Foam issues

Franciska Erdesz

Hey!

I am doing an arm with foam latex and everytime when I get out from the mold it is wet and very heavy/hard but it supposed to be fluffy. 
I am doing the 10% curing,20% ratio with the base.first 30sec,whipping till 6min,middle speed till 8min,low speed to 10:30,then comes the gel on holding the low speed and i but in the spatula to get the gel everywhere,this is 30secand a leav it in low speed for another 30sec. I put after it in to the mold,wait for gelling,than I put in to the owen and leave there for 6hours in 60 Celsius!
what am I doing wrong?

Chris Ellerby

What brand/formula of foam latex are you working with?

/Chris

Franciska Erdesz

The Monstermakers 

Franciska Erdesz

And during the making of this arm I have more and more questions. I always worked with silicone but this is a very different thing. For a bodybuilder arm should I make a closed mold, should I inject it, should I put in the mold some aeration hole?How thick can be the foam? Maybe my biggest mistake is that it is too much space between the core and the mold?! 

Chris Ellerby

Ok, their foam is pretty common.  As long as you follow their instructions the results should be ok, but with foam latex there are a lot of variables.  Things like humidity and temperature can have an impact.  The product also has a limited shelf life and can be sensitive to temperature, humidity, and UV while stored.  

You should not need any aeration holes.  Foam can be run quite thick, so something like a body builder arm should not be an issue.  It should bake in either an open or closed mold, but closed is usually ideal.  Injection is good, as that lets you apply a bit of pressure to make sure the mold is entirely full.

Sadly I don't run a lot of foam so I can't dive too deep into troubleshooting your issue, but I'm sure we have some folks here who have run more foam than I have!

/Chris