Open source chocolate molding with porous 3d printing by Jonathan David Schroder
Watch on YouTubeVideo summary
Jonathan David Schroder, a software developer and chocolate enthusiast with professional training in mold making, presents an innovative approach to creating porous 3D printed molds for low-relief designs like logos. He begins by demonstrating the traditional tempering process required for high-quality chocolate molding, explaining that achieving specific crystal structures is essential for proper setting. Using tools such as Inkscape and Blender on older hardware due to budget constraints, he prepares vector models which are then sliced with Cura or PrusaSlicer settings optimized for porosity rather than structural strength. The core of his presentation focuses on the vacuum forming technique using Polypropylene (PP) sheets, a material chosen specifically because it is heat-resistant and food-safe compared to standard PLA prints that might melt under chocolate temperatures.
The video details the practical challenges and solutions involved in adapting filament 3D printing for this specific application. Schroder explains that unlike resin printers which require ventilation holes drilled into models via CNC or manual drilling, FDM printed molds can utilize their natural porosity if configured correctly within slicing software. By adjusting infill patterns to be less dense at the bottom and top while maintaining internal support structures, air can flow through the plastic matrix during vacuum forming without deforming the print. He contrasts this method with resin printing, noting that filament printers are generally cheaper and safer since they do not use toxic resins that could contaminate food products like chocolate or caramel fillings.
Throughout the demonstration, Schroder shares his experiences traveling with large 3D printed molds in unconventional ways due to space limitations, highlighting the durability of PP sheets even when transported upside down. He guides viewers through the vacuum forming process step-by-step, from heating the plastic sheet over a mold box to applying suction and then filling the cavity with tempered chocolate or caramel cream. While acknowledging that beginners might encounter issues like air leaks or uneven shaping on complex geometries, he emphasizes that these molds are perfect for simple logos and characters where high detail is not critical. The presentation concludes with tasting sessions of various fillings, including a salty butter biscuit mixture inspired by Brittany cuisine, showcasing the versatility of this open-source chocolate molding technique for both hobbyists and small-scale producers.
Read the full video transcript
my name is Jonathan David Shredder my
nickname on the on geub is myself
himself and I I will first uh start not
presenting okay and because the
chocolate is ready so we have some
chocolate molds here for the lgm logo
and I will explain after what it is
thank you for heating the
chocolate so and so we have these two
mod but I will have to make the
traditional way of tempering that is to
say I will create some types of crystal
in the chocolate chocolate can have six
types of crystals did you know did you
not know no you didn't know so we'll try
to create Crystal type number five or V
like V like a Roman V okay let's go
so okay so I check the temperature of
chocolate right now it's 43° C it's
good but I need to put uh okay I'll make
the whole curve for this so I will make
it go down to uh 28 degrees something
like this okay let's go action so this
is a bow with ice and we just have to
wait okay so I do nothing and I come
back
okay uh so we'll start the presentation
now I try to avoid to put chocolate on
the microphone okay
wait
H so let's
go it's about poos pastry mold making so
you will see the whole process how to
make molds with the pho fing technique
also known as vacuum farming so first
it's about me I have a professional
diploma for chocolate but maybe today
this will fail okay sorry and I'm about
to have the professional diploma for
pest three but today also it will fail
maybe so and there sometimes they do
industrial design so this box at the top
right it's a Advent calendar and we have
sold with a friend one F boxes of this
it's a chocolate chocolate with stacks
on it molded
and uh during life to because I'm broke
when I do chocolate I a software
developer and I work for Adobe Premiere
I've worked also for a gpie this Bing
which is sleeping a gpie it's me why is
it sleeping because of me so sorry if
you don't manage to compile it anymore
whatever okay so uh I specialize in low
rela mold making so not very not to make
characters and to start the game I will
just make this bag go in the here uh
around you you can open it and see it's
what I do best so it's basically logos
and uh characters and it's nice to see
so it's low relief so I me this
presentation to be very fast I will
check the
temperature so 39 degrees I have to stir
bit cuz uh there will be too there will
be too many Crystals at the bottom on
the Chate right chocolate assistant so
he will be the chocolate assistant so he
will take a b escape and I will do some
yes okay that's about inscape this slide
but there is nothing more let's Okay so
this is
uh okay you have to reach 28 29 degrees
and then we go up to 31 32 degrees the
goal is to create two types of crystals
the beta and beta Prim beta Prime what
is a prim P quot okay Prime okay and
then we'll go up to 41 42 degrees and
the
beta Prime will go away it will dissolve
and beta will
remain you must succeed okay if it fell
there okay sorry for you but okay so now
uh so what we have decided with Cedric
is it would be nice to make moles for
the event so I've made some moles but
not for everyone as you wrote on Linux
Affair I was very stressed everyone will
have his mold I'm sorry I just have six
so anyway so and uh so to make a mold
you can use inkscape for example a
vector program so that's what I use most
of the time
okay then you can make a 3D model for
for this I use blender but if you see
this is blender. 79 because my computer
is so
old it's 10 years old so pgl does not
work anymore if if I get higher versions
and so basically you oh no we will okay
it's something like this okay it's you
print plastic but and this is just a
simple
model and I did not
use Boolean maybe I used it I don't like
how it works in blender because it fails
most of the time I mean to make a clean
mesh for 3D printing it's not funny so
then and I use the 3D printing toolbox
maybe you know it it's a plugin for a
blender there and it allows you to check
uh the mesh structure next you can use a
freead it's good except that it crashes
when you try to make a bevel of SVG logo
in freat it's been years like this so I
don't use it so and then you use a
slicer so you can use a Cura P slicer or
a bamboo slicer which a fork and maybe a
PR slicer is a fork
of I have
forgotten yeah slicer with a free with a
free in yeah exactly so we must give
credit to the good
people so this is this part which you
see on the screen this and this is a
part of the lgm logo there are four
parts and
we have everything we have everything
okay so uh then it's got printed here in
the
entrance okay
[Music]
and no
no I mix in my head it's my fault I did
a bad I said to him B temperature to
to okay and then we we can make a mold
with a vacuum farming machine this is
one and I I usually don't use such
machines because they are complicated to
travel with so I have to travel I had to
travel with this in a supermarket bag
for groceries and the upside down
because it's too big here so I had a
tough night trying to find what to do in
the
so and I will show you how to make
vacuum farming because you've seen
printing in the entr now it's time to to
make some mold okay and then there is
technical stuff but we'll start vacum
foring
now I'm sorry for
you okay so let's go so we which part do
you want we will take the new one
because we don't have this one this one
is the last one it just it's fresh from
the printer people okay so go it's here
and now I'll take a
sheet okay you don't see anything I'm
sorry sorry
[Music]
okay I hope it will succeed
today trash there
okay so this sheet is PG I like it
because it does not break when it's too
warm P normal without gcol it breaks so
this does not break and it's used for
medical use and food it's food safe as
well so
okay so so in order to kill time Mark
will do something very nice he will take
this sa mix which was what's done with
love here in the house and put it in the
big mold that we have
I will come back to look for Si off
I I have no idea what I'm
doing that doesn't change me from when
I'm coding on
Escape
so I had to hit this to a precise
temperature and now it's gone and
it's dropping inter
pressure people two War people here
please take a shower what I don't know
okay for5 we'll wait a bit
okay so we'll do the vacuum farming to
occupy time
I don't have precise information
I don't have the manual I am the
manual okay
can
when it blows you take the down
okay
fire
okay so I will take
the I will take the chocolate on okay I
we try
to pipe to pipe
them smells good
okay if the ground is dirty it's your
fault
always left hand
I so
okay so I just pipe inside we have six
chocolates to pipe
very soate for this why let's go
action okay it's piping think you don't
see anything oh
no okay
action okay don't
look okay so I have to shake it okay to
remove the
B okay this one is ready let's say okay
now
okay
Prof
okay M
check it's I wanton I know I have to bar
today is special day so I won't do
it the remove
[Laughter]
the he's giving me orders with technical
kitchen terms in French which I don't
know
about I have Tob so if someone knows
about it tell me what I have to do
[Music]
it's all over the edge The Edge theed I
had no
information like me so okay we come back
this good okay I will show you on
okay make it clean Okay okay something
clear okay let uh professional you do
okay
sure 10 years experience 10
years it's not 10 years it's just two
years and some Chef don't like me like
what you do last day with me okay okay
then go to next
company
okay this
here no
okay so let's go this asist
[Applause]
so so
this so this will go in the freezer but
our freezer is too hot today it does not
make so nice nice ice so I have some old
ones which I try to get out of the
freezer so I'm making this for nothing
huh so I'm making this for nothing wa
[Music]
the sidge is not
so
okay this that's spoiler thing
okay
okay it's okay I did I did a good job he
told
me so now now that that is gone what
happens if this makes
noise
run chocolate is
G foree
[Music]
yeah
the so I want to volunteer to make the
next mod
pleas okay
good okay after this you have to undo
the clamps first okay good and then
raise this remove this drawer
remove take
this
good for to
assistant assistant of the
assistant good perfect yeah what have
you done this before h no
we should take
a
ready tell me what to do okay so you
take this and you put on the canas mhm
three of
them have you done this before no I have
some experience with but not with okay
just space it more
because then take this sh and you will
put it on top but you must remove
the the two sides
okay I have
we have to P first you'll make a drop of
caramel so look at
the
okay this you can
make everywhere
it's good it's good have you done this
before no okay no so I have idea what's
going to happen but uh it's good yeah
this way is good good
inside are you from Germany yes M and
engineer sorry machine and engineer
maema
okay wa wait this is the magnet should
go this way okay it's very broken stuff
but
it's hot here
why why time change time
change I love what you do I it's
beautiful you cannot see it
so yes I
okay okay small okay so
now good now you can uh pull this up
okay so this is is a heat and at the
bottom is a vacuum like
Hoover
and you can press okay many
times where
the okay and okay it says okay then
press the R button oh it say select
material yeah we keep this
material it's
good it's
good good so
not like me when it starts to make noise
it finish you just take it down with
this the handle okay you can do better
than me you're German I'm half German
okay
so I like what you
do yeah someone wants to pipe cream you
want to pipe cream you did it you want
to pip cream
please
please oh yeah have many assistants
here
so
yes ready already okay so you cut this
here you know how to cut it and you turn
you keep it and you turn
okay okay ready
so as you see this is a magic machine
because it's PG but on the screen it's
not written PG it's written
hdpa it's it's the wrong plastic no I
prefer this heat it's like a warmer for
summer is nicer
so very
nice
yeah okay
okay I show you because it
will no it's a success we have some
success in this
adventure
okay have magic effect
okay so I I'm going show you one
okay okay she did this with love lot of
love so let's
go it goes out this way I mean up also
so it makes like tears and
so I don't know what to show you with
this because it's
complicated St
okay
yes you can do like this very Advanced
okay this is 10 years of experience to
make
[Music]
this you can press again on the Press
again the big
button okay what's your
opinion I'm sorry for you I'm not
satisfied but it looks my first time it
looks like
a so let's
[Music]
wait
yeah you want to fill the cookie for
this I can do that
okay you want someone to put it on the
screen yeah what the the everything ah
video assistant yeah
video
I
okay
so after we need the assistant people to
eat not sure they really wish next
assistant
please okay so
um looks good looks
good you do
[Music]
nothing is a bit harsh okay
okay work in progress Alpha
[Laughter]
One
okay I will bring some um
this is to taste
okay this is SP
maybe it's
out
yes you Anna no so Anna is a very nice
woman because she whips the
cream nice who wants to taste anyone to
taste please four spoons four people
please taste
something too much lemon sorry no try
try okay so it's a new Trend it's called
sa compos so you basically
take biscuits from brutan you mix them a
lot and then you put butter butter even
more so it has even more butter and this
one is salty butter because it's Britany
you know so I can volunteer as well if
you
want thank you
you make a strange face or what
very welcome to Britany people welcome
to okay want
to okay
so if you want to come back home with
cream we have two kilograms of cream
something like
this not
strange very good not enough lemon no
sorry if I'm very
critic bad bad critic
sorry go let's go next to the
presentation if you want to eat
this who wants to eat more no okay
cool assistant next
Oney many assistant here so let's
continue the
go let's go let's go let's I will
um can I can I take the screen back
please you want you can take this out
because it's now hard so the PG sheet is
now stiff it can be removed otherwise if
it's hot and you remove it now it
will take the memory of a new shape and
now it's quite flat it's
good so at the end of the Pres
presentation we take the chocolate
out because it needs maybe 20 minutes in
the fridge so let's go let's
continue yes don't worry it's your first
time not worry it's your first time
don't wor my first time we are worse
than this okay a superstar and I have a
lot of respect for you because you are
German it's true my father is German
that's why so I have half
yeah sorry yes there some way so let's
continue it's the last talk so we don't
have to take the
mic you want to make new one
or no we don't have any sheets but uh we
have to go away and cut for you sorry no
let's
continue oh it's good so you want to
press the
button no no no no I want to respect you
a bit L okay so we have some issue with
this technique and you've seen okay
maybe the maybe you can pass this by the
the that
around so as you see it's not very
detailed because this person has little
experience is like me on the first day
yeah and you can pass by the 3D prints
the black
ones
so I can pass the three ones the those
three 3D prints were pred by my boss
he's nice guy and uh they have three
different ways of being
printed so you know before I show it I
give you one piece of cake okay so let's
continue There is the limit with f
farming for higher details it is
skirting or that it makes skirt so in a
picture is like this on the left it's in
precise you see in Orange the air flow
and the air flow is going all around and
in the end the white sheet are at the
top okay the way sit at the
top uh is uh it does not spouse the
shape it's it does not take the shape
very well on the right side if the air
flows
through through the
volume then the
shape is uh of the sheet is better so
the solution for this is to use vent
vents is something that we know well in
industry and at the top you see a drill
and basically vents in the industry are
holes made with drills on CNC for
example with CNC
machines so and you can do vents
yourself with a drill for example with a
Dremel machine and one issue is that
with the filament 3D printing if you use
a druml it's too warm it will just make
your 3D print ugly so because it melts
the
plastic so there are there is another
way to make holes in your shape and this
is comes from laa they've they've raised
a lot of money on French TV recently
thanks to for a Bas three 3D
printer LA
and plan don't speak full mouth okay so
so you can make holes on the 3D models
like this you just make a Boolean
operation and in order to have finer
details you see holes on the edges
around and inside the
cavities
okay and so it's you have an idea of the
porosity of a 3D print when you put it
on the
light but this is really difficult for
people who don't Master CAD who don't
Master fedd modeling so well so there is
another technique and this happens and
as a postprocess and it's I name it
interesting porosity of filament deposit
manufacturing so basically when you 3D
print not in resin but in filament the
filament is naturally porous it lets air
go through but we can improve this a
little
bit so you go on the slicer level and on
the right side you cannot read and I
can't as well because I don't have my
glasses
so what it says basically is that we
don't have any bottom
layer so that the eror can go through
from the
bottom and we don't have a
very uh shallow infill the infill is not
so strong but it must not be so weak
because otherwise you will have things
like this be where the
chocolate so this this fre impr print
has not survive the farmer farming
because of heat and vertical pressure
and you see that it's deformed its shape
is completely
changed so we should be aware of this
magic technique don't make it too strong
so uh this is a schema of this you
see the I don't
know the
purple at the bottom there is no layer
we don't want any layer
here or green no bottom layers or almost
none we need some support inside so some
in field but not so
dense and at the top we can have some
ironing to make it nice but
uh but even if there are top layers air
should go through because filament is
interestingly
porous this is nice because if you the
same setup at the slicer level for
interesting porosity you just keep using
it and you don't have to make any holes
on the cad modeling steps you don't have
to make any bullan operations and you
don't have to drill anything on your on
your FR print and by the way you don't
have to use resin the all the time
because resin stinks resin is not good
for health and resin you can put resin
everywhere like chocolate everywhere so
and by also a 3D printer are quite cheap
I know that resin printers now get much
cheaper you know resin
printers ah some people say okay so this
is the summary of
the
settings you know this already I've told
you and there is also adaptive layers on
to make nicer
sides so these are the three 3D prints
we which are circulating here or they
back two our back so maybe you've seen
only the top why did you look at the top
why why the top is the same for each of
them right so but if you look at the
bottom like this this one this bottom
you see nothing because it's 100% in
F okay and the result should be uglier
you don't see the inner shapes but on
this machine I don't know why it's the
same
result this special day today
so no no no even me well first day you
and me first day so this is 60% in field
I don't remember if it's cubic I think
it's not cubic but it's some kind of
grid and it could be could
be less than that or with wider wider
areas it
works and now this is a g so it's a sort
of Bio inspired
pattern for infield I think it's based
on
mathematical formulas but we maybe could
use bio inspired infields like in the
sagada Familia of Barcelona in Spain by
Gaudi his pillars are look like trees so
there is this trunk and then branches
and it spreads the weights evenly nicely
with very little um material
used de time
sorry that was it okay thank you thank
you very
much
[Applause]
Mery so sorry I was not there the whole
day because I was trying to prepare this
but it ended up well so thank you thank
you