Alginate - mold material. Anyone tried this?

[Shawn R. L.]

Had a tooth fall apart, went to the dentist and they took a casting of my teeth with this stuff called Algiante. The tech put some powder in a bowl with water, stirred it up, put a big wad in my mouth and had me bite down. Within a minute, no more, the stuff had set up to a good rubbery mold. Got me to thinking how useful that may be for modeling. I\'ve looked it up on the web, haven\'t bought any yet, and it seems fairly cheap. Cost, fast setup, and non toxic made it seem a good candidate for using for modeling.

Anyone have any experience with the stuff?

 

[Dragonsreach]

Originally posted by Shawn R. L.
Anyone have any experience with the stuff?

Generulpoleaxe used to be a Dental technician so he\'s the best person I know to give advice on this material.

 

[Springbok]

Hi Shawn,
My wife works for a dentist, and she brought me home some to experiment with. Basically it works fine for low-ish detailed moulding, but you need to get the powder to water ratio pretty much spot on (1:1) and you have about 40 seconds to do the impression, also be careful of bubbles in the mixture!
If you want to try it, and your ordering from a dental supplier, you might be better off getting some IMPREGUM or AQUASEAL.
Hope it helps!

 

[freakinacage]

as i understand it, alginate can only be used for a few days, after which it degrades. dries out i think. silicone is quite good. we have stuff in the uk called silligum. it\'s a 2 part that sets in 5-10 mins. great stuff and similar texture to the alginate i remember my dentist using. can be used over and over again and picks up fairly good detail

 

[generulpoleaxe]

the alginate needs to be kept wet other wise it dries and crumbles.

it\'s best for plaster casting (which is why dental technicians use it for making crowns and dentures)

it\'s also good for casts of peoples faces and other body parts with plaster placed on top for rigidity as it even gets the impressions of the skin (used to use it for making latex masks etc as well as when i was a dental technician)

for minis, it wouldn\'t be worth it.