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The Cured Silicone

After waiting about 20 hours and letting the silicone rubber cure overnight, I went ahead and “unmasked” the silicone to see how it cured. From the look of it, it cured quite nicely. It isn’t completely even as far as the whole thing being completely smooth and 1mm thick, but this really shouldn’t affect it’s performance. After further inspection, I found that there were no bubbles in the silicone! Bubbles are one of the main concerns when pouring silicone yourself. I think my success had to do with mixing the A and B parts for a good amount of time (12 minutes).

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Pouring the Silicone

Well, the silicone arrived today. It took 5 days from the time of ordering online. I’ve done a lot of research, talking to others that have poured silicone and watched a couple videos so I was prepared for what I needed to do.

The best video to date is from Blaxwan and it really provides great documentation and information on how to pour the silicone.

[youtube=”http://youtube.com/watch?v=bnjeWbvVCCo”]

Here are a couple things not mentioned in the video that I would like to add:

1) Make sure that you read the directions carefully on the package.

2) Measure out the portions of A and B by weight (not volume) with a gram scale. The main reason most people don’t get the silicone

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Compliant Surface Samples

Well, I recieved a couple samples of possible compliant surface silicone sheets. Unfrotunatley after some testing, I’ve found they won’t work for FTIR use.The first is from www.rubbercal.com. The durometer (hardness) of the sample is just too high (probably around 70) and therefore doesn’t stick to the acrylic at all. The other sample I recieved is from Rubber House on ebay. This sample is just too thick (1/16″), although it may be a great alternative if the supplier ever gets 1/32″ or thinner sheets in stock.

Since these samples did not “do the trick” and other mentioned brands posted on nuigroup.com aren’t ideal, I’ve decided to go ahead and order Smooth-On Sorta Clear 40 since it has been recommended on

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