help with silicone ratio's

[Trident True]

I need help in regards to ratio's. im using smooth on and the current ratio is 100 :1 to me this is jargon. i have no idea what this means. can someone please give me an example on how to measure out the part b part. eg if i was mixing up 1kg of silicone. how much part b would i need? people that understand the ratios can you please simplify it for me. on how to work it out. thanks

[Anahita]

What silicone are you using? I use their Dragonskin, and it's always 1 to 1 ratio....

[Trident True]

im using the mold max 27t

[Anahita]

Ah, it looks like it's 100:10 ratio... although why they didn't just make it 10:1 ratio is beyond me...

Ratio in this case is just seems to be that whatever the weight of part B is, you need to multiply it by ten to get the weight you need for part A.

[Trident True]

so you multiply part A by 10 to get part B. for eg. 250g of silicone 250X10 = 2500 so that would make it 25mls of part B correct. I dont know how to figure out how much catalyst to mix into part A

[Anahita]

You can't mix grams with mililitres. It's by weight, so both need to be done by weight. You should have gotten an instruction paper with the silicone, this will tell you what part is the 100 and what part is the 10. If you're really that lost, just call smooth on. I only ever work with platinum cure silicone, so I'm not 100% sure what is what with this type, but they will know.

[Trident True]

Ive had a look at the instuctions 100A is the silicone the 10B is the liquid catalyst. ive emailed smooth on waiting for a reply. I just dont understand why they couldn't just made it 50:50

[Anahita]

Because it's a chemical compound. Like a recipe for baking, you can't just put an equal amount of everything in and expect a cake, proportions are necessary to get the proper product. If you wanted a 1:1 or 50:50 ratio, you should have ordered OOMOO to make your molds.

[Trident True]

ive used plaster to make my molds as its cheaper. the silicone im currently experimenting with will be used to make my fluke. dragon skin is just too expensive in aus its almost double the price to the states which is just silly. my tail has a neoprene base thats why i will be using other silicones instead of dragons skin. the max27T has very similar properties so thats why i decided to just give it a test run. i mixed up some silicone yesterday and its nearly cured so hopefully i got the proportions right. I ended up watching a vid on Ytub that explained in more simpler form which i could understand as im still waiting for a response from smooth on. anyways thanks for taking the time to reply its greatly appreciated.

[Anahita]

Good luck on that... I would highly advise against it though, as I've had a neoprene backed tail with tin-cure silicone and it made me very sick... Even though the silicone never directly touched my skin, it still happened, and I'm not the only one it's happened to either. The reason why Dragonskin is so expensive is because it's safe.

It's like soldering with lead; sure, it's cheaper, but it's cheaper because it's not safe as a prolonged-contact substance.

[Trident True]

Ive just checked the msds sheet. it states that there is no hazardous ingredients in the silicone im using. it does state skin irritation though however as i have a neoprene base i thought it would be ok. what silicone did you use for your neoprene tail? the reason i bought it is for that reason. it stated no harzadous ingredients.

[Anahita]

I don't recall, since it was a few years ago. I do remember it was supposed to be "Aquarium safe" though (I assumed at reading that it meant no hazardous ingredients either) but the frequent touching of putting it on and off gave my hands and waist a rash, and then after the rash, I got sick. Nowadays aquarium safe is platinum cure (though it also carries the platinum cure price and is still not GREAT quality). You really get what you pay for with silicone. The cheap stuff falls apart fast (which is when I started getting my rash, when the silicone started falling apart) and the platinum cure is much more resilient to wear and tear (I have silicone masks I've made for Cosplay stuff that's YEARS old, and is constantly being adhered to the skin, yanked off, adhered again, etc. and it's still intact)