Review on ComposiMold Used 6Lbs by Wendy Rodriguez

Like many others, I was convinced that this was a very handy reusable mold making material, great for short term molds and bug fixes. Here's the thing, while it technically does it, it does it in a less than miraculous way. The first thing you need to know is that it does not reproduce the quality and detail like high-end platinum or pewter silicones. It's not as good as urethane. It is quite viscous, gels (hardens) fairly quickly, and does not outgas under vacuum. It may be injection molded, but you're still going to get imperfections and bubbles clinging to the parts of the part and floating in the material itself no matter what you do. In short, it will always be a last resort as it produces second-rate castings at best. Second, this material is water soluble and water soluble. That means many materials don't like being poured in because water interferes with curing. Some coatings and mold release agents can help with this, but they can ruin the finish you want to keep. This also means it cannot be vacuum degassed as I mentioned before as the water it contains will start to boil. Partial vacuum and vibration can help loosen some of the bubbles, but even with a special master cover, you won't get rid of them all. It is also so sensitive to moisture that even handling mold, e.g. B. demoulding, will result in the material being transferred to your skin and creating a sticky mess. There are also release issues and mold permanence issues. Composimold likes to stick to everything, it really creates a phenomenal mess. At the same time, you'd better expect your runs to be fairly short as it has less than ideal elasticity, tear properties, etc. Many of the stretch forms you're used to can be crafted in compound forms, but only a few times before the damage it does to the form means it's time to melt it down and craft a new one. CompposiMold is difficult to process. Heats up slowly and unevenly. The double cook or sous vide strategy means you have to start heating up hours before you hit that threshold and everything will start cooking like crazy. The microwave is faster but uneven, giving you blisters in some places and hard chunks in others. Yes, and did I mention that there's no visually obvious way to tell if you're still floating solid chunks in your main molten material? Finally, the material cuts pretty poorly. If, like most of us, you often cast molds as a unit and then cut the mold to a perfect parting line, you will be disappointed. The material is difficult to cut, there will be rubbing against the blade and the resulting cut will be far from flawless, leaving clear lines of control on the part from the very first cast. If you want to cast a two-part mold the usual way, ie pour half, apply a release agent and then pour the other half, you will encounter another problem, which is that the hot liquid half will melt and flow together with the original half. . So why is it a two and a half star product and not a one star or zero star product? This has several advantages: Some silicones that are sensitive to cure inhibition can be cast into this material. This is very handy when you need to mold something out of platinum silicone, for example, but still need the mold itself to remain flexible. The material is naturally translucent. So if you tend to cast and cut apart the shapes in one piece, it's easy to see what you're doing. Food-grade options are available, which is great if you want to play around with food pouring. However, note that the smell is unpleasant and the material is water soluble, so your results may not be very good. Reusability is also an advantage. Please note, however, that any release agents used remain in the mold material when it is melted again. I hope this review helps people looking at this product. If you know what you're getting into, this might be just what you need. However, for me the pros always far outweighed the cons. In a world where premium mold silicones are available for about the same price per pound and with much better properties, I very VERY rarely use ComponiMold.