Custom Soap Molds | Make It Work With SelfCAD

If you’re a Soap lover or like to profit by selling 3d printed molds to Soap Makers this tutorial is for you.

We need to create a custom cube so we will use the cube generator and we set the width to 50, height to 40 and length to 70.

Now, that we have the base ready. Let's move it a little to the left, so it won't disturb us.

Click on the Image to 3d tool, then click to select an image. We chose a headphones image with a SelfCAD logo included. You can obviously make your logos and images.

To make it perfect, we use the following setting Resolution 250, Tolerance 1, Amount -15 (the amount is responsible for the extrusion) and Blur 3.

We also switch on Antializing that makes the object looks smoother. Depending on the image type and quality you are using, you may need to use different settings from what I used.

Now that we have the first 3d image ready, we will scale it to it fit our objects length of 70 while proportionality rescale the other two sids as well, we are doing it by using the “Keep Proportion” option and we set the X axis to 70.

Our Soap mold design requires 4 different patterns so to work in an order we will first create the remaining 3 shapes before moving on to the next step.

Now that we have the building blocks ready, we can start the assembly process. First let’s align them with the same orientation. Select all the Image objects and rotate them by 90° on the X Axis. Then select and rotate the cube object by 90° on the Y Axis.

Now let’s create 3 more cubes so we can combine each image object with a cube object. I’m using the Copy offset tool to make the copies and I’m then using the move tool to center the objects but you can also use the Shift+Drag to copy and position the new objects.

Now we need to align the 8 object into 4 sets. Open the align tool and choose one of the image objects and choose a cube object as a reference, and select the Top Center reference settings.

Then we need to solidify the combined object, for this use the Stitch and Scoop Union tool and repeat the same process for all objects.

We also need to place them together and scale a little.

Now let's create the base for the mold for this we create another cube with 56 as width, 23 as haight and 76 as length and Rotate it by 90° on the Y Axis.

Then use Copy Offsets and make a copy. Then move it to center. Apply 3 times as well.

Now let’s select and rotate the 4 image objects by 180° on the X Axis. to make it face the base so that we can use it to cut out the patterns from the base and create the mold Pan

Now let’s move up the image objects by 5 on the Y axis. So that when we cut out the patterns we get a pan thickness of 5.

Finally let’s align the bases with the objects. This time I’m not using the align tool but rather simply centerng the objects.

For the base, I’m using the center option in the move tool and I’m manually positioning the image objects to 0, on its X and Z axis, so that we keep the Y axis elevated by 5.

Now let’s position the combined objects the way they need to be in the mold.

For this I'm moving one object to 43 on the X Axis and to 33 on the Z axis.

The second one to the same Z axis but to -43 on X axis. The third object I set 43 on X axis and -33 on Z axis. and the fourth one to 43 on X Axis and -33 on the Z Axis.

This gives us a distance between each mold pattern of 4 mm. Because molds have width 76, and pivot is located on the center of the mold, so when we are using the move tool, coordinates are relative to the center of grid, from the center of mold. So, when we moved object by 43, from the it's edge we moved it only by 2 mm (40-38 mm), and because we moved them on two different sides, distance between them is 2 mm * 2 = 4 mm.

Now let’s create the Mold Pan base.

For this create another cube, and Set the height to 4, width to 183 and length to 133.

Then move it up on the Y axis to 21.5 you can switch off the “Hide all objects” option, to better see how to size them.

Then using Move Tool, place it a little higher

Now let’s make a Pan Rim. For this select the Top view and switch to Orthographic Projection mode and open the free Hand Drawing tools. Then set the minimum precision step size to 5 and select the rectangular brush.

You can enter the exact measurements but I'm just eyeballing it first and I will later resize it so just follow my drawing.

Let’s first draw the outer shape and then to make the hole switch to the Erase mode and draw a smaller inner box, and Set the height to 7 and click apply to finalize the shape.

Now, to position it on the pan, we move it to 21.5 on the Y axis

Now I will use the round objects tool to round the Rim, but to make it work as expected, let’s first add details using the Resolution tool and set it to 4.

Then use the Round object tool and set it to 4 as well.

Then let’s move and scale it a bit to make it look better.

Now select the rim and click on Inverse selection. This is a fast way to select all objects except for one.

Now to create the final mold let’s cut out the objects from the base and for this we use again Stitch and Scoop but this time we use the difference tool and select in the dropdown the 4 image objects to cut out from the base.

To prepare the mold for 3d printing merge all object with the Merge tool and solidify them all into one, with the Magic fix tool with a Tolerance of 250.

This time I’m using the merge and Magic Fix technique, not the stitch and scop union tool, because it’s a good practice to use the magic fix, as the final step before printing, to make sure the objects are printable.