Removing the Appliance

1. Allow the mold to slowly cool enough to handle (90-100°F) —if the mold is gypsum, it may crack if cooled too quickly—and carefully demold the appliance.

2. Wash off any release residue and trim the injection and bleeder sprues.

3. Cover the trimmed sprue points with fresh encapsulator material and allow it to cure. Then powder the appliance; it is ready for painting and application.

The steps for casting a regular silicone appliance are exactly the same—injected or hand-filled, minus the encapsulator; the oven curing is also an option and is by no means a necessity. In fact, if you use Polytek’s Plat-Sil Gel-10 platinum

RTV silicone, it kicks pretty quickly (within 15 minutes at room temperature) and can usually be demolded in less than an hour with no additional heat.

Updated: July 8, 2015 — 3:03 pm