Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Epic Fail!

Though a bit on the downside, this posting is actually very cool, as it points out the importance and possibly the necessity of running tests.

The other day, I squished some silicone putty onto my little swatch of cape material to see if there would be any adverse reaction, and how the silicone may or may not attach itself to the fabric.

Here's how it looked after the putty had a chance to cure:



And sadly, here's how it looked after I pulled it off:



As you can see, it was a failure on both fronts. Literally. On the fabric side, it left a big greasy splotch. On the textured side, the silicone did not completely cure. REALLY good thing I learned this before plopping a full jar of silicone putty onto the actual cape. WHEW!!!!

This particular silicone putty is actually designed to be used with food. Perhaps as a result, it produces an oily surface coating, possibly to avoid messing up the food product you are molding. In retrospect, I should have known this from when I molded the belt, as it too left an oily residue. With the belt, it did not matter, as that was all urethene. But with the fabric, it just leaves a mess. I'm a little confused as to why the silicone did not fully kick on the textured side, as I thought it was made out of an inert material. Guess not. Something in it reacted with the putty, causing it not to cure.

So back to the drawing board on that one, I guess.

The good news though is widespread. I didn't do any damage to the full cape, and I've still got half the swatch to experiment with. I think my next test will be with plain old RTV. I'll just pour a bit over the top of it, and see how it interacts with both sides. I've already done a test on the textured side, and there were no problems. I guess I just need to find out how it will effect the fabric side.

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