Which product should I use for my project?

Start with these three questions. This is the fastest route when you don't yet know what type of product you need:

  • A mold or a casting? They are opposites. A mold is the negative: the cavity that captures the shape of your original. A casting is the positive: what you pour into that mold to reproduce the original. Flexible rubbers are what you make molds from; rigid resins, epoxies, and foams are what you cast into them.
  • How flexible, or how hard? Hardness is measured on the Shore scale, and the selector filters by it directly: Shore 00 for gel-soft and squishy, Shore A for flexible-to-firm rubbers, Shore D for rigid plastics. A lower number means softer.
  • What's it touching? Skin, food, high heat, or a fragile master each rule certain products in or out (see the safety and release FAQs).
Quick rules of thumb:
  • Lifecasting and body molds → Body Double / Alja-Safe
  • General-purpose, forgiving mold → Mold Star.
  • High-detail, multi-purpose mold → Mold Max.
  • High heat pewter casting mold → Mold Max 60.
  • Concrete casting mold → Vytaflex / Brush-On.
  • Super-soft silicone → Ecoflex.
  • Rigid white casting plastic → Smooth-Cast 300.
  • Water-clear casting → Crystal Clear
  • Easy to color resin → Smooth-Cast 325.
  • Rigid urethane foam → Foam-iT.
  • Flexible urethane foam → FlexFoam-iT.

If you know the material family you are looking for, our online product selector narrows it down fast. You start by checking a Product Category, the chemistry groups such as tin-cure or platinum silicone, urethane rubber, urethane resin, expanding foam, epoxy, or adhesive, then stack on filters for the specs that matter: pot life, cure/demold time, mix ratio, viscosity, and cured hardness, among others. Each filter further trims the result count.

If two products look similar, the deciding factors are usually library/pot life (how long you have to work) and hardness. Compare the Technical Data Sheets (TDS) side by side before writing in.

Learning Center:
Full guide: Choosing a Material for Your Application