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Roll out the bottom and sides for your mold. About 1/4" thick is fine. Thicker is ok but the bottom of the mold must be absolutely flat. |
Lay the clay pieces in place |
Attach the clay pieces to your mold making sure all crevices and cracks are filled. Don't leave any gaps. |
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Place your original buttons face up in the mold. |
Follow the directions on the Mold Max and Catalyst for mixing. |
You will need some scales for weighing the separate parts of the rubber mix before adding the 2 parts together |
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Mix the 2 components and stir well |
Pour the rubber mix slowly working from 1 side of the mold. |
Let the rubber mix flow around the buttons and push all the air out ahead of it. |
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Tap the filled mold on a flat surface to get air out of the mix |
After the mold dries for 1 or 2 days, you can peel the clay box away from the mold |
Pop the mold out of the clay box and you are ready to make reproduction buttons. |
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Mix your bronze powder and resin together. 3 parts bronze to 1 part resin by weight. Then add 1% MEKP hardener to the mix. |
Have all your button backs sitting next to the mold. Once you start pouring the mix, you will need to add the metal button backs quickly. |
Once you have added the hardener to the bronze/resin mix, you have about 60 seconds to pour your buttons!!! |
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Mix small amounts at a time unless you can work very fast. This mix sets up quickly. |
Fill the button holes to the top but don't overfill them |
Set the button backs into the button molds with a pair of tweezers or needle nose plyers. |
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Allow the buttons to set up for a few hours. |
You can "Flex" the rubber mold and the new buttons will pop right out. The mold can be used dozens of times. |
You can polish the buttons with a teflon pad and the bronze will shine. You can also paint the buttons any color using Hobby paint for plastics. |
