Fab Academy 2026
Designing, manufacturing and casting a mold using 3D printing, silicone and wax.
SolidWorks
FDM 3D Printing and Silicone Casting
Silicone Mold and Wax Cast
During the group assignment I learned about different molding and casting materials, their safety considerations and the advantages and limitations of each manufacturing process.
We compared different mold making methods and analyzed which materials are better suited depending on the geometry, detail level and final application of the part.
Download a 3D model and design the mold in SolidWorks.
Manufacture the positive mold using 3D printing.
Produce the negative mold using silicone.
Cast the final wax piece using the silicone mold.
I started by downloading a 3D model from Thingiverse and importing it into SolidWorks.
The model can be found here:
Thingiverse ModelAfter importing the model, I designed a surrounding box that would allow me to create a positive mold first, then a silicone negative mold and finally the casted part.
My original plan was to manufacture the mold using a resin printer. For this reason I downloaded ELEGOO Satellite and learned how to use the slicer through its official tutorial.
ELEGOO Satellite Download PageI planned to use Siraya Ultra White resin, however its profile was not available inside the slicer. Therefore I downloaded the material settings directly from Siraya Tech and imported them manually.
Siraya Tech WebsiteOnce the material profile was configured, I imported the mold into the slicer.
I tilted the model to improve resin drainage, added drainage holes, generated supports and inspected the complete printing simulation.
Unfortunately the resin printers available at Fab Lab Puebla were missing the FEP membrane, making resin printing impossible at the time.
Because of this, I adapted the process and manufactured the mold using the Creality Ender 3 S1 Pro.
Since I planned to sand the mold later, I kept most of the default Ultimaker Cura settings and only modified:
To eliminate the visible layer lines, I progressively sanded the printed mold using different water sandpapers.
The curing process was performed using the ELEGOO Mercury Plus curing station.
Before mixing the silicone, I estimated the required volume by filling the mold with water and measuring its weight.
The silicone used a mixing ratio of 10 parts silicone to 1 part catalyst.
After measuring the components, I mixed them thoroughly and sprayed WD-40 onto the positive mold to act as a release agent.
After pouring the silicone, I placed the mold inside the vacuum chamber to remove trapped air bubbles.
Once the silicone cured, I removed the positive mold and obtained the final negative mold.
To create the final piece, I melted candle wax using a double boiler setup.
Once fully melted, the wax was poured into the silicone mold and allowed to solidify.
The resin printers were unavailable because the FEP membrane was missing.
Significant sanding and finishing work was required to obtain a smooth mold surface.
Vacuum degassing was necessary to avoid defects in the silicone mold.
Measuring the mold volume beforehand helped reduce silicone waste.