3 Steps to Get Uncured Resin off Silicone

First, let me share the bad news. At some point, things are going to go sideways when creating with epoxy resin. You are going to make a big goopy mess, then ask yourself how to clean up uncured resin from silicone.

Now the good news is that you might be able to do it and salvage your resin mold.

Before we get into how to get that uncured resin off your silicone, let’s talk about why you have uncured resin.

Somewhere along the way, your resin and hardener didn’t complete the chemical reaction to harden. Here are 12 reasons why your resin didn’t cure so you can know what to revamp next time. Know where you made your mistake because that’s going to be important shortly.

Now back to business.

Here’s how to clean up uncured resin from silicone.

Step 1: Scoop out any liquid resin

If your resin is still liquid, pour as much as possible out of the mold into a plastic container. If it isn’t pourable, then scoop out what you can with a utensil that you can afford to throw away. Then dispose of the resin safely.

Step 2: Mix new resin and add to the mold

Mix a new batch of resin and add it to the mold, ensuring you cover the uncured resin. I hope you figured out what went wrong because the last thing you need here is to make the same mistake twice. Make a whole new mistake instead. 🤣

Step 3: Demold after curing

Should the resin gods find to bless you with success, the new resin will mix with the old resin. Then, you can peel it away from the silicone. Don’t count on this resin charm being anything you want to keep.

You might need to repeat these steps several times if you have a lot of uncured resin to get off of your silicone mold.

What if you only need to know how to clean up little tiny bits of uncured resin from silicone?

In that case, you have a couple of other things you can try that don’t involve mixing resin.

Use the adhesive side of tape to touch the sticky resin. The tape will pick up resin bits from your silicone mold.

You can also try freezing your resin. Put your mold in a plastic container (because that frozen pizza won’t taste any better with resin on it). Next, put the container in the freezer for 10 to 30 minutes. Pull it out and try demolding again. It may be solid enough to pull the resin out of the mold.

What if you’ve tried all these, and you’re still wondering how to get uncured resin off of silicone?

Here’s the nuclear option. You can try soaking the mold with acetone, isopropyl alcohol, or mineral spirits. But there is a better-than-good chance you will ruin your mold in the process. So, quite frankly, when I’m at this point, I let it go.  (Channel Elsa from Frozen as necessary.)

Are you tired of making resin mistakes?

You can keep going like I did (making months of stuff I didn’t want to show anyone). Or you can buy the ebook I wish I had when I started with resin 16 years ago. For less than the price of a resin kit, you can get the PDF book, Resin Fundamentals, and read it today.

Unpublished Blog Posts of Resin Obsession, LLC © 2023 Resin Obsession, LLC