Yo. Sorry, I haven't posted here in a while. Haven't posted anywhere in a while really, because I've been busy working my ass off.

I tried latex, it's not going to work. It sticks, it smells bad, it off-gasses inconsistently in the same way latex paint behaves.

I've had mixed successes with platinum cure silicone. First off, the stuff is expensive no matter from whom you buy it. It's also subject to cure inhibition, where it doesn't set up in the when coming into contact with certain materials, such as other types of rubber.

However, there are blends that are stretchy and durable. My record so far is making seven bicycle handlebars from a single pressure bladder before it finally ruptured. The behavior to avoid is what I call "tunneling", where your carbon preform deforms unexpectedly under pressure, and allows the bladder to expand too far in an isolated zone. This expansion can be held for about two hours.

The point is, if you're doing pressure molding with a bladder, and you're new to it, it can be super frustrating to identify ways that a well made bladder might get killed simply by asking it to do too-hard of a job.

I haven't needed to do it for vacuum bags myself yet, but I could totally see how the material would indeed make a fine vacuum bag. Something similar was a set of gaskets I made for some custom, very-small-size vacuum catch pots. Something you'll have to keep in mind with vacuum bag use is that this silicone has mixed behavior in terms of its abrasion and tackiness with other materials. For instance, mastic / tacky vacuum tape doesn't stick to this stuff at all. Might as well bounce off.

You can see the kinda parts I'm able to make with silicone bladders at the site I put up recently, http://www.regular.bike/

Did you give latex a try?

Plasti dip is like a coating over here in the UK for putting nice patterns on things, gets floated on water then you push the part through ,i wouldn't envisage it making a bladder

Yeah I know what you mean - funny thing, I had some guys do some handy man work to install an attic ladder because I was just post-op on my shoulder. Small world, one of the dudes was Arthur Fry, doing handy work for fun. And man I have never seen anything carpentry related get installed so well or so quickly.

IME ive seen a fair few go down with an idea when a big company has steamrollered them ,morally its not right but hey what can you do

I worked with a guy who made robotic arms, well he made the prosthetic sheath fro the arms hairs wars and all IIrc they were all one offs for each amputee and dipped latex, nothing fancy ,production ones came along with an entire factory i think it got to the US insurance companies and by the time each member of the chain had their cut it was 50k which made it only available to those with insurance and no arms not those who could scrape together the money. sad but it put me off corporate life for life