Anoyone watch Prison Break? Michael would press a key against soap, and then copy it, but it would be pretty hard to get that to work.What I want to do, is to find something I can press a key into(the whole thing, not just one side) to take the shape of the key, let it sit for a bit, then melt something to make it liquid, so it falls into it, and hardens solid to the shape of a key.I tried soap today, but it brokeOne main problem is that when taking the key out, it cannot take any of the mold material with it, or it will defect the shape of the duplicateI'll probably put a light layer of grease on the key to try to avoid it.So what is the best way?No stupid remarks about the law- I'm just doing this out of interest, and so I can open my house with a key I made, and show it off haha.
Chances are if you melt some soft'ish metal, like lead, iridium, aluminum or the like, two problems come up1) The hot molten metal will damage the mold2) if you did succeed and not ruin the mold, the key would be too soft to work probably, except say the aluminum, but you'd have to get that really hot to melt itYou cold make a mold out of play-doh.or make your own out of water, salt and flour, impress the key in it and then let it harden, but I don't know how well it keeps its shape upon dryingYou could try making a play-doh mold, but line it with a piece of aluminum foil when you make the 'impression'This might offer some protection when you pour in the molten metalOr.when the metal is molten, maybe you could lay a narrow strip of steel to give it rigidity and strength, but heat it up before trying it so it doesn't cool/solidify the molten metal before it has a chance to travel into all the groovesYou might be better off taking a piece of aluminum sheet.somewhat thickTrace the original key around it and then use files to cut the grooves, but that's would be toughI know.I'm offering more problems than solutions, but I'm doubtful about your experiment, altho I think it's a cool one.
