Squish Molding An HO Scale Locomotive - Part 1 

Totally forget to thank Christiaan for sending in the project. I scratched my head for months while this thing sat on my desk waiting for me to get up the courage to try it. Turned out to be a really fun project to work on!

Can't be said enough how helpful it is that you include both successes and failures in your videos! Even if a situation isn't ideal, creativity and determination can get the results you want.

Your wealth of knowledge humbles me regularly. It’s like being back in my old shop teacher’s studio. Thank you for this, and everything

It is not waste of a week. It is documentation for generations to come!

Best RU-vid channel ever! Love all the videos! Thankyou for all the great tips and tricks!

I was worried at first when you went to pour the second half of the mold, having not seen if you put mold release on the parting lines of the windows and holes. I'm excited to see how the castings turn out with this mold, and I just might have to try this method with some of my own projects! I'm glad to have found your channel, too! I do some molding and casting at my day job (though the pieces are waaay too big to fit into a pressure pot) and the insight you provide has helped me learn how to make better molds in a shorter time than I probably would have without it! Keep up the awesome work!

Using a 1-2-3 block as a spacer on the tablesaw😉 I use them sometimes to square up corners when doing small glue ups.

Robert, I have only a small amount of experience in creating molds and resin casting, but I'm getting more serious about it and this channel is invaluable to me. You often tackle things in a different way than what I would do in a given situation (great example in this video: building a single box and then cutting into two parts), and opening up my mind to alternatives I'd never think of is something I really appreciate. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and experience.

this is certainly a video to humble the audience. at no point did I suspect what you were going to do next.

I have no business with resin molding but I really apreciate watching you videos. I dont know why but I love them. Thank you for bringing out weekly content :D

Liked video BEFORE the result It’s a video about learning !!

With the blue rubber underneath after you pulled off the clay, it gave your train a total space ship kind of look (more or less due to the coloring)

Brilliant video ! Well presented, interesting and informative. Lighting is excellent, nice tidy backdrop....not the familiar 'untidy workshop or kitchen unit with the washing machine running or extraneous outdoor noises. Well you have me hooked anyway and I've subscribed to your channel. Well done.

Another excellent video, Mr. Tolone.

I found it, THANKYOU sir. You give me information and insfiration

That was a great idea!!! Im going to try that on a mold I need to make. Thank you!

Thank you for your explanations, not being able to make a similar piece during the pandemic caused me to lose a client and a lot of money. I made many mistakes that today Dear teacher, despite not having been able to solve it (yet) you have helped me. I think that the train must be sunken in the first part and that its edge is not the parting line of the mold. Thanks once again.

Thanks for the another great vid Robert.

that messed up part is not a bug but a feature. It looks like gives you some registration pins. 👍 I was thinking if putting some in the corners might help with your very precise line up. But to quote the Hunger Games! "And may the odds be ever in your favor." 😀

Just subscribed! I love this guy he is like the Mickey Rooney of crafts.

THis was great. I always learn something about casting from your channel. Thank you for sharing your skills.

First, the chunkies trick is a wonderful way to save on expensive rubber. I've been keeping all my chunkies since I first saw you do it. Second, I'm now inclined to sing, "chunkies, chunkies" when I do... I suppose I'll just have to live with that. Good thing I have the shop to myself. Hahahaha. Good stuff, can't wait to see how the pour comes out.

Great stuf, interesting moldmaking, as you never showed us before, all model makers will love it like I do. Thank you very much!!!

Just mesmerizing to watch!

Wonderful job! If I was presented with this task, I would have declined the job. Now, I have better insight into a functional process.

Always enjoy your videos, even the ones where things don't go exactly as planned. It's good learning resources.

Super informative, as always. Thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge, it's much appreciated!

This is super exciting to watch how you set-up and handle these complex molds!

That demonstrates the techniques involved quite clearly, so it’s a win for me!

Excelent work! Many thanks for share my video. Best regards from Chile!

Brilliant !

This is what I love. Experimenting! I can't wait to see the casting result! Another smaller example would be to make a suction cup mold and see if it still functions as a silicone cast.

That's a very interesting mould to see you make. Very cool project.

Despite all the previous montages of mold making, this may be the first train-ing montage :P

This is a very interesting project and a pretty suspenseful too! I always use Lego type bricks for 2 sided molds.

AWESOME!!!

Great video! Thanks Robert! I bought a bunch of stuff to make molds, but seem to be lacking the stones to move forward......maybe this weekend!

I'm working on a project and I think this is the technique I will have to use. My project is a rubber mask and I think if I do it this way, and use a removable plug inside the head, I should be able to remove the mold and still hold tolerances like he did with this. Hopefully part 2 worked and so will mine.

I have the same train, still from my childhood. But it's smaller (size N). :D Lovely video, Robert!

I really hope this train pour stays on track.

Very useful video, thanks! The fact that I (and some of us) did notice you forgot to show the part where you applied release agent on the inner mold for the windows, gives me enough trust i'm ready to go for it :-)

This looks challenging but taught me that not all mold projects are boiled down to two pours (on a two part mold). I look forward to seeing how you execute the resin pour. Most squish mold users make a very big mess when combining the two parts of the mold after they’ve poured their resin. Maybe you have a secret technique that’s a lot cleaner.

First of all, thank you Robert for all your vids! I've been viewing them all for my ultimate goal: making my own resin cast! I had never done that. So I spent hours and hours of thinking: how would mr Tolone do it? I wish i knew! and since I live in europe I couldn't just send you my project (i often thought if i should). so after months of deliberating what to do i finally got the nerve to try it. So i got some lego parts (i use that to build my mold casing as a friend gave me that tip) and got to work. it took me three poor's to make the mold but the result was super! never dreamed i would be this great. So finally this afternoon (about 2 hours before you released this video) I pored the resin. it did not go to wel as the resin jelled up on me much to quick (i think under a minute). So I will try some more on the next few days. But then it happened; you released your new video and it was hilarious! because your new video is about that one thing I'm trying to do: casting a HO scale locomotive :) How big are the odds off that happening :) I cant wait for the next part! as a note: I've used scotch tape to mask off the windows (from the inside) and holes which works superb! and Im glad to see that my mold looks an awful lot like yours! i guess your a good teacher! keep up the good work, i love these video's! Edit: fixed some typo's and added little remark

A problem a one piece mold can't solve? What channel did I tune in to?! I am excited to see how this turns out, quite a tricky one.

Chunkies! Chunkies! Chunkies!

The old saying, “we learn from our mistakes” maybe yes, maybe no. This project must not be taken for granted because using a paint brush to protect the parting line is like making a wish. There has to be a more foolproof way to protect the parting lines. Maybe you should have used BeesWax. I think it would have been easier to apply because you could see if you missed any spots. Painting release which is transparent is asking for trouble.

Wow - that is by far the most challenging, in its own way, mold I have seen you do. Will you be doing a video of casting this mold? I am curious to see what material you use. Thanks again - great content, as always.

Do a video on post finishing, and fixing bad molds please!

I was so worried you had forgotten to put release on the windows before pouring the inside of the engine!

A good look at the process, putting a lot of work into how you're making this. I don't like brush-on mold release, for this reason, get it wrong and risk wasting the mold and part getting stuck. I had an experience like this where I had to repair the mold and it worked but now that the part is removed it might be trickier. You could have poured more silicone in the broken voids along the body to level them and then shave the chunks off the top mold, heck if your good you could cut the chunks off the top mold then brush some silicone on the seam and "glue" them back into the body side mold. Also, you don't have any keys to help hold the center of the mold in place, wouldn't adding keys to the clayed block at windows have helped keep the inside mold from shifting? Maybe a squish mold but I learned from another casting it still benefits from vents between the flat seam so the extra resin can escape up instead of having to travel all the way to the outside edges. I even vent the bottom of the part so resin that went into the vent is available to refill when it's pressurized.

Love your enthusiasm Robert! Quick question, could that mold be fixed? Maybe by putting the part back in and patching with new silicone?

G'day Bob , another interesting project . Couple of questions . No registration keys for a two part mould ? Also what I've found with squish moulds is to cut small vent channels in the bottom mould that go off to the sides, that way the excess resin can bleed out without hopefully flash forming . Where these vids made over the holiday season ? Can see you're not in your workshop ? All the best and hope all is good .

This is helpful, thanks. I've been working on a hand prop (PKE meter) with similar challenges. I'm curious as to why you didn't have to brush release onto the exposed rubber filling the windows and other holes (in the male part) before pouring the outer (female) rubber? And would it have been better to just blast it with a mold release spray?

Did you put mold-release on the rubber from holes and windows when you poured te top half, or did you just go straight ahead without it? Because I was wondering if the mold-release was necessary on that part, or if you just cut them apart with a blade when you split the mold.

I think I missed the part where you put mold release over the widow and through hole areas. 😉

Can't you put a film of cut-out plastic film instead of liquid mold release? That or treat the rubber with something to improve the wetting action of the mold release. Can´t wait to see the castings!

wait a 2 part mold? you don't do those often, another great video!

I wonder why it is that sometimes he uses very complex mold forms I actually builds them out of wood etc and then sometimes he can just use polystyrene? I mean I realized that my lack of knowledge is why this is a question to me but from what I can tell I don't see the difference between one thing to the next of why you need a big complex wooden build compared to styrene and clips is it just the amount of rubber?

The name's Cliff. Cliff Hanger.

Did you need more pressure than the tape provided in order to prevent the gasket from seeping under?

What were you using for the paint-on mold release?

Hi! I wanted to ask how we can submit projects for your RU-vid channel to mold and cast? I love your information but I still have not been able to figure out how to do this two part mold

im new to this, didn't it need venting holes?

Robert, can yu tell me what brand oil clay you use? Thank you!

*******Hey Rob!! what brands or distributor for Silicones and Resins???******* Thank ya sir!

Hi. Out of curiosity, have you ever tried making an exact copy of a typical 4×6 lego brick from resin?

Hey Robert what brand of rubber to rubber mold release do you use? I've used Vaseline. I prefer to use a rubber to rubber mold release made by alumilite. Comes in a little bottles and it's a brush on liquid. I've never had any sticking with it although I've had other brands stick. Great video by the way

Reverse engineering, hope Märklin doesn't bring a law suit😅

First

rob another ripper .