Casting Post-casting processing of BJD

I think that depends a lot on the parts in question and a lot on under what cicunstances the artist is working. And to some extent it would probaly be considered company secrets how a specific maker does it.
But since I am only semi professional at best and this is in no way certain to be a good repressentation for how anyone else do it, I don't mind sharing. What I do is:
*Removing any flashing along with gates and vents right after the piece has been demolded. (In a few cases I clip the gate with a pair of cutting pliers before demolding to make the piece easier to remove.)
*Depending on the state of the parting lines from the mold I may "sand" (I use a very sharp dremel bit for this to help getting only the line itself) at this stage. Sometimes I leave it until after next step.
*Leaving the pieces to harden further, ususally at least 24h, to make sure no deformation happens when later stringing and to make sure the pieces have let off enough gasses that they are safe to handle without gloves and mask.
*If any more sanding is requiered I do that now.
*Glue in magnets and metal bars for hand/feet and any other glueing needed, depending on the part.
*String the doll and check that the joints behave correctly. Double check that I've strung hands and feet on the right side of the body, especcially if I have several dolls on the table at once. It's one thing to accidentally switch the right and left foot, but I don't want to risk handing a doll off with two left feet. I've never done that yet, but it has been close.

This is a generalization. Sometimes a piece require more work and sometimes I need to do workarounds to get good resaults, but yeah. This is mostly it.

I'de love to hear what others do if they don't mind sharing.

 

Probably washing the parts, in order to remove any mould release agent residue, which might be greasy (at least that's what I read somewhere).

 

I don't normally need mold release for the casting of the resin. I will sometimes use it when making the molds, though. And when I do I don't use any greasy type on the doll parts, since the risk of the residue being transfered to the finished parts. If I use anything it will be either talcum or polyvinyl alcohol. (I will use vaseline+talcum on the mold box sometimes or to separate two mold parts when making fully parted molds, if I use a type of silicone that allows it, but that will never come in contact with the finished doll parts.)
It could be neccecary for other types of silicone and resin combos, though. I don't know. I'd like to hear that from another doll maker to hear their experience.

Come to think of it, I have used talcum a few times to be able to get a few last casts out of a worn mold, but that doesn't need washing off. If it gets stuck in the resin it's in there forever and if not you just brush it off. That has not been for doll parts, but for pulyurethane accessories that will be fully painted, so a slight greyness from the talcum is ok.

 

I am curious about what metal your channel rods are made out of? I've only experimented a very little with metal and casting, since so far I have been able to get away with using drinking straws for channels, but I did have a reaction between my silicone and some steel in an earlier experiment with mold box materials. And I know steel usually contains sulphur, so that would be a big no for the polyurethane, right? I seem to rember copper rods used and I believe copper is sometimes used for mold boxes as well. Is that what you use?

 

I'll check those out. Thanks!