Premade Dice Molds: My Sophie and Toffee Experience

In this video I go over my experience working with the extremely popular Sophie & Toffee Dice Molds! i know a lot of people love these, so I may be upsetting a few folks with my experience, but if you have any tips to make my work with these Dice Molds better,t hen please let me know!

I love these dice molds for working with UV resin! i think it's a great start to UV resin dice making, and a fairly easy way for people to get into basic dice making. No complaints on these dice at all for the UV resin side of things.

Another worry that I have with these dice, is that because of the ridge on the dice, I worry about sanding the numbers down too much when removing the ridge on the dice. I hope that I'm proven wrong, but I don't think that I will be. I think that this will be an issue. :(

As far as working with these dice using regular Acrylic Resin, I don't particularly care for them.

Of course, your results may vary, but I had a rough time with these molds. Both trying with and without using a pressure pot, I ran into issues. I really feel like there needs to be air vents for you to completely reduce the chance of having bubbles form on your dice.

All the tips I found online told me to overfill the molds and let the resin squish out the side. They told me to put resin on the lid to help reduce bubbles on the numbers. They told me to pour super slowly. All these tips helped on SOME of the dice, but not all.

I think if there is a TRICK to making these work every time, then the molds should come with instructions on how to make them do just that. As hte fact that they do not, I can't recommend them for standard resin work.

Again, I know I could be doing it wrong. Tell me how to do it right and I'll gladly give these molds a redemption arc! I still think that they are great for UV, I'm just not a fan for typical resin work.

SUPPLIES:

If you have any ideas for what you would like to see built/reviewed in the future, let me know in the comments down below! Then subscribe so you don't miss any new videos coming out in the future! Also, if you liked this, gimme that sweet sweet like.

MUSIC:

"Renaissance Period" "Music For Youtube Videos" "Royalty Free Music"

LAKEY INSPIRED - Better Days

[konksmash]

Weird thought, you should take all of your “failed” dice and put um’ in a slab mold and pour clear resin over them and make a coffee or side table or sum :p

[resinAce]

You will always have problems when trying to pressure cast a fully enclosed mould. When you apply the pressure, the bubbles that were originally in your resin compress, which reduces the volume of the resin (along with the natural shrinkage of the resin as it cures). That reduction in volume has to be displaced, so if the mould is fully sealed (air tight) it will get sucked inwards. If there is an air gap (as there will be between the body of your mould and the lid) it will suck air into the mould through the gap. When you looked at your D6 and D12 while still in the mould you could actually see the path created by the air as it got sucked in. What you need is a gap with a reservoir of resin, which is exactly what you have with your homemade moulds. So when the trapped air is compressed (plus the resin shrinkage), it gets displaced by resin from the reservoir. ♠

[daliamolina]

Not gonna lie, those ‘failed’ blue bubble dice looked kinda cool
Like it would be nice for a sea foam theme

[BintaCoulibal]

this channel has become one of my favorites ever solely because of how soothing your voice is and how pretty the dice and other things you make/review are

[lioness]

I just used a hollow needle (I have blunt ones I use fro filling resin shakers) a punched a small hole in the lid. That gives it a release for the bubbles, but will create a small area of additional flash. But I would rather have a little more flash than bubbles, haha. Between that and letting the resin sit until the last minute (I do that for the glitter anyways) I can get some pretty good pulls out of them.

[martjanamoon]

uv resin: takes 2-4 minutes to cure
Rybonator: shines light on in for 10 minutes
uv resin: is fully cured
Rybonator: *surprised pikachu meme*

[doctorflippant]

Interesting video this confirms that I will be making my own molds. Very helpful

[daniig]

Some suggestions: 1. heat up your resin in a hot water bath before mixing it (in the bottle). Then once you've done your mixing with the two parts, AGAIN let it sit in a hot water bath with a stick still in. Once it's rested in that hot water bath again, you can pull out a bunch of the bubbles with the stick. Then do the lighter over the top and you'll have removed a lot of your bubbles from the resin before pouring. A coat on the top is good, as is doing a quick flip around with the top on to sort of coat all the surfaces so the bubbles won't be there. Also when you're putting the top on, kind of 'reverse peel' them on to push the bubbles out as you go.

[stillnotstill]

Me: oh wow those non-uv dice look *so cool*
Rybonator: they're bad, they're really bad
Me: oh yeah right, whoops

[rkaidia]

Something you can do to make the UV casting a little easier, put the mold on the lazy susan with the UV torch shining on it.

[susumuaoki]

Nonono, it's okay! Your opinion even brought some valuable information in the comments and is helpful for people who were planning on getting the molds+pretty new to resin-making♡

[librainred]

I've used these guys before, the one thing I would recommend when using UV resin is to try to do it in layers. You'll be able to control it better and be very sure that you'll get all of it cured without risking temp damage to the mold.

[snailorgy]

"overall everything looks fantastic, it's just got that problem of the void"
me too dice, me too

[Ryo-sjwn]

You should do a mouse themed dice set that looks like swiss cheese, that way you'd want the bubbles in the dice cause it's part of the theme =D

[serenab]

Thank you for sharing your fails - it is helpful to me. I save many of my fails and depending on the piece I am making I incorporate some. It also saves on resin use the smaller ones take up space.

[KargorocLP]

Yeah, I have these molds since I subscribe to S&T's subscription box, and I agree with pretty much everything you've said here. And even with UV resin bubbles can still be a pretty significant issue with these. I was really disappointed when I got them because I was so excited to make dice, but I made your style of mold out of translucent silicone after and they're just so much better.

[dollipoppette]

Pour slowly from higher up and more bubbles will pop on the way down. I let my filled molds rest for a few minutes before I put the lid on so the bubbles can rise. I’ve made a few sets with these molds and so far I’ve only had one “void” bubble d20, the rest have turned out pretty well.

[cmathews]

Thanks for failing and not being shy about sharing. Lessons learned are best when shared, keeping other from committing the same.
I’ve watched a few of your vids and you’ve inspired me to try resin casting. Thanks for that as well 😁

[aribo]

Thanks for reviewing pre-made molds, of course seeing your process is so much fun and really educational but seeing your thoughts pros and cons, is really nice. Keep doin you !

[KhanaHatake]

Could you make your own vent hole in these squish molds? Maybe a red hot needle through the top piece?