[Anthony B]

Thanks guys....

Gathering my thoughts let me start at the beginning.

To start off you need a supply of tyres that you wish to copy. They can be rock hard old tyres so long as they have not expanded as your copies will be just that exact copies, and thus is this case with a too large inner diameter.

Then you need to make silicone moulds of these tyres.

I take a cheap 'frites' dispenser that is made of thin cardboard. (I get these stocks from a large retailer of stationery and food supplies for small takeaway shops). Added to this you need to have disposable spoons, scrapers, ice cream type cups and stirrers - refer pic's below.

   

   

You will need a digital scale.

   

You glue the tyres you wish to copy to the bottom of the frites tub with contact glue.
let it dry. Then mix up your silicone mix - calculate enough to cover the tyres with enough to cover completely cover the biggest tyres.
This will take anything with to 15 hours to completely cure/dry. (mine took about 90 mins - Bonus :) )  ENSURE that you gently tap the tub to remove any air bubbles as it starts to cure - pour the silicone slowly and evenly into the tub to reduce air bubbles. You will need to measure the weight of each part of the silicone into their own ice cream tub, as it normally is 1:1 to mix. I got these silicone supplies from Amazon Germany

   

Once cured, you then remove the original tyres. I cut the cardbord tub apart and pull off the base gently, to avoid damage to the mould.

You are then ready to pour your tyre urethane (polyurethane). I got my solutions from Alec Tiranti & co in UK. (as mentioned in another thread they will not at the moment post outside UK - I used family for help in this)

   

My first mistake was to use too much of the two mixture parts into the ice cream tubs - It says on the label that is has a pot life of 8 mins - mine was going off after 1 min- so trick is to pour small volume - +/- 20g . You need to add black tint otherwise it dries clearish. You mix the 3 items, and then once stirred you use syringe to suck it up and inject into the mould.  I landed up using 1 syringe per batch. But as they are 3 euros for 10 - not expensive.

In terms of cost, I would say including moulds, the total cost is around 95 euros. BUT a LOT of the equipment is used to make multiple batches of tyres.

In my first batch, because I was not ready for the fast curing, I made some mistakes on the tyres. I cast 47 and 9 were duds - refer pics. However I will use those for decoration on my track - so not a complete waste.
If you buy for eg 6x4 sets of tyres -probably cost 35 euros? For that I will make a few hundred tyres I am sure.- Time will tell.

First Batch:


   

The duds

   

I have to thank John Warren HUGELY for the impetus, and the sharing of his knowledge to get me going down this road.  I hope this helps you, and feel free to ask question :)