Sugru Molds

A thing here about how to make molds using a 3D printer and sugru… which I find interesting because the bit they just made is a bit that I’ve needed myself, over 5 billion times.

Initially I found Sugru to be quite annoying… not sure why. There was something a bit “yay” and “wow” about the way it was marketed… and I’m deeply suspicious of Hoxton types… I don’t know if the woman who made this is a Hoxton type, but the signs are there. Hoxton types made that little printer thing that looks a bit like hitler.

I’m just deeply suspicious of anyone trying to be “Passionate” about something they’re selling.

But then I bought some and it’s actually really useful. I’ve used it to replace all the rubber bits on my laptop that have gotten lost, as well as make this little thumb-guard thing to stop me accidentally hitting the touchpad, which was a real pain before. I’ve also used it for making a rubber foot for a clamp… for making golden mean calipers, and used it in place of heat-shrink on a cable that was always breaking. It’s weird stuff. Like blu-tak which turns into hard rubber.

Anyway, using a 3D printer to make molds is quite a neat idea… because it allows you to make a lot of very similar things very quickly. Which is pointing out the bleeding obvious I suppose… but it kindof bridges a gap. Not everything that we might want to make is a one-off. Things like candles or soap… or product-specific packaging… or toys… or… dunno. Art. Stuff gets interesting when you can do it big.