Hi guys! I'm curious about how you have managed to get the insides of your doll's parts smooth and nice for casting! Exactly how smooth did you get them, and how did you achieve this? If you have pictures, please post them! Thanks in advance! - Jessica
A quick answer is sand, sand, sand. I use a low grid piece of sand paper (60 or 80), wrap it around a round stick and keep sanding, until it is smooth. The most important thing is that you don't have bumps and cracks the silicone can get into or get stuck behind, because that'll make it harder or impossible to get the silicone stump out. Also, keep in mind that the top of the piece (where the silicone will come out) is wider than the bottom.
Thank you for the advice! Unfortunately, Ask's got some pretty nasty bumps and lumps on the iside of his thighs and calves... and my dremel can't reach them. I'll have to try what you mentioned though. Thanks!
Yeah, I had trouble with Super Sculpey breaking and tearing everytime I used the dremel. So, someone on this board told me to go for the old fashioned approach: using a file or rasp. It's slow, but it works!
Not something I've tried myself (though when I get a chance to get out to my studio I'll give it a go) but... what about wrapping something like a skewer in sandpaper, sticking that in the Dremel, and using it on the lowest speed setting? Would need to be careful not to push too hard and break the skewer... and would definitely have to wear safety goggles... but, depending on the material, it might work okay.
@HystericalParoxism: It might work, but not when you're using Super Sculpey, I think. This clay is brittle and it is the combination between the vibrations and the strength of the machine that will tear the clay apart. I do know that dremels have sandpaper disks like this: http://blueroofdesigns.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/attach-sander-1.jpg, so you wouldn't have to improvise. Downside is that it won't let you reach too far.
HystericalParoxysm: Yeah, I've had the same thought as you actually, and I tried putting a metal... ooooh I lost the word! Um, anyway, a long metal sanding object (XD). I put it into my dremel and used it at the lowest speed setting and omg, it was scary. Sure, it did the job, but the vibrations made the whole thing move like 1,5 cm from side to side while I worked on the inside of the thigh. x_x Definitely not trying that again, so scared something will break! silk: I own one of those sanding things for my dremel and... they're useless because of their short reach, as you said. Annoying, since they work pretty allright otherwise. :/
Haha yes I've asked myself this question a LOT lately... They don't reach very far at all. :C Oh well! I was able to buy a new tool which will hopefully make things slightly easier for me, so yay!
I picked up a couple sizes of this sort of round file ( http://www.alltradetools.com/catalog/files/343-832328-8-round-bastard-file.html) yesterday to try and taper my stringing channels, maybe it would help with smoothing them too? Unless this is the tool you already used to try in the dremel..
@Crowtree: Those work really well, I've got a few of them too, together with a rasp looking like this. It's also possible to wrap sandpaper around them and smoothing out the insides with those too. Sometimes rough sandpaper gives a faster result than a file, but that depends on how smooth the file is.
Cool, thanks for the tip! I just picked up a bunch more of different sizes/cuts today since they were so cheap ($1 or so each), they seemed like a useful tool for dollmaking.
Maybe you can use a drill instead of a dremel? My dremel only goes super fast, it's kind of scary. I've been using a drill to do things like sand eye wells, it can go at a much slower speed that is more manageable. I don't know that it would help for sculpey, though.
It doesn't. With sculpey, the drill has the same problem as the dremel does: vibrations. It tears the clay apart and weirdly enough in the case of my doll, caused the limb to break in half... horizontally. Super Sculpey Firm just doesn't have any flexibility, so even the slightest tap might damage a piece.
I use sculpy premo. it is worth the slightly higher price. I can bake it at short 10 minute increments over and over without scorching and I can use my low power dremel to sand, and grind and drill with no problems. I use the Dremel 7300 rechargeable and it is nicely low powered enough. I actually have two because at $25 or so it is cheaper to buy another one than to get an extra battery. I always have a battery in the charger so by the time I run out of power I have another ready to go. this is the dremel I use, http://www.walmart.com/ip/Dremel-7300-N-5-4.8V-MiniMite-Cordless-Rotary-Tool/15173820
