Curing issues with silicone over rubber monofins

[MermaidBrandie]

Ok so in looking into making my own silicone tail (terrified!) and I've heard before that silicone doesn't cure well over the all rubber oceanika monofin.
I know Raven uses this monofin regularly so there must be some trick to make it work, I just don't know what that would be.
I'm considering just wrapping the flipper in cling wrap and seeing if the silicone will cure over that, then reaching in an pulling all the cling wrap out once it's on there.

Thoughts?


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[Coradion]

You can do that, but it can be a bit tricky. Silicone often won't cure in contact with other rubbers like unbacked neoprene, or rubber on monofin. It can discolor the silicone and make permanently sticky spots. I would make your two pieces of the fin let them come to full cure then seam the sides of the tail leaving the bottom open. Slide your fin in then close the bottom off, there may be a bit of uncured part inside the fin but it shouldn't make a huge difference.

[MerQueen Nerissa]

I've done some testing since I was going to use a foil in my tail, and cling wrap does solve the curing problem.

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[MermaidBrandie]

Awesome!

Another question, what's the best option for sculpting with the thickness the oceanika gets towards the top. I've been noticing that a lot of the silicone fluke pulls are rather thin, but I don't want to make it to thin because then the two pieces won't attach on the sides. In the same note I don't want to make it too thick, it'll be bulky.

Sorry if I'm asking too many questions, but no one has done a tail thread where they used a merfin. I can probably figure out everything else, but I just don't know about this fluke.


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