Baratza Encore Virtuoso Single Dose Hopper Silicone bellow cast mold

Was tired of repriting Bellows everytime it fails.  so i made a printable casting mold that you pour silicone into to make bellows which fits the led and bottom part of theledman's single doser. Used DIY silicone mix. 

This only replaces the bellow with silicone bellows to last much longer than printed TPU. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4810678

inspired by Milkman's "Eureka Mignon Bellows - Silicone Mold" for Eureka mignon. A similar approach was used and silicone instructions.

Print using PETG settings: 

• Slicing Tolerance = Exclusive

• wall count = 4 walls

• quality = 0.2mm

• Bottom settings:  20% infill, wall order outside to inside

• Outer: 20% infill, wall order for the bellow straight section: outside to inside with support. wall order for rest of print: inside to outside with no support (.3mf file uploaded)

• Inner: 10% infill, wall order for the bellow straight section: outside to inside. wall order for rest of print: inside to outside (.3mf file uploaded)

  • Printed wavy sections of inner & outer without supports and turned out ok in my ender3. those sections need to print inside walls first and also needs proper part layer cooling to avoid overhanging droop. 

• Mold hold piece seetings: 3walls, 20% infill no support.

designed to use screws i've had lying around <6mm dimater should work if the head is not small enought to get in the hole. 

screws need to be 70 mm or longer to hold everything with nuts and washers. i used 150mm long, see pics

**bottom and holder uploaded as parts to change hole sizing if required.

Assembly instructions: 

• putting the screws inside the bottom upside done

• inserting the inner part inside the middle of the bottom part

• on a flat surface seal the two outer peices with tape. then insert them into outer ring of bottom part.

• add tape on outer two parts (or rubber bands would work) 

• after every is in place add the "mold holder piece" and add washers on each side then use nuts to hand tighten the mold. try to get equal force on each side. 

• If there is a gap between inner part of mold and holder. add small pieces of plastic until tight enough  to see no movement on inner part. (filament could work, is used zip tie ends i cut earlier)

See full assembled picture.

Instructions Silicone: 

• In order to create a gap as tight as possible on the 2 walls before pouring silicone, you should put some tape on the outside. Additionally you could put some rubber band around the mold to hold it even tigther. 

• Now pour your silicone mix into the mold. I mixed my neutral looking silicone mix with few drops of black color to get a darker color. 

• Make sure you pour from very high place with moving where you pour slightly when you get build up of silicone in one area and move back and forth until you fill the mold and see silicone rise to the top of mold where you are not pouring. 

• After the silicone cured (I waited 24hrs or so), open the mold by removing the base first and then the 2 walls. I did this by slotting a knife into the slits where the walls meet and pry it open (make sure to do it slow and steady in order to not break the mold if you want to reuse it another time). Don't forget to remove the base first. 

• After removing the outer parts this it's the best time to remove any flash and cut any excess silicon (if you poured until top of mold).

• Then you can remove the inside by just “degloving” it. 

• This should now result in a finished silicone bellows that should fit the existing single dose hopper from user “theledman”!

• The final thickness of the bellows is around 3 mm and the mold should use around 50ml of silicone. I mixed a little bit more just to be safe around 66ml. 

See full assembled picture (Silicone was already poured)

***I used very Flexible silicone, (i think it was 15A) and sometimes it pops out, higher shore might be better. 

Edit: Soft Silicone (10A~15A) can pop out of the base. Soft Silicone holder ring can be printed to hold it secure to the base. See picture.