Design Nomenclature / Physical Model Making

Mold making

Also called mould making, moldmaking, tooling

The practice of making the negative: choosing where the parting line falls, deciding how many parts the mould needs, matching a rubber or a rigid material to the casting resin, and getting the part out again afterwards. Most of it is settled before anything is poured, by where the form undercuts.

Five panels left to right, numbered, each a small section with the step named beneath it. The master, tagged FINISHED; the same master crossed by a dashed line labelled PULL, which is where the parting line will land; the master buried to that line in a clay wall, with a round registration key cut in at each end; the master inside a containment box flooded with rubber to the same line; and the cured mould opened into two halves with the part between them.

In practice

The mould is not the deliverable — the number of good parts off it is. A one-part block mould that yields six castings beats a four-part mould that yields sixty, on a job that needs six.

Not to be confused with

How this term connects

Draft angleMasterMoldMold releaseParting linePatternRTV siliconeUndercutMold making
Related Confused with