Topbar Beekeeping

I'm an urban topbar beekeeper in Albuquerque, NM. I manage hives in backyards and small organic farms within city limits. These hives are probably pollinating your veggie patches right now. Visit my website at: http://brownsdowntownbees.com/

10/15/13

How to Make a Silicone Candle Mold

Do you have an object laying around the house that you would like to make a bajillion clones out of in the form of candles? Let me show you how to make a silicone mold. Follow these steps.

1. Is your object the right shape? You can't make a mold with anything with a hole in it, like the crooked arm in this object. The reason is that you can't pull the candle out of the mold with out tearing apart the mold. Also, your object needs to have some sort of flat bottom so you don't have a rocking candle, lighting everything around it on fire!



2. Is your object porous? I chose a sugar cake to mold. The problem is that once the liquid silicone meets the sugar cake, the cake will dissolve. Spray wood or other porous surfaces with an enamel to keep the silicone from permanently sticking. I sprayed 5 layers of enamel on this sugar cake, waiting for the enamel to dry between applications.


3. Pick a container to make the mold. I'm using an old yogurt container. It gives about half an inch around the sugar cake.

4. Glue your item to the bottom of your container. 

5. Mix and measure the silicone according to the manufacturers directions. For this mold, I used AeroMarine 125 Silicone RTV Rubber, 25 Durometer Moldmaking Compound, parts A and B.  The Mix ration is 1:1. Rather than eyeballing 1:1, I weighed Part A and Part B to make sure they were equal as I was pouting them into the container. Mix the mixture quickly so that you have time to pour it before the mold cures.

6. Pour in the silicone on top of your item. 

7. Tap out the bubbles in the mold by banging the mold against a surface or putting something that vibrates like a palm sander against the bottom of the mold to dislodge bubbles.

8. After the mold cures, cut it out of the container. Drill a hole for the wick at the top of the mold

9. Cut a slit on the side of the mold to easily pull out the candle

10. Add a wick, put a rubber band around the circumference to hold in the wax, pour in hot beeswax and you have a candle. 


4 comments:

  1. Thanks for the tutorial! Have you tried making a candle with this mold yet? would you change anything?

    ReplyDelete
  2. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Given that it does not contain high adhesion properties, sealing it when tears show in the rubber sheets may be difficult. There are experts saying that sealants with silicone should not be used and only those appropriate rubber sealants should be used for their EPDM sheets to lengthen its lifespan.
    Thanks ..

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks for posting this article. Nice to see this thanks for the post keep sharing.

    If you want to see more details on silicone moulding lick here Silicone Moulding

    ReplyDelete