[1] [https://all3dp.com/1/anycubic-photon-3d-printer-
review/](https://all3dp.com/1/anycubic-photon-3d-printer-review/)

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bochoh
I'd be concerned about layer lines ending up in my final molds. If you look
closely they'll end up in your final cast repeatedly. Perhaps this would be
best accomplished with a resin type 3d printer to minimize the issue.

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mdorazio
You've got several options here, none of them great.

1) Use a resin printer and print the meta-molds at very high resolution, then
lightly sand with high-grit paper or use a gap filling primer paint.

2) Use ABS, HIPS, or another acetone smoothable plastic and vapor bathe the
meta-molds (would probably slightly mess up the split lines though).

3) Use a paint-on epoxy to manually smooth out the meta-mold interiors.

4) Manually sand as best as you can.

The normal process for this would be to print the 3D model you want and then
do a bunch of post-printing cleanup and treatment to get it to mold-ready
quality, then cast a silicone mold of that. It's not super fun, but you can
get good results without years of practice.

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virtualritz
Re.: 1) The latest generation of 'cheap' DLP printers can do 25 micron (e.g.
the Phrozen Shuffle). After curing, dipping in resin again or priming and then
coating with 2-3 layers with an airbrush results in a perfect surface finish.
No sanding required.

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mdorazio
Are you actually getting a perfect surface finish that way? My Phrozen Make
printing at 20 microns leaves noticeable lines and definitely requires cleanup
around support attachment points. I tried doing the second dipping method and
ended up with melty details on finer parts of prints. The only thing I haven't
tried is sandblasting.

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virtualritz
The Make can't do 20micron. It can do about 47 max (or rather, min), I think.

Re-read my post: I was talking about the Phrozen Shuffle which has a different
screen/display unit.

Check the FB group for some 27micron examples done with the Shuffle.

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cannedslime
Where can I get this?

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juliendorra
It’s a research paper so most probably there won’t be any software delivered.
Sadly it’s not the norm for researchers to release the code or an user-
fronting application when doing computing research (or any research). Open
source exist but is even rarer.

There’s dozens of very useful and advanced creation tools created in labs that
never turned into usable application. In some domains big players pick up on
the research and include it as a feature, but many advances just stay in labs
for ever.

The rare one that are released as usable applications by the authors are most
of the time not supported and end up abandoned—quite similar from many non-
research software in that respect, but a little more sad as they are often
more unique, like for example the free-form plush creation tool from a
Japanese lab I remember from several years back.

The most irritating is when tax-money funded labs don’t incentivize their
researchers to open source their code, and we end up with a innovative
software tool, closed source and with proprietary licenses, that is
effectively only the research playground of one researcher, mimicking a
product but never really turning into a product.

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mcphage
> It’s a research paper so most probably there won’t be any software
> delivered. Sadly it’s not the norm for researchers to release the code or an
> user-fronting application when doing computing research (or any research).
> Open source exist but is even rarer.

> There’s dozens of very useful and advanced creation tools created in labs
> that never turned into usable application. In some domains big players pick
> up on the research and include it as a feature, but many advances just stay
> in labs for ever.

I call papers like that "Show & Tell"—it's not science, it's just "hey look at
this cool thing I did". Which, yeah, it's cool, but as a paper it's completely
useless.

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candiodari
But 3d printing is not food safe, so using this method for chocolate molds
seems unwise.

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lurquer
The molds are not 3D printed. Rather, the molds for the mold are. The actual
molds used in production are silicon, obtained after pouring silicon into the
3D mold-of-the-mold.

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jcims
FWIW mold for a mold is usually called a pattern

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yetihehe
Pattern is the object you want to have produced. Metamold is a mold which
gives you mold which then can produce your pattern.

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jcims
Ah! My mistake. Thank you.

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0x17A
Can you make silicone sex dolls with that?

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shaftway
[http://makerlove.com/](http://makerlove.com/)

