What material and thickness is used for making plastic
chocolate molds? They appear to be vacuum formed from
sheet. Are there any special requirements for the
vacuum forming machine (above the usual considerations
for a vacuum formed product)? Any recommendations
for a good machine to use for low volume production?

Mark Thorson wrote:
> What material and thickness is used for making plastic
> chocolate molds? They appear to be vacuum formed from
> sheet. Are there any special requirements for the
> vacuum forming machine (above the usual considerations
> for a vacuum formed product)? Any recommendations
> for a good machine to use for low volume production?

If you are talking about the typical cheap bendy ones, I'd say don't bother.
They are too hard to work with. The professional rigid molds appear to be
liquid plastic poured into a mold.

you might want to try silicone...a friend created a special mold for an ice
cream cake (cinderella's castle)

I would think that since silicone can handle high heat, then you should be
able to use them and simple pop the chocolates out.

I've also used soap molds, candle molds, car parts molds, as well as
cornstarch with hard candies...if you are making a simple design chocolate
and plan to enrobe the chocolate you can use a cornstarch cocoa mixture for
molds (ex. in deep tray placed about 1 1/2-2in of cornstarch and then
sprinkled cocoa on top...took a paint stirrer and glued on these chunky
buttons I had gotten at the craft store...lightly pressed this into the
cornstarch...tempered the chocolate and VERY SLOWLY poured in to the
molds..let set...after setting removed from mold, brushed off any excess
cornstarch and then painted them with a mixture of melted cocoa butter and
powder food coloring...they were a big hit)

--
Ellyn M.
"Janet Puistonen" > wrote in message
news:6GAFh.9128$2u.1451@trndny04...
> Mark Thorson wrote:
>> What material and thickness is used for making plastic
>> chocolate molds? They appear to be vacuum formed from
>> sheet. Are there any special requirements for the
>> vacuum forming machine (above the usual considerations
>> for a vacuum formed product)? Any recommendations
>> for a good machine to use for low volume production?
>
> If you are talking about the typical cheap bendy ones, I'd say don't
> bother. They are too hard to work with. The professional rigid molds
> appear to be liquid plastic poured into a mold.
>

On Feb 28, 11:34 pm, Mark Thorson > wrote:
> What material and thickness is used for making plastic
> chocolate molds? They appear to be vacuum formed from
> sheet. Are there any special requirements for the
> vacuum forming machine (above the usual considerations
> for a vacuum formed product)? Any recommendations
> for a good machine to use for low volume production?

The material is food grade PET plastic. (that's P, E, T, not "pet")
You can buy it in many different thicknesses and the results will
make a very rigid mold which will last a long time. The thickness
should be 50 or 60 mm for ideal molds.

The flimsy molds found on eBay, etc. are simply made by companies
that are trying to save money by using thin versions of the
plastic.

For a vacuum forming machine, search eBay with "vacuum forming".
There is a $645 unit that should make molds up to 12" x 18" or so.
That's very cheap as vacuum formers go.

For small molds, look at a dental vacuum former. It will make a
mold about 5" by 5" These units sell for $150-$200 (don't buy
the over-priced ones).

Good luck.

07FLHRCI wrote:
>
> The thickness should be 50 or 60 mm for ideal molds.

Whoa! That's about 2 inches thick!
Maybe you meant mils (i.e. 0.001 inch)?