# Making Foam Pumpkins



## Skiddy

After much searching, I have finally decided to make my own foam pumpkins for our haunted pumpkin patch this year. I came t this decision for a few reasons:

1. The cost of carvable pumpkins
2. The lack of a company that sells realistic foam pumpkins in anything but small sizes
3. The number of pumpkins my wife demands
4. I want to play with pourable foam

I figured I'd document this as I went along (hopefully this turns out) in case anyone was interested or wants to try this.

I decided to use fiberglass for the mold since I have a bit of experience with using it and I didn't want to spend the money of silicon mold making material. First I bought 2 sizes of carvable pumpkins from Michael's with a coupon. I started by cutting the large sized one in half.










Next I covered my work surface with some tin foil. This will allow me to create the flange around the mold. I covered the pumpkin half with carnuba wax and the tin foil around it as well. This acts as a release agent for the resin.










I got everything together and mixed up the resin. I was working alone so I wasn't able to take pictures of laying the fiber and stippling on the resin (10-12 min pot life!) but here is the finished product with 5 layers of glass.










After everything cured, I popped out the blank and viola, one half of my mold.










I ran out of time to continue tonight but I will update the post as I move forward. Stay tuned!

Skiddy


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## beelce

NICE......I like the way this is going....!


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## bobzilla

Very ingenious!
Great idea


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## Pumpkin5

:jol:If this works well, you're going to be my new hero! Fiberglass, I understand.


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## Lightman

This is great...watching and learning your technique. Very creative...


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## Skiddy

The other half of the pumpkin is layed up, just waiting for the resin to cure. Hopefully I can get them test fit tonight. I will post pictures of the fitting process.


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## Skiddy

Here are the two halves.










Test fit.










Now to sand the inside of the flange and add some structure to the top of the flange. After that, drill a pressure relief hole and wait for the foam.

On a side note, I'm kinda surprised to realize what a mess my shop is and how much this thing looks like a walnut!


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## RoxyBlue

A giant mutant walnut, too


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## Pumpkin5

:jol:Yay Skiddy! Looks real good....I think you are on to something great here. I can't wait to see how the pumpkins set in foam. I'm loving this tutorial.


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## azscoob

This is looking fantastic!!

I have worked with fiberglass many times but never for making a mold!


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## Skiddy

Just a quick update, I will be traveling with work for the next 10 days. By the time I get back, the expanding foam will have arrived and it will be time to try the mold. I'll post pictures of the process.


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## Skiddy

Running foam now, updates to follow.


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## Skiddy

The foam arrived today and I headed out to the shop.

First I filled one side of the mold with water in 24oz increments. Once full, I calculated the total volume of the mold. Next I coated the inside of the mold with turtle wax (carnuba, NOT silicon).










After a good coat, I gathered all of the clamps, cups and tools I was going to need. The pot life on the foam is approx 50 seconds, so you have to be ready to go!









A little paranoid









The foam is rising!










There you go, foam pumpkins for approx $5 a pumpkin!

A few tips:

1. I used measured water to calculate the total volume of the mold then divided by the expansion rate of the foam. This seems to work well.

2. Make sure to refresh the wax between each run of foam. I just used a dollar store chip brush to quickly coat the inside of the mold.

3. Wait a few extra minutes before de-molding! The package said 20 minutes but that is under optimal conditions.

4. The fiberglass mold held up great! This is definitely the way to go, due to the fact that you get good flex when de-molding.

5. Turns out I didn't need the Flex Foam-It, I just ordered regular Foam-It for the rest.

Now to complete 36 more for the wife! Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.
-Skiddy


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## azscoob

Skiddy said:


> Running foam now, updates to follow.


I had that once, turned out to be from undercooked chicken 

I'm looking forward to your results in this project...


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## azscoob

I see no pics, just blue squares..


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## Skiddy

just fixed them. Sorry bout that.


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## bobzilla

Sweet!
Such a great idea.....well done!


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## Mr_Chicken

Good thinking. I wonder why you are filling the whole pumpkin and not just swilling around a layer of foam? Could save you a lot of money, unless you need them solid.


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## Skiddy

Mr_Chicken - I plan to try something along those lines. This was more of a proof of concept, I wanted to see how well the mold worked.


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## Sytnathotep

Skiddy said:


> Next I coated the inside of the mold with turtle wax (carnuba, NOT silicon). .


That... is genius. I've been in need of a mold release as my skull mold is beginning to stick really bad. I'm so going to try that!

And also, I agree with chicken. try it with about 1/10 the foam and swirl it around until about set. If you get the foam-it colors, you can die it orange, and then they are quite realistic when carved!

Great work here, thanks for posting!
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/


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## RoxyBlue

Looks like you have a winner there


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## MoreGore

This is great, Did you ever manage to make these foam pumpkins hollow? I've been looking for a way to make my own "funkin" style pumpkins for my haunt. 

Any advice is always appreciated.


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## DVLSToy

now since you know it works well for full pumpkins, I would drill holes around the flange and use bolts/machine screws and wing nuts to secure it. Especially if you decide to try the hollow ones, no clamps in the way to swirl it.


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## Pumpkin5

:jol:This is loverly....I love the concept, the design....so user friendly...Thanks for all of your research. Looks MAH-velous!


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## morbidmaden

This is amazing thank you for sharing ! I cant wait to make 75 of these


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## BillyVanpire

great idea, you could even customize your object before molding it i bet.

add horns on the pumpkin or other 3d features with clay maybe.


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## sanityassassin

I was hoping to hang carved foam pumpkins form the trees with flicker LEDs in them, but the ones from the craft store are too expensive. This looks like a more affordable way to do it if you know how to work with fiberglass (which I don't). Are there other ways to make a similar mold?


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## BillyVanpire

sanityassassin said:


> I was hoping to hang carved foam pumpkins form the trees with flicker LEDs in them, but the ones from the craft store are too expensive. This looks like a more affordable way to do it if you know how to work with fiberglass (which I don't). Are there other ways to make a similar mold?


if you can find a hollow funkin with the same pattern on the inside as outside , you can cut that in half and use it as your mold.

use lots of release agent (vasoline is cheap)
you'll need a way to secure the mold together for filling as well. (duct tape)


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## HauntedAddictions

awesome idea! This year I'm thinking of adding tons of pumpkins in my cemetery so this would be extremely helpful and easy on the wallet-thanks!


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## punkineater

Fanflippintastic idea!!! Thank you for sharing :lolkin:


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## Mistress Macabre

I've never thought about making my own! Awesome idea! Thank you!


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