CASTING MOLDS FOR BRACELETS

[mike calabrese]

Been making some bracelets or I guess these are called bangles according to my wife. I have some in a gallery and the artist owner wants more.
Normally the molds would be made out of silicone but I didn't have any silicone mold making stuff and didn't want to wait and I like creating a work-around.
So a trip to the local big box plumbing section and these happened,
PVC pipe stuff a big cap and a coupling pretty you can guess the rest.
The big ring that looks like a grind stone is Alumilite clear slow resin with a butt load of gold glitter added soon to be at least a matched pair of bracelets.
Total cost for both molds under $12.00.
calabrese55

 

[steve ramsey]

How do you achieve your finish product.

 

[mike calabrese]

How do you achieve your finish product.

Hi Steve thanks for your question.
I used some pot chucks and a mandrel. The pictures here should help. On the pot chucks I was sure they would work. The mandrel however was a prototype made from construction lumber that actually worked pretty good. I got lazy and never made a cleaner version.
Pot chucks are closed with either hose clamps or wrapped with stretchy tape to compress the jaws. On the mandrel I also use tape to modify the ID bracelet grip, just have to be sure to cut the tape at the saw kerfs on the mandrel.
calabrese55