Dragonskin Vs. Rebound 25?

[DogWizard]

I know that this has been touched upon briefly but I am looking for some real-world experiences and recommendations. DragonSkin seems to be cropping up more and more here recently and I have another project that I will be working on shortly. Sooo - who uses what and why?

I can see the physical properties of each on the Smooth-On page but I am looking for comparisons from people who have used both. Since DragonSkin is softer will I lose any detail or potentially have to make a thicker mould to retain rigidity? How much more elasticity will I really gain vs. Rebound25 for say a one piece helmet mold?

Any help would be much appreciated - Thanks!

-D

 

[mkshane81]

I know you could probably to talk to Ithica about it. I am pretty sure he has used dragonskin before. As far as personal experience goes, sorry I can't contribute. But I hope that helps a little. I need to watch this thread closely myself, for I am going to be working on molds this summer and fall, hopefully for helmets. Glad you started it.

 

[falcon NL]

Well Dragon skin is normally used for animatronics and creating facial prosthetics. Its more abnormal to use it as a mold material then a normal. BUT, if your master is extremely hard to mold you can use DS because its extremely elastic. Molding a Hayabusa is one piece would be impossible in rebound, but fairly easy with DS

Rebound is a commonly used for molds. This is because its made for being used for a mold material.

I have worked with Dragon Skin and Rebound. They both do the job good, but for a normal ( not to difficult) mold i used to work Rebound. Just because it was made for this type of things.

 

[mkshane81]

Nice to know. Very useful info. Thanks falcon.

 

[Kaya Tetsu]

No personal experience,but I believe dragon skin captures more detail. On the note of it being abnormal to use it for a mold, smooth-on has some pics of it used to mold a wooden carving, here and here.

So yeah, those are the examples and I just wished to point them out.

Happy molding.

 

[DYSTORTED INC]

I would have to agree, and go with Dragon Skin. I ordered a trial version to test out next week and will have a review on it. It seems to be better at capturing details and is able to stretch much further than rebound.

 

[Yodajammies]

I've used Rebound 25 and Dragonskin Q.

Personally I'd use rebound. Dragonskin takes a good 5 hours to cure so if you're making a glove mold, its going to take several days to finish the mold.

DON'T get the quickset version for anything but the smallest, fastest molds. It begins to set as soon as you mix the two and after that you have about 5 or so minutes to get it where you want it. By the time you get it on the model, it's already VERY viscous. I'm not a big fan of it in that regard, but as for the elasticity of the product, rebound doesnt even come close.


I dono, if you work quick and KNOW what you're doing, Dragonskin is alright. Generally though, I would recommend rebound.

As for rigidity, you need to build a mother shell for either product so that is a moot point.

The detail level is just as good as rebound, assuming you can brush it into every nook and cranny before it sets.

 

[Beau Nidle]

I've used both for fairly substantial molds before, and really have not found much difference. Both Dragonskin and Rebound 25 take 5-6 hours to cure fully, although there is the DragonskinQ which cures in something like 75 minutes. Haven't used that, but I'd agree with Yodajammies...for a helmet, it may well have too short a pot life.

I've found no difference at all in how much detail is captured, but there is a MAJOR difference in elasticity. I'm currently finishing a Clonetrooper helmet mold that will be one piece, which I'm almost certain could not be done with rebound. Likewise my next project is a Mk VI helmet, and I think a one piece mold will be possible with the dragonskin.

For a mold like a helmet you should always be using a mother mold (support shell, whatever you want to call it), so softness and rigidity of the silicone itself should have no bearing on your decision of which one to use.

 

[DogWizard]

Thanks for the responses everyone - I'm still not sure where to go but I'll figure it out. I would much rather use a one-piece glove mould for the next project so I may consider the Dragonskin. Of course I will use a mother mould for either - my question regarding rigidity was really more one of internal support within the mother mould. I don't want it too "floppy" where the potential exists for it to pull away or otherwise not retain it's shape within the mother mould - I've seen this happen even with the "keys" in place...

Thanks again!

 

[Beau Nidle]

Of course I will use a mother mould for either - my question regarding rigidity was really more one of internal support within the mother mould. I don't want it too "floppy" where the potential exists for it to pull away or otherwise not retain it's shape within the mother mould - I've seen this happen even with the "keys" in place...

Ahh, gotcha. Well, if you can wait a couple of days, I'll let you know how my clonetrooper mold turns out in that regard. One way of getting around it which I use for my Predator helmets is to pour in small amounts of resin at a time, only enough to cover part of the mold, so you're not twisting the mold all over the place, with sections flopping around and resin going everywhere. Once you have resin in a few key spots, the mold is fairly stiff and unlikely to pull away from the mother mold.

 

[BFDesigns]

I can only speak from second hand experience in this matter but there are a lot of people in my field who use Dragonskin for mold making. For small jewelry like objects it works out pretty well in most cases but in large scale pieces I believe that it would be a real pain in the ass because it's too floppy. Sorta Clear 40 would probably work better than Dragonskin but you should probably stick to what works best (rebound) in molding. You could try to use dragon skin but you'll have to have a really good mother mold to get the best results from it.

Building a rotocaster would probably help out a lot too.

 

[Beau Nidle]

OK, the results are in on the helmet mold...Dragonskin worked great. It's definitely a little thicker than I made my rebound molds, but it retains its rigidity very well and hangs onto the mother mold. Very stretchy, and I have no problems turning it inside out to demold. For sure, the spherical shape of a helmet helps to keep everything supported too, I could probably have made it a little thinner, but I always tend to over-engineer these things.

It gets two thumbs up from me for this application.

 

[DogWizard]

Outstanding - congratulations! Thanks again for all the help and suggestions. I may have to give this stuff a try...