For those who make their own thumb molds...

[Graaille]

A quick question or two- I've heard that you can duplicate a thumbhole w/tape already in it so that it's exactly the same as the ball it's made from.

1. Most of the thumbholes I see that are cut out of a slug have a void underneath that looks like the casting material would flow down into that void and set up. Problem is that the void underneath the slug is the diameter of the slug, and smaller than the thumbhole that it's supposed to come out of. How do you extract the cast with that 'plug' on the end?

2. Related to #1 - my thumb is basically 75% knuckle, 25% meat. As such my best fitting ball was drilled to accomodate my knuckle, and I then took an old Vise fingertip grip and cut out the back third of it and glued it into the back of my thumbhole, and the covered it w/Frankentape. (Basically makeing a severe oval that won't allow me to knuckle the ball). Given that the grip doesn't go but 1-1/4" into the thumbhole, could a cast be made (and successfully extracted) to duplicate that feel. I know it won't be exact since the Vice grip material does have a small bit of cushioning to it, but at least close would be great.

[bowl1820]

Here's some info

This is brunsnick's site and he shows (pictures) of how a thumb mold is made

http://www.brunsnick.com/exactacated_thumb_mold.html

[Graaille]

Thanks for the link - it's what got me thinking about duplicating my thumbhole in the first place. My question was more towards the potential pitfalls of . . . shall we say . . . extracting from a thumbhole that doesn't have straight up and down sides around the entire area. (i.e. an insert that doesn't extend all the way to the bottom, therefore giving a bit of a bottleneck from the midpoint to the top.)

[Stormed1]

One of the guys i drill for has been having Buddies pro shop do thumb molds for him . It's $25.00 for the mold and $10.00 per slug. they say than can do thumb mold IT's too