solus high heat usage suggestions?

[manakawari]

I have been sending a lot of my solus prints to a business next door that does pewter spin casting.

I believe they are using vulcanized natural rubber molds and evidently the heat is too high for use with solus proto.

Its weird because its sort of hit or miss...I find that if I cure the resin a lot and place it in an oven at 250 degrees for 30 min, it seems to increase the stability of the resin
but its not 100 percent (really more like 50 percent) half the time, even if I over cure and heat the prints , the prints come out of the mold with surface imperfections, blemishes, cracks and some warping.

Its been suggested here that I use low temp vulcanizing rubber but im not the one making the molds and he seems unwilling to change his mold making process.

our business relies on very quick sample turn around time and this problem is causing me a lot of extra work.

What im currently needing to do is mold the master, spin a sample in pewter and sand and polish out the imperfections (they are sometimes very deep and its very time consuming)..I then need to make a new mold with this polished and repaired pewter sample in order to get a good final mold.

aside from being time consuming, its expensive needing to make two molds and because of the warping, even when I repair the work, its still not as good as the original print.

I feel that since I sometimes am able to get a good mold the first time, I feel that the solus proto is at least close to being suitable for vulcanization temps but just not good enough.

Being so close has me wondering if there is something I can treat the prints with that will help them survive the heat? perhaps a high heat tolerant spray? maybe something else im not thinking of?

I really love the solus proto but If I am going to continue buying it, im going to have to solve this problem or else seek an alternative that can actually survive a vulcanizer.

Any suggestions? I was thinking maybe a Teflon spray or powdering the print in graphite powder before molding , or maybe a high heat tolerant spray paint ?? i will soon do some trials but I was hoping to get some suggestions from the forum so I can try many different ideas in the same mold in an effort to quickly either find a solution or move on to another resin like envisiontec high heat resin...thanks!

[rsaldivar]

try leaving them in the heat 2 hours and then UV curing them for an hour ??

[manakawari]

yea I tried that, I was hoping for more suggestions ...thanks

[mongerdesigns]

Have you tried spraying the pieces with clear-coat?

[manakawari]

not yet but I was going to try a high heat tolerant spray paint instead of clear coat.

to be honest, and I didn't know how to ask, I was hoping someone on the forum was going to suggest another spray.

I was once online shopping for mold making supplies and I came across a high heat tolerant spray that's supposed to withstand temps of
over 1000 degrees.

I believe its generally used for spraying silicone spin casting molds to increase their working life as well as functioning as a
mold release for vulcanizing masters but I thought that since its so heat tolerant, it might offer some amount of protection, but I cant for the life of
me remember what it was called.

Im not very hopeful that any spray will really work to be honest , since the coating may be heat tolerant, but I doubt it really deflects much heat
so the solus proto will likely still be prone to cracking and warping from the heat that penetrates the coating but once Im confident I have gotten
as many suggestions as this forum is willing to provide, I will run a mold with all of them and hopefully something works.

The only thing that has me hopeful is the fact that im sometimes able to get a perfect mold so that leads me to believe that the solus proto, as is, is capable of withstanding
the heat and pressure...I believe there is an unknown factor involved and I strongly suspect that factor is time...I cant be sure but I believe all the molds that failed were the ones I tried to make on the same day I printed the model.

I believe the models I cured a long time, exposed to heat, and let sit overnight or over the weekend, provided me the best casts.