Advice wanted on silicon molds for making wax patterns

Hello folks,

I’m hoping you might be able to offer me some advice. I’d like to
start making my own molds for wax patterns. We’ve recently bought a
vacuum casting setup, and we have a wax milling machine, but I’m
learning to hand carve too, and I’d like the flexibility of having
an in-house method of producing copies of my originals. I’m not
talking about a moving all the work in-house, but I want the option
to be there. What I’m unsure of is which materials are best for doing
this - presumably silicon, but even then, there seem to be countless
formulations depending on the desired result. I also need some means
of getting the wax into the molds, and this is where cost really
kicks in - I need a cheap solution for this last part.

I’m looking forward to seeing what you can suggest. Apologies if
this message ends up badly formatted, or if I take a few days to
reply - Ganoksin seems to eat my messages in a very strange way, and
I only receive the daily digest sporadically!

Jamie Hall
http://primitive.ganoksin.com