The goal of this project was to create a custom swim bait approximately twelve inches long. I worked with Aaron Stintzi to design the bait. We settled on creating a silicone skin mold with a 3D printed shell to provide extra rigidity. The plug for the mold was printed on my Saturn 3 Ultra and the shell was printed on my Qidi X-MAX3. To ensure the silicone cured properly the plug was sprayed with a thin clear coat. Theoretically tin-cure silicon is not inhibited by UV cure resins, but because perfect dimensional accuracy was not necessary and I was using a significant amount of silicon, I decided on the lacquer to ensure no adverse reaction.

The shell also acted as the outer form for the mold. I glued 10 gauge copper wire between the plug and top surface of the shell to act as air vents in places I thought the plastic would flow poorly or bubbles would be likely to be trapped. The mold was poured in Smooth-On Mold Max 40 degassed in a vacuum chamber. The bait itself was cast from Plastisol.