Soft Tail Manufacturing Guide
To manufacture a tail, follow this guide from top to bottom. Each section assumes that you have completed the previous sections. If a print is listed once in one section, and once in another, it means you’ll need to print another one.
Half-Tail
Note: You’ll have to do this section twice. No need to print the required prints twice.
Step 1: Ribs + Shell
Required Prints:
- v 0.5 Bottom Mold
- v 0.10 Mold Insert
- v 0.14 Top Mold
Required Materials:
- 60 mL silicone (30 mL Part A, 30 mL Part B) in cup
- Popsicle stick or suitable silicone mixer/spreader
- Work surface that can get messy
- Cooking oil in a small bowl
- Paper towels
- Sandpaper (1 sheet between 200 and 800 grit)
- Exacto knife
Process
Initial Molding
Watch this video and this video for a comprehensive guide. They’re about 17 minutes at 2x speed. Here’s the sparknotes.
- Smooth out the inner ribs with sandpaper if you see any stringing or bridging. Smooth out inside of Bottom Mold if there’s any stringing.
- Put excessive oil on the ribs of the Top Mold. Put excessive oil on the inner surface of the Bottom Mold. Put excessive oil on the cylinder extrusion on the Mold Insert.
- Wipe down the excessive oil on all surfaces. Smack it out of the ribs if necessary.
- Assemble the mold. Add two rubber bands - one on each side. This keeps the top molds from floating too far up.
- Mix 60 mL of silicone.
- Pour silicone in slowly along the center of the ribs. Aim for a thin, steady stream that starts from a foot or so above the part. This should help reduce bubbles.
- Use the popsicle stick for finishing touches to make sure the silicone really gets in everywhere it’s supposed to.
- Let sit for 4 hours.
Breaking out the Mold
Watch this video for a comprehensive guide. It’s about 5 minutes at 2x speed. Here’s the sparknotes.
- Remove the rubber bands.
- Use the exacto knife to cut along the edges of the top mold where the silicone was poured in.
- Gently pry the top mold off until the silicone starts to give.
- Decide from there whether to
- peel the top mold off of the ribs, and then pull the piece out of the bottom mold.
- OR to take out the entire top mold with the silicone piece still attached, and then peel out the ribs.
- DO NOT push the ribs out from the holes you poured the silicone in through. This will ruin the ribs. DO PULL the ribs off of the top mold. Do so gently so as not to rib the ribs.
- Cut any excess silicone.
- That’s it. Good job.
Step 2: Flat Piece
Required Prints:
- v 0.10 Insert Mold
Required Materials:
- 20 mL silicone (10 mL Part A, 10 mL Part B) in cup
- Popsicle stick or suitable silicone mixer/spreader
- Work surface that can get messy
- Cooking oil in a small bowl
- Exacto knife
Process:
Initial Molding:
- Wipe oil onto the inner surface of the Insert Mold.
- Mix 20 mL of silicone.
- Pour silicone into the cavity until it starts to overflow with silicone.
- Use a popsicle stick to smooth out the silicone.
- Place the half-tail piece in the cavity so that the outline of the half-tail lines up with the cavity in the Insert Mold.
- Let sit for 4 hours
Breaking out the Mold
- Use the exacto knife to cut around the edge of the Insert Mold cavity.
- Slowly pull the finished half-tail out of the mold.
- Done.
Full Tail
Required Prints:
- v 0.5 Bottom Mold (in addition to the one needed earlier)
- v 0.10 Mid-Section Mold
- v 1.6 Fin
- paper printout of v 1.6 Cardstock x2 Drawing 1
Required Materials:
- 10 mL silicone (5 mL Part A, 5 mL Part B) in cup for Initial Molding
- 10 mL silicone (5 mL Part A, 5 mL Part B) in cup for Touch Ups
- Popsicle stick or suitable silicone mixer/spreader
- Work surface that can get messy
- Cardstock
- Exacto knife
- Scissors
- Moldable silicone earplugs
- Clear tape
Process:
Initial Molding:
- Place down the Bottom Mold. Place a half-tail inside the Bottom Mold. Place the Mid-Section Mold on top of that so that it is lined up properly.
- Cut out two paper inserts out of cardstock using the scissors with the Cardstock x2 Drawing 1 printout as a guide. Tape the two pieces together along the two straight edges. Trim down the paper inserts as necessary.
- Mix 10 mL silicone and lightly cover both sides of the taped up paper insert in silicone.
- Place the paper insert over the half-tail.
- Place the other half-tail inside the other Bottom Mold. Then line up the other Bottom Mold with the Mid-Section Mold.
- Place some weight over the mold assembly to ensure the pieces are pressed against each other well.
- Let sit for 4 hours.
Touch Ups:
Note: This section would ideally be replaced with a process for creating removable outlet plugs. However, we couldn’t find a good way to make removable outlet plugs that wouldn’t leak, so we instead plugged the outlets permanently.
- Take the full tail out of the mold assembly.
- Cut some silicone earplugs with the exacto knife to fit inside the tail outlets. Fit the cut plugs into the tail outlets.
- Mix 10 mL silicone and add it around the silicone plugs. Add silicone anywhere there are gaps between the two halves of the full tail.
- Let sit for 4 hours.