Almost everyone is familiar with such a material as silicone. Men use sealants made from this material. Women often use molds made from it for baking. Many different items are made from it. I wonder if it is possible to make silicone on your own at home, as well as forms from it? Yes, you can! Read below for information on how to do this.

What is needed to make silicone

The following materials are required:

Before you start making a rubber-like material, you need to ensure safe conditions. The work must be carried out with rubber gloves, because this material itself is very toxic.

It is also necessary to choose the right place to carry out the work. The room should be good ventilate. The ideal conditions for working on creating silicone are outdoors. But if this is not possible, then you can do the work on the balcony.

It is also worth knowing the peculiarity of the material - fast hardening. Therefore, it is recommended to produce the material in small quantities or carry out all actions quickly.

Other materials can be used to make silicone:

Place sealant in a plastic cup. Add glycerin and paint to it. To do this, it is convenient to use a pipette or straw. Add white spirit. Now you need to mix the mixture thoroughly so that the mass is homogeneous. Silicone is ready! It will remain liquid for about 4-5 hours and then harden.

First of all, to make the material you need to mix ethyl alcohol with liquid glass in equal proportions. This can be done in any plastic container. During mixing, you need to add dye to the mass according to your own preferences.

Both a wooden stick and a regular spoon are suitable for kneading. After kneading, you will get a mass resembling plasticine or rubber. It can be used in several ways in the future. For example, knead with your hands. You can also put the mixture into a regular cooking bag or syringe with the necessary attachments and squeeze out the amount that is needed. You can also use regular cookie cutters. Or another option is to cast the required shape.

Important! Repeating the shape of an object will only be possible if you apply silicone mass to the outside of the object. To put it another way, apply the mass not into the mold, but from the outside.

Another important point: before applying the rubber mass, the surface should be lubricated with vegetable oil or soapy water.

How to make a silicone mold

For this you will need special material - compound, which consists of:

• catalyst (hardening agent)
• silicone pastes.

Thanks to these components, any shape can be cast. True, this is not exactly silicone (it is more reminiscent of rubber in its properties), nevertheless.

To make an analogue in the form of a silicone mold, you need to do a number of steps:

The required silicone mold is ready!

How to make a mold on a plate

To do this you will need liquid/cast silicone.

The stages of work are as follows:

1. A plaster or foam plate must be treated with soapy water.
2. Take a brush and apply silicone to the surface.
3. Now we need to work out the details. Particular attention must be paid to the top layer.
4. Wait until the silicone dries.

Now all that remains is to remove the silicone and the required shape on the plate is ready!​

How to make a mold from silicone sealant

There are no difficulties here either. You will need any silicone sealant.

Stages of work:

You can also do this. Roll the silicone dough into a ball and press the dough into it. Align the edges. After a few hours, check whether the silicone has hardened or not. If yes, then the workpiece can be removed. The resulting form is ready!

Work very interesting with the material, especially creative people. You can do whatever you want with this material. However, if you want to use such a silicone mold for baking, then you should refuse such a desire. It is better to purchase an industrial silicone mold.

On the Internet you can find many videos that detail how to make silicone and molds with your own hands.

Polymer clay is a plastic that molds like plasticine.

Sculpture by American master of French origin Arman.

To get an original result, you only need a little.

Today there is a huge selection of flowers manufactured.

How to surprise your loved one early in the morning. I suggest.

Pipes-pots will become an original decoration for any garden. Products.

We come across silicone or polydiethylsiloxane all the time. We recommend ordering silicone products from a specialized store, but it can also be made at home from inexpensive raw materials. And many things can be made from silicone mass. Even a beginner will be able to cast and stamp interesting shapes.

So, if you are a creative person and you are attracted by the opportunity to sculpt and cast from unusual materials (by the way, this can be a good source of income), we will be happy to reveal the secrets of making silicone mass and options for its use.

What you need to know about silicone?

To work with silicone, you just need to know:

Silicone is quite heat-resistant and has low electrical conductivity;

When it comes into contact with air, the silicone mass hardens quite quickly, so it must be kneaded vigorously, quickly and in small volumes;

Objects that will come into contact with silicone so that the workpieces come off easily must be coated with a soap solution or vegetable oil.

It is worth noting that uncured silicone mass has toxic properties, so it is worth purchasing a pair of rubber gloves to protect your hands when working and doing creativity in a well-ventilated area or outdoors.

In order to obtain silicone raw materials, you do not need to spend a lot of money. It is enough to purchase a few components, the rest can be found in the house.

What do you need to have on hand to get silicone mass?

You will only have to stock up on a small arsenal:

Regular ethyl alcohol;

A set of gouache or other dyes;

Container and molds (preferably industrial);

Often you only have to buy liquid glass and ethyl alcohol; any plastic container is suitable as a container; starch can be found in almost every kitchen, and sand can be found in the yard.

When all of the above is prepared, combine the components in equal proportions. We paint the resulting mixture with gouache or other dyes according to our mood.

Let's pay a little attention to the mixing process.

You can start kneading the mass with any suitable object from any material that you do not plan to use for other purposes after that.

What options for forming silicone mass have been tested to date?

You can: form silicone with your own hands (using gloves), pour the product into a cooking bag/syringe that you don’t mind parting with, fill cookie molds with the mixture, or cast the mold you like.

How does the silicone “casting” process take place?

If you prefer to repeat the shape of the object, then apply silicone to a surface greased with soapy water or sunflower oil: on top of a vase, cup, figurine.

In some cases, it is necessary for the resulting creation to subsequently harden. To cast this shape, a compound is used. This material differs from our silicone rubber in the presence of a hardener/catalyst. Knowing the right proportions in this case decides everything: this wonderful mixture will help cast products of any shape.

Casting molds from the compound:

Find a completely intact container;

Place the greased model into it for replication;

Fill in silicone rubber;

Close the box hermetically for a while;

We check: if the silicone does not stick to your fingers, the process is complete;

Use a utility knife to cut the silicone shell lengthwise.

In a similar way, you can make molds on platinum: cover the gypsum or foam plastic platinum with a soap solution or oil, and apply silicone with a brush, working out the details. Leave to dry and remove from the mold.

For “silicone creativity” you can use silicone sealant.

How to use silicone sealant?

In this version, everything is also simpler than ever. Remember when we had to stock up on starch? We take it out and start creating: we use a plate as a container, onto which we squeeze out the sealant and mix in the starch. The result should be “rubber dough”. The “silicone + starch” mixture is great for making molds. Don't forget to lubricate the model with oil or soapy water. In order for the products to harden well, they need to be left alone longer (overnight). After hardening, in order to remove the object, cut the mold lengthwise with a stationery knife, as before. Molds can be made using frame containers or in a simplified way by rolling a ball and pressing an object into it.

To summarize, silicone or polydiethylsiloxane allows you to create and expand your own abilities exponentially. Good luck!

DIY silicone from Gelatin and Glycerin

Somewhere a couple of months ago, I came across this video on YouTube, where a man made a mold from gelatin and glycerin. I really liked the video, especially because all the components of this recipe are easily accessible and not very expensive, at least for small volumes of forms. The video itself, although in bourgeois language, is nothing special to delve into; it was enough to hear fifty-fifty, after which it became clear how much glycerin and gelatin should be mixed. Therefore, I decided to try to repeat this recipe for homemade silicone or rubber, whichever is closer.

At the nearest pharmacy and grocery store, several vials of glycerin and the same number of packets of gelatin were purchased. Here everything will depend on the size of the mold; if you want to make a mold for something large, then accordingly you will have to purchase a little more of all these components.

Mix everything approximately 50/50, that is, by eye. Experimentally, I found out that if you pour more glycerin, the mixture turns out to be more liquid and fluid. But if there is not enough glycerin, then this gelatin paste will stretch like drying Moment glue and at the same time it is difficult to stir even in a water bath, let alone pour it into a mold with a part that has complex detailing. In general, 50/50 seems to be the best option. I have not tried adding glycerin more than twice (to find out the limit at which the mixture would remain strong and not sticky after hardening).

It’s ideal to heat the whole thing in a water bath, because you don’t have to control the temperature, but you don’t always have access to a gas stove, so for now I made do with an ordinary candle. The main thing is not to let the gelatin boil, otherwise it will start to burn and smell terrible, as if you were frying some kind of animal carcass :) I heated and stirred this substance for about 10 minutes so that the mixture was homogeneous and without any lumps. There in the video he heats the whole thing in the microwave, but in order not to look for dishes for it and not to conjure with the required heating time, for now he decided to make do with ordinary heating over an open fire.

I tore this glass crystal off the chandelier for the duration of the experiment. I also bent a mold from a strip of plastic to a size slightly larger than this stone.

I poured a little of this silicone into the bottom of the mold and left it to cool to make something like a base for a stone. I decided to do this so that the thickness of this rubber would be more or less uniform on all sides of the crystal. Otherwise, if the mold is thin, it will not hold the desired shape well, moreover, it may tear when the prototype is removed from it.

After that, partially dip the crystal into a bowl of gelatin to get rid of air bubbles from the bottom of the stone. Then we quickly transfer this pebble and place it on the bottom of the mold, along with the gelatin stuck to it, as if gluing it.

Now the simplest thing is to fill the form with gelatin to the edges of the formwork.

What's good about this homemade rubber is that it hardens literally before your eyes, as soon as it cools down you can cut it. There is no need to wait a week for this form to set completely, as is usually the case with acidic construction silicone. After the mass has cooled, unwind the plastic from this cube.

We make a cut at the top and carefully remove the glass crystal from our mold.

Then mix and pour epoxy resin into the mold.

The epoxy resin casting no longer came out of the mold as easily as the glass prototype. Therefore, I had to carefully cut the mold in a circle and tear it apart so as not to scratch the epoxy crystal with a knife. I don’t know yet what this is connected with, but the casting turned out cloudy and not transparent. Either the presence of water somewhere in the gelatin mass is affecting it, or something else. On the other hand, if you cast something colored in the mass, then it will no longer have much significance.

Also, purely for the sake of experiment, I tried to cast a fragment of this stone, but from plaster (alabaster). The results were disastrous. Gelatin begins to absorb water from the gypsum and as a result, at the end we get a sticky plaster stone and a form spoiled by water. Maybe something rough and without much detail can be cast from plaster in a gelatin mold, but then you will have to somehow clean the surface of the plaster cast from fragments of sticky gelatin.

In general, I liked the fact that this homemade silicone mold allows you to make castings from epoxy resin. While there is a lot of fuss with acid (assembly), and aspic is still expensive. Another positive feature of such gelatin forms is that they can be adjusted with a hot spatula, that is, if there is an unnecessary hole somewhere on the form, you can simply cover it up by melting a fragment of this gelatin mass in a spoon. You can also easily melt and refill old molds into new ones. I remember how much I tinkered with this radiator, although with the help of this gelatin mold, it could have been copied even faster and with better quality. Of course, there are also disadvantages: this mold is afraid of water and temperature (it melts), so if excessive heating occurs in a massive epoxy casting, the mold may simply float along with the resin.

After some time, I tried to polish this epoxy crystal to find out exactly whether it was cloudy in bulk or only superficially. I also created a separate page about hand polishing epoxy, in case anyone is interested. The results of polishing, of course, were not particularly impressive, because I had never really polished the resin myself. But some shine still appeared on this pebble, this is especially noticeable in the video that I added at the end of that topic. In general, epoxy castings in gelatin molds turn out cloudy only on the outside, at least for me, so keep this in mind if you want to cast something in such a mold.

Making silicone at home: how to make it

Almost everyone is familiar with such a material as silicone. Men use sealants made from this material. Women often use molds made from it for baking. Many different items are made from it. I wonder if it is possible to make silicone on your own at home, as well as forms from it? Yes, you can! Read below for information on how to do this.

What is needed to make silicone

Before you start making a rubber-like material, you need to ensure safe conditions. The work must be carried out with rubber gloves, because this material itself is very toxic.

It is also necessary to choose the right place to carry out the work. The room should be good ventilate. The ideal conditions for working on creating silicone are outdoors. But if this is not possible, then you can do the work on the balcony.

It is also worth knowing the peculiarity of the material - fast hardening. Therefore, it is recommended to produce the material in small quantities or carry out all actions quickly.

Other materials can be used to make silicone:

Place sealant in a plastic cup. Add glycerin and paint to it. To do this, it is convenient to use a pipette or straw. Add white spirit. Now you need to mix the mixture thoroughly so that the mass is homogeneous. Silicone is ready! It will remain liquid for about 4-5 hours and then harden.

How to make silicone at home

First of all, to make the material you need to mix ethyl alcohol with liquid glass in equal proportions. This can be done in any plastic container. During mixing, you need to add dye to the mass according to your own preferences.

Both a wooden stick and a regular spoon are suitable for kneading. After kneading, you will get a mass resembling plasticine or rubber. It can be used in several ways in the future. For example, knead with your hands. You can also put the mixture into a regular cooking bag or syringe with the necessary attachments and squeeze out the amount that is needed. You can also use regular cookie cutters. Or another option is to cast the required shape.

Important! Repeating the shape of an object will only be possible if you apply silicone mass to the outside of the object. To put it another way, apply the mass not into the mold, but from the outside.

Another important point: before applying the rubber mass, the surface should be lubricated with vegetable oil or soapy water.

How to make a silicone mold

Thanks to these components, any shape can be cast. True, this is not exactly silicone (it is more reminiscent of rubber in its properties), nevertheless.

To make an analogue in the form of a silicone mold, you need to do a number of steps:

The required silicone mold is ready!

How to make a mold on a plate

The stages of work are as follows:

1. A plaster or foam plate must be treated with soapy water.
2. Take a brush and apply silicone to the surface.
3. Now we need to work out the details. Particular attention must be paid to the top layer.
4. Wait until the silicone dries.

Now all that remains is to remove the silicone and the required shape on the plate is ready!​

How to make a mold from silicone sealant

There are no difficulties here either. You will need any silicone sealant.

You can also do this. Roll the silicone dough into a ball and press the dough into it. Align the edges. After a few hours, check whether the silicone has hardened or not. If yes, then the workpiece can be removed. The resulting form is ready!

Work very interesting with the material, especially creative people. You can do whatever you want with this material. However, if you want to use such a silicone mold for baking, then you should refuse such a desire. It is better to purchase an industrial silicone mold.

On the Internet you can find many videos that detail how to make silicone and molds with your own hands.

Quite by accident, several figures fell into my hands:

I really wanted to have the same ones in my collection. And I decided to do plagiarism. Make a mold and cast such figures. Having purchased several types of construction silicone and re-read a huge pile of literature, I got to work. Maybe I did something wrong, but absolutely nothing came of it. After rummaging through foreign websites, I found what suited me: liquid two-component silicone.

The time for complete hardening is 6 hours, and the most important +, in my opinion: does not require precise weighing! Just 1:1. Another important criterion is that the finished form can be used more than a dozen times. Since I decided to buy an imported product, I also decided to buy liquid plastic. Also two-component. And also 1:1. The only thing I messed up was that I should have taken not a 3-minute one, but one with a longer polymerization time. Otherwise, it sets right before our eyes, without having time to properly fill out the form. But more on that later. Fortunately, a company was found that directly supplied supplies from the manufacturer. I paid for the order, and after 3 days I was already studying the contents of the beautiful boxes.

So. We have silicone OOOMO 30 and liquid plastic SMOOTH-CAST 300 from the company SMOOTH-ON, manufactured in the USA. These packages, as it turns out, are samples. Silicone weight 1.27 kg, plastic 0.86 kg. Shelf life is one year. Regarding the storage of tightly closed, open containers, the manager said - six months, no problem, but close tightly. Wait and see…
Both products are packaged in colorful cardboard boxes. Inside are instructions printed on an A4 sheet. It says that this silicone is intended for casting models from resin, plaster and metal. And it doesn’t shrink! But no instructions were required; on the back of each box everything is clearly and clearly depicted in the drawings. Both packages contain two plastic jars.

Silicone

Plastic

The instructions on the packaging are the same for both silicone and plastic:

After reading the instructions, I got to work. I decided to make a solid mold, in one piece, and a split one, consisting of two halves. The instructions say that the master model does not need to be treated with any release agent. Well, I didn’t grease the figures with anything.
Hitler was packaged in sculptural plasticine. The figurine is made of plastic (or polystyrene). The formwork is made of plastic cards.

Stalin is glued to a piece of glass with the same plasticine, and a formwork made of sour cream is made around him.

Preparing silicone

In two dishes, measure by eye, an equal amount of silicone (red) and hardener (gray). The manufacturer asks to shake the hardener before use, which is what we do.

Then we combine these substances into one, and we get a ready-made solution of a pleasant lilac color. Interestingly, both compositions have the same smell: a very faint smell of furatsilin solution. When stirring, you need to stir for about 3 minutes, we get the current mass. The consistency is like liquid sour cream. And fill in our forms.

The composition began to set after 15 minutes. After 3.5 hours the silicone was completely cured. But I still lasted the required 6 hours. I removed part of the mold from the Hitler figurine: from the plasticine and the figurine, the silicone lagged behind with a bang. Very pleasant to the touch, very “rubbery”, and when deformed it immediately returns to its original state. But I noticed that silicone really does not shrink, but the shape has increased somewhat in size! Outside. Once you remove the form from the formwork, you won’t be able to put it back in again.

Now you need to make the second part of the mold. We transfer the figurine to the silicone part, generously grease both the mold and the figurine with Vaseline. We make formwork and fill it with fresh mortar.

After 6 hours, we try to separate the halves of the mold from each other. And then I was very surprised. The halves are stuck together tightly! Having turned into a monolithic block of silicone, burying the figure in its depths.

Using a sharp knife, remove the figurine. It cuts frozen silicone just wonderfully. There are air bubbles in the form, but where the silicone flowed around the figure there is not a single bubble! The next time we made the molds and stirred them more carefully, bubbles were completely avoided. I tried to cast a figurine from EAF resin in this mold. I didn’t like the result, and I decided to abandon this form.

Now Stalin figurine

We make a wavy cut with a sharp knife and take Joseph Vissarionovich out into the light. The figurine is cast from plastic. It is very easy to remove. You can simply cut the shape lengthwise, but the wavy cut also serves as a lock when joining the shape.

Having made test molds, I set to work on the most interesting figure, a German relieving himself. We make the formwork, fill it with liquid silicone, and wait. The rubber has frozen. We extract the German and his head. For her, I made a separate mold without evaporation. I just cut it lengthwise. You never know, you might still need a head for modifications. All!!! The resin figurine of a German was also not treated with anything. And it also came out wonderfully from silicone.

The forms are ready, let's start printing.

I used purchased liquid plastic. Both the plastic and the hardener are almost transparent. The plastic has a slightly yellowish tint. The recipe is the same: 1:1. Stir and begin pouring into the molds.

Plastic also does not have any special chemical odors. The same furatsilin. And then only if you bring the dishes to your nose. Consistency: like water. And then I realized that I wouldn’t succeed. The plastic began to set immediately!

Strong instantaneous heating occurs. It begins to turn white, and from the inside. After 15 minutes it completely hardens. In terms of quality, the hardened plastic is very similar to EAF resin. When I remove the figures, I find that the figures have not been spilled. When studying the results of my work, I discovered that I had completely forgotten about the “whippings”! The air from the mold has nowhere to go, so you're underfilling. And the more you make, the better the figure will flow.

Redesigned the forms

Best regards, Zhenya aka AZOT.

Silicone is a soft and pliable material that is used to make molds. There is nothing difficult about making something like silicone at home from improvised materials.

How to make silicone at home - method 1

• White Spirit;
• pipette, spoon, plastic glass;
• acrylic paint;
• liquid glycerin;
• silicone sealant.

All components are mixed in the following proportions: for 30 grams of sealant, take 150 grams of white spirit, 1 drop of paint and 3 drops of glycerin.

• Place the sealant in a plastic cup.
• Add the specified amount of paint and glycerin. If you don't have a pipette at hand, you can use a straw.
• Add white spirit.
• Stir the solution until it is will not become homogeneous (paints will not should be visible).
• Ready. You now have about 5 hours to use this silicone before it hardens.

How to make silicone at home - method 2

To make silicone you will need the following components:

• ethanol;
• liquid glass.

Sequence of actions when preparing silicone:

• You need to prepare a suitable container in advance and create working conditions. The container can be any. Pour ethyl alcohol and liquid glass into it in equal proportions. Mix the ingredients with any tool (wooden stick or spoon). When the solution begins to thicken, it can be brought to the desired state simply by rubbing it with your hand. A white dense mass forms in the container, which after some time will become similar to plasticine.
• The required shape needs to be sculpted only when the mass begins to harden. There will be no problems with this, since the substance will be plastic and soft, similar to rubber. Once you have the desired shape, set it aside until it hardens completely. The silicone will harden and the mold will become less susceptible to deformation.

How to make silicone at home - method 3

Add 3 tablespoons of silicone sealant and the same amount of potato starch to a plastic cup. The resulting solution must be stirred for 7-10 minutes. When the silicone begins to easily come off your hands and knead well, you can begin making the mold, which is very simple.

How to make silicone at home - method 4

Buy several packets of gelatin and the same number of vials of glycerin. The quantity depends on the size of the mold. Everything is mixed “by eye”, approximately 50/50. Try not to violate the proportions: if there is little glycerin, the mixture will be liquid, and if there is too much, it will stick like glue. 55/50 is the best option.

All this needs to be heated in a water bath, but an ordinary candle will do. Your main task is to prevent the gelatin from boiling. Otherwise it will start to stink a lot. You need to heat and stir the substance for about 10 minutes until you get a homogeneous mixture.

How to make silicone at home - copying an object

Prepare a mold that is slightly larger than the item you are copying. Pour some silicone into the bottom and leave to harden. This will be the basis for the item. The thickness should be at least 1 centimeter so that the “rubber” reliably envelops the object from all sides. If the mold is thin, it will tear when the prototype is removed or will not hold its shape at all.

Partially dip the prototype into a bowl of gelatin to remove any air bubbles. Quickly transfer the item and place it on the bottom of the mold, gluing it down. Fill the mold completely with silicone. Homemade resin from the 4th method hardens very quickly - before our eyes. Immediately after cooling, disassemble the mold. Make a cut and carefully remove the prototype.

Mix and pour epoxy resin into the mold. The frozen casting is quite difficult to remove, so you will have to cut the silicone in a circle or completely tear it apart.

Getting rid of silicone

Wash the surface using any detergent designed for grease. You may also need a piece of pumice and a knife to get rid of the silicone. The hardened silicone is cleaned off with a knife, and all its remnants are removed with pumice. This method is only relevant for non-scratch surfaces.

Almost all fishermen make some kind of homemade product. Most often these are various modifications of equipment, sinkers, and other small things, but there are also fishermen who make baits, including not only the simplest ones like oscillating spoons, but also more complex products like wobblers or silicone baits. By making silicone lures with your own hands, an angler can not only get certain savings, but also achieve greater variety in his spinning boxes. Homemade silicone baits can complement factory products, since the spinning angler can get exactly what he considers necessary, change the length, shape, color, or the attractant used in accordance with his ideas.

Making fishing baits at home gives the fisherman a number of advantages:

• You can choose your own form. This is very important if the spinner believes that a product from a particular company can be improved by adding additional elements, or the fisherman has a version of his own, original form.
• It happens that there is simply no option in the required size in the line of factory products. Both amateurs and adherents of trophy fishing face this problem. A number of manufacturers simply do not take into account the wishes of a small group of fishermen.
• Sometimes, even despite the variety of colors, spinning anglers still believe that the product line lacks a certain color, and then making silicone lures with your own hands allows you to get the desired color.
• Also, self-casting of silicone baits allows you to obtain silicones, or with a high salt content, which affects the attractiveness for fish. So, for example, fans of nanojig are faced with the fact that there are very few silicones with the smell of garlic ().
• If the original homemade or other options show good results on the pond, you can try to organize their production and sale.

Important! From an economic point of view, the production of such baits will be most profitable if the remains of baits damaged during fishing are used as material.

Repair methods

Fish damaged in the process of catching a predator can not only be melted down, but also repaired. There are three main ways to do this:

1. Connecting parts of the bait with open fire - a match, a lighter, candles.
2. Gluing with superglue.
3. Soldering with a soldering iron.

Photo 1. Torn tail of the twister.

Photo 2. Cut a piece from the silicone strip.

Photo 3. After soldering with matches, all that remains is to wash off the soot.

The first method is most often used directly while fishing; it makes it possible to quickly connect parts of damaged silicones and continue fishing. To connect, you only need to slightly heat the baits in the place where they should be connected, but the main thing is not to overdo it with heating.

Joining with glue is rarely used, since the joint loses its elasticity, which negatively affects the play of vibrating tails, twisters, and passive baits too. Therefore, fishermen usually resort to this method for experimental purposes, and, having become convinced that the result is not the best, they no longer use it.

At home, it is best to repair damaged edibles using a soldering iron. Soldering not only provides a strong connection, but can also help adjust the shape of both the body and the active elements.

Where can I get the silicone itself?

There are several options for where you can find silicone for baits. The easiest option is to simply melt down silicones damaged by the teeth of a predator; any spinner will have plenty of vibrating tails, twisters with bitten off tails, or chewed crustaceans and larvae. The melting itself is also possible on a gas stove in a water bath, but it is better to use a microwave for this purpose.

You can also purchase ingredients that are used to make silicone baking molds and similar products. Silicones made from this material will be somewhat harsh, but durable. Eleplast (TV 25), Pentalast 710, Pentalast 718 are often used.

You can also find resources online that offer more suitable options. These are, for example, “TOIRTAP”, “Silix”. Such companies also usually offer not only the base, but also substances that can make the bait harder or softer, dyes, glitter, attractants, as well as other products necessary for making silicones yourself, including tools and even ready-made molds.

Photo 4. Silicone for household needs.

How to melt silicone?

This material may lose its properties if heated too much. Therefore, you need to know how to melt silicone without ruining it. The easiest way to do this is to place the material in a microwave oven and set a temperature that is safe for the particular polymer. If you don’t have a microwave, you’ll have to make do with a water bath, but you need to be careful here, since if the silicone is overheated, smoke can come out, and the material itself darkens and loses its elasticity.

Also, it is during heating that additional components are added - dyes, substances that make the material softer or harder, attractants, fat, salt, glitter, etc. (it is important that all this is resistant to high temperatures, otherwise the bait can be damaged).

Single-sided casting molds

How to make silicone bait? Without a mold or matrix for casting, independent production of silicones is impossible. Casting silicone baits can be done in plaster or plexiglass molds. Both of them can be bought, but you can easily make a matrix from gypsum yourself, but you most likely will not be able to create a high-quality mold from plexiglass at home.

Making molds for silicone baits from plaster is quite simple. There are two main types of matrices – one-sided and two-sided. Single-sided options are more suitable for baits that have no complex shaped elements on one side (for example, on top, as is usually found in vibrotails), but simply a flat surface. To make such a matrix for casting, you first need to assemble a body into which the gypsum will be poured. Next you need to dissolve the gypsum in water.

Important! Gypsum should be added gradually, stirring the mixture. If air bubbles are visible, they need to be “tapped out”, as they can easily ruin the finished product.

The plaster is poured into the mold, after which a sample of the bait is placed in it (which should be lubricated to make it easier to remove after the plaster has hardened) so that its upper edge remains on the surface. After removal, the matrix is ​​ready for use.

Double-sided matrix

Do-it-yourself vibrotail, as well as other baits, especially if they have a complex structure, are best cast in double-sided molds. Such matrices are made in almost the same way as one-sided ones, however, only half of the bait is immediately filled with plaster. After this, the mold is left until the plaster hardens, and when it becomes hard, the lower part is lubricated, and the bait is poured in so that its parts do not remain on the surface. Although a double-sided matrix is ​​a little more complicated to manufacture, it has an important advantage - it can be used to cast baits with a large number of complex-shaped elements, as well as make silicones with a complex body shape, without straight planes, which makes it impossible to use a one-sided matrix.

Important! It is necessary to leave a groove through which the molten silicone will be poured into the matrix. It is most convenient to fill it with a glass syringe, as it is resistant to high temperatures.

Also, these molds for silicone baits are more convenient for casting several silicones at once. You can experiment with two-color baits by using two syringes into which you need to draw material colored with different dyes.