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Anyone who's been on SA for more than a few months knows that there are some bizarre sex toys out there. Insertable, inflatable, penetrable, grotesque, painful, oversized, and just plain gorgeous. I decided to give the hobby a shot a few years ago, and it was surprisingly easy to learn. Making dildos doesn't take any particular skill beyond a knack for 3-dimensional artwork (and I mean "artwork" in a very loose sense). The equipment isn't too expensive and you don't need a dedicated workshop, but don't expect to get your security deposit back after basting your carpet in liquid silicone. If you'd like to go one step further and actually sell these dongs, there is bottomless (hurrr) demand for fantasy toys. People will gladly pay ten times what they cost to make.  There are an awful lot of great people in the dildomancy business. Fellow independent manufacturers can become great friends, and loyal repeat customers ensure that there's never a lack of work. But the dildo world is not all sparkles and anthropomorphic unicorns, my friends. Like most industries, there is a dark undercurrent. Suspicion, espionage, and sabotage all lurk beneath the surface. On top of that, there are some infamous customers out there that we all avoid, and for good reasons!  I stopped selling dildos after a couple years when I came to a few realizations: 1) I couldn't come close to satisfying demand 2) I already had a full-time job, and working a second wasn't for me 3) My coworkers started to suspect something was up 4) There is unending drama in the dong biz  Ask away - I'll answer anything I feel comfortable answering. By the way, if a mod is handy (I don't have plat), I'd like to know whether it's kosher to post un-spoilered, inline pictures of dongs. EDIT: An eldritch abomination of an elf dildo was produced for the thread, and is available for purchase. The post containing ordering info is here. Dildomancer fucked around with this message at 12:25 on Aug 30, 2016 |
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Aug 8, 2016 22:47
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What's the weirdest dildo you made? What's the weirdest request you had that you refused to make? What do you really want to make, but the technology doesn't exist yet?
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Aug 8, 2016 23:17
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Are you the Bad Dragon guy?
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Aug 8, 2016 23:19
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Poldarn posted:What's the weirdest dildo you made? Weirdest dildo: I guess it depends on your perspective, but probably one that was a giant radish with a flared base. It did not turn out well because it's such a bizarre shape. Weirdest request I refused: Had a couple people ask me to make dildos that looked like realistic turds. I might not have much dignity left, but at least I said no to something. What do I want to make: Teledildonics and haptic feedback are pretty cool fields, but the technology is already there; it just hasn't really matured or made it to market in mass quantities. As for something that straight-up doesn't exist, I'd say variable-firmness toys.
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Aug 8, 2016 23:23
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ALL-PRO SEXMAN posted:Are you the Bad Dragon guy? Hell no, even the craziest dildomakers all agree that dude's a douche.
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Aug 8, 2016 23:23
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Dildomancer posted:Hell no, even the craziest dildomakers all agree that dude's a douche. A couple questions as a follow-up: 1) Have you listened to this F Plus episode? 2) Could you please explain in vivid, lengthy detail all the ways the Bad Dragon guy is a douche.
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Aug 8, 2016 23:35
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ALL-PRO SEXMAN posted:A couple questions as a follow-up: 1) I haven't, might someday if I've got time to kill. 2) In some sense, what he's infamous for are just business practices - bullying competitors out of business with bogus lawsuits, buying up a bunch of websites and spamming them with his ads, trademarking names of toys that other people have made... and then you get to the shadier stuff, like straight-up stealing or knocking off smaller manufacturers' designs. There's the heavy-handed moderation of his forums that bans anyone for posting a remotely negative review of a product, his incredibly poor quality control, ridiculous price gouging, publicly attacking anyone he sees as a threat to his business... And there are a lot more, uh, moral shortcomings that I'd love to mention, but I don't want to end up on the wrong side of his lawyer. The less said about the dude, the better. Dildomancer fucked around with this message at 23:49 on Aug 8, 2016 |
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Aug 8, 2016 23:46
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Bad Dragon dude is a rapist. That's the moral shortcoming OP is referring to.
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Aug 9, 2016 01:54
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How often did people want to return used items, and did you agree to? What's the general allure of those 'egg' kegel dildos? The kind that look like beads, but are bigger and without a string. Do people just want to poo poo out pseudo dargon eggs? What were your top selling dildos? Or did you mainly do OOAK custom pieces? Did you also make other things like orifices, or just stick with dildo type toys? Re: bad dragon guy Apparently some employees of bad dragon have/had been making transphobic remarks on facebook so there's another reason why they're a lovely company. Also it's about ethics in dragon dildo.
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Aug 9, 2016 05:02
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I mostly just want to hear about dildo-industry drama, as much as you feel comfortable sharing.  Actually, one other thing -- is there a substantial "fantasy dildo" market that isn't furries/bestialists? You mentioned a radish and realistic turds (ohhhh boy), but how many customers in this market don't just want animal/mythical-creature dongers?
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Aug 9, 2016 05:42
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Has anyone ever requested an Ouroboros dildo that fucks itself forever?
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Aug 9, 2016 09:35
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Animal-Mother posted:Has anyone ever requested an Ouroboros dildo that fucks itself forever? Welp, I know what I want for Christmas
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Aug 9, 2016 10:32
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Wedemeyer posted:How often did people want to return used items, and did you agree to? Maybe 1-2% of the time. I'd typically offer a refund or replacement and let them keep the original toy, since the return shipping would probably cost me more than a used dong is worth. I did have one very nice model that was returned and then sold on Etsy (clearly marked as used). Wedemeyer posted:What's the general allure of those 'egg' kegel dildos? The kind that look like beads, but are bigger and without a string. Do people just want to poo poo out pseudo dargon eggs? There are some people who are really into oviposition or just have a strange anal pica where they cram themselves with as many objects as they can. I don't know anyone who does it specifically to squeeze them out afterwards. But there is another reason: they can bring about some pretty strong female orgasms, similar to being fisted, in the right people. It's something I got to witness once and my mind was blown. Wedemeyer posted:What were your top selling dildos? Or did you mainly do OOAK custom pieces? Popularity typically scaled with price. The $20-$25 toys were most popular, though I do have one model with ridges, bumps, and a knot that's sold at least 50 despite being a whopping $30. Wedemeyer posted:Did you also make other things like orifices, or just stick with dildo type toys? I made some packers (fake packages for transmen) and sheaths, as well as a penetrable prototype. Penetrables are a bit harder to make than normal dildos, but not impossibly so. I didn't sell any because they would've cost $70+. Wedemeyer posted:Re: bad dragon guy It's totes about ethics in dragon dildo. Antivehicular posted:I mostly just want to hear about dildo-industry drama, as much as you feel comfortable sharing. Drama I'd rather split into multiple posts devoted toward more specific aspects rather than just vomit out ten paragraphs of "he said, she said." You are absolutely correct about the fantasy dildo market. I expected it to be all furries, but I didn't realize that the community (mostly on Tumblr) was so huge. I'd say 1/3 to 1/2 of my customers were not furries (or at least not overtly so) and well over half were female, which you wouldn't expect from furries. Animal-Mother posted:Has anyone ever requested an Ouroboros dildo that fucks itself forever? No, but I'd make one if they did. Wouldn't be too hard; the mold would just be some PVC pipe. Let's say 1 foot of 1", an adapter from 1" to 2", then another foot of 2" pipe with a 1" pipe stuck in the last 6" or so to make a >1" void. Bam, ouroboros cock. Hummingbirds posted:Welp, I know what I want for Christmas Awkward story: my mom found out about my hobby and asked for a toy for Christmas. The result:  Bitter Mushroom posted:What are the dildo's and the dildont's? I made a video about this since people asked so many times: https://vimeo.com/165657410 The short answer is always make a flared base, and if you're going to make your own toy, plan it out so that it's possible to pour. But some people have asked for toys without flared bases, toys with dangerous-looking spikes, toys with loving enormous knots that I am certain led to rectal prolapse... but I also found out that some people have a pink sock fetish, so that's not as surprising as you might think.
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Aug 9, 2016 12:25
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This is a cool and interesting thread. Could you write a bit about how the dongers are made?
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Aug 9, 2016 15:22
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Lodin posted:This is a cool and interesting thread. Sure. This should be a pretty familiar process to anyone who's done casting before, whether with wax, metal, or anything else that starts as a liquid and then solidifies. I've made a complete video series on the process, but personally I hate video tutorials so I'll go through the process here.  There are two ways you can do it. You can either make a model first, then make a mold out of that, and then produce the toy from the mold, or you can skip the first step and make the mold directly. I do it the first way because I don't have a 3D printer and it's much easier to see how a toy is going to look when you have a clay model. If you're doing it my way, then, you're going to make a model first. You can use clay, wax, wood, plaster, pretty much anything you like. In fact, you can use pre-existing objects like a soda bottle or a living body part as your model if you like. (Shave your body hair first or you'll get an impromptu wax job) Of course, the material you choose for the model will depend partially on what material you're making the mold out of. If you're going to make a metal mold, you probably don't want to use a wax model. Likewise, if you're making silicone molds like I do, you need to know which materials are incompatible with silicone and will inhibit its curing. If you do gently caress up and use something that's incompatible with silicone, it's not a huge deal, though; you can coat it with sealant to create a chemical barrier between the two materials. Anyway, at this point, you are going to make a mold that will envelop this model. If you are only going to make one toy from the mold, something like alginate, papier mâché, or a plaster cast will work fine. These materials typically won't survive the extraction of the final product. On the other hand, if you're going to be mass-producing your disturbing phallus, you want a more durable mold material. I use platinum-cure silicone, the same stuff I make the toys themselves out of. Though squishy, silicone's good for at least 50 pourings as long as the mold is made correctly. I imagine Bad-Dragon uses metal or something similarly durable. I have a friend who uses urethane molds. If you've got a 3D printer, you could make one out of ABS or a similar hard plastic. The next thing to figure out is whether you want a one-part mold or a two-part mold. One-part molds peel off the final toy like a glove. I put a slit down the side of mine to make them easier to remove, but that means I need to carefully align the edges of that slit each time I pour a new toy. Some folks with more advanced equipment cut keys into their molds to make alignment easier. A two-part mold is pretty straightforward: very easy to open up, but you have to be very careful with alignment when putting it back together. Two-part molds give you some more versatility with the kind of toy you're producing, as some shapes don't work well with one-part molds. Now how you make the mold itself is a matter of preference. I use a hard plastic sheet to make a cylinder around the model, then pour in a few cc of mixed and degassed silicone. Once it cures, the cylinder is now connected to the base of the model and won't squirm around too much, so I pour in enough to cover the model plus a centimeter or so. Let it cure, peel off the plastic, remove the model. If you're doing a live-mold (and I know you're going to make a rubber copy of your shameful penis, don't even pretend otherwise), you will have to get a bit more creative. One way to do it is to cut the top off a plastic soda bottle, fill it with goop, jam your willy in there, and wait for it to cure. I recommend silicone with a short pot life for that, or else you've gotta keep a hard-on for an hour or more. Most people don't want to make a model of their flaccid member. You've got your mold (and if you 3D printed it, this is where you'll begin). Spray it repeatedly and thoroughly with some release agent. Mann's Ease Release 200 is pretty good (though I'm sure I'll get lung cancer someday). Make sure any slits in your mold are aligned properly, secure it with duct tape, and then pour in your final silicone. The way you pour it in will determine the patterning of the toy. Let it cure at room temperature, then carefully peel the mold away, and voilà - you have a shameful phallus replica. There are a ton of variations on this theme. You can make tentacles, sheaths, penetrables, suction cups, cumtubes, all that poo poo, it's just slight changes to the overall formula. I can post more about the type of silicone and the degassing/pigmenting/admixtures in another post - this one is getting pretty long.
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Aug 9, 2016 22:06
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Neato, OP. So how do you go about advertising your brand new dildo shop? I know come cosmetic companies send out samples of new products for beauty blogs to review. Is that also a thing in the Dildomancing world? Or do you spam tumblr? I know etsy is kind of oversaturated with mass made products from China, and can't imagine self promoting there would go well. And do you also get the NSFW fanartist's problem of customer's trying to roleplay with you? Dildomancer posted:The short answer is always make a flared base, and... The entire Nursing Thread in the Goon Doctor forum breathed a sigh of relief and disappointment. And huh, I did not think folks would enjoy being hosed by a branch of rose covered in thorns.
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Aug 9, 2016 22:49
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Wedemeyer posted:Neato, OP. So how do you go about advertising your brand new dildo shop? I know come cosmetic companies send out samples of new products for beauty blogs to review. Is that also a thing in the Dildomancing world? Or do you spam tumblr? I know etsy is kind of oversaturated with mass made products from China, and can't imagine self promoting there would go well. And do you also get the NSFW fanartist's problem of customer's trying to roleplay with you? I didn't have to do any advertising. Within a couple months of making my first, I had more orders than I could possibly fill. As soon as you make a Tumblr account and post some pictures, the followers, um, tumble in. I only use Etsy to sell premade toys, because you're right - it's very hard to get exposure there. Plus, Etsy takes a cut of your listings. Easier to just deal person-to-person. As for free samples, here's the deal with that: make sure you pick someone reliable. I only sent out a free sample once, and it was a huge, elaborate toy. Its circumference was 13", if that gives you an idea. It went to Canada, and I covered shipping as well. Dude never wrote the goddamn review. Also, never accept trades, and get paid in advance. Your faith in humanity (furmanity?) will take a serious hit early on. Wedemeyer posted:The entire Nursing Thread in the Goon Doctor forum breathed a sigh of relief and disappointment. And huh, I did not think folks would enjoy being hosed by a branch of rose covered in thorns. The nursing thread and the EMT thread are two of my favorites on the forums! I wouldn't dream of sending them more CC: ABD PN DX: FB IN ANUS patients (at least not without a Dunkin Donuts gift cert).
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Aug 10, 2016 00:10
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So what percentage of your shameful phallus replicas end up being made from your own shameful penis? (now there's something I didn't think I'd type today)
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Aug 10, 2016 00:50
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Which fictional character did you get the most requests for a dildo based off of them?
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Aug 10, 2016 00:52
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Would you recommend getting into this business? How much money can be made? Why didn't you quit your job and make them full time?
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Aug 10, 2016 01:03
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nonnemaus posted:So what percentage of your shameful phallus replicas end up being made from your own shameful penis? I never put one up for sale. That would be super unclassy. And besides, I already used up the world's supply of polydimethylsiloxane making up the first one. Stuntman posted:Which fictional character did you get the most requests for a dildo based off of them? Hmmmmmm... the most popular color scheme is probably Lucario. Even then, that's only ~10 cocks. People have very diverse and specific interests. Welcome to GBS posted:Would you recommend getting into this business? How much money can be made? Why didn't you quit your job and make them full time? I wouldn't recommend it unless you really enjoy customer service and working with your hands. If you charge the same as the other manufacturers, you can make $50/dong profit, and it takes 5-10 minutes to make a typical one, once you have the mold ready. I was charging far below that (making $5-20 apiece) and doing custom orders that took a good deal longer sometimes - stripes, multiple firmnesses, special glow-in-the-dark color schemes, that kind of thing. If you made it a business, you could expect to make a decent profit, especially if you worked 40 hours a week. You'd need a few grand in vacuum chambers, pumps, and other various equipment to make more than a couple toys at a time, but those are one-time costs that will quickly be offset by revenue. So being conservative and saying $20/toy, 6 toys per hour, 40 hours a week, that's nearly $5k/week profit. That's about $200k/year after taxes. HOWEVER, this assumes you can keep finding customers. Most of the small manufacturers have more customers than they can handle, and the large ones have multiple employees. Slot in among them and you stand to make some serious cash. So why didn't I? Quite a few reasons. 1) I am pretty soft-hearted and hand out free stuff / no-questions-asked refunds / very low prices. I'd feel bad charging significantly more than what something cost me to make. 2) I live with my wife in a tiny little apartment that was already a quarter taken up by dick-making apparatus. 3) My day job and night job are both pretty good. 4) I don't think I could live with myself if I only ever made dicks for the rest of my life. Maybe making a bunch of cash would change that, maybe not, but from my current perspective that just seems depressing. 5) There is unending drama and stress. If you don't have thick skin, you won't make it far.
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Aug 10, 2016 01:59
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Did you at least enjoy naming the dicks? That part sounds fun
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Aug 10, 2016 02:01
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Fauxtool posted:Did you at least enjoy naming the dicks? That part sounds fun Yes, it really is  Maybe I should make a tiny silicone fist and name it The Donald.
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Aug 10, 2016 02:10
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Tbh full time dong production for 3-4 years paying off a mortgage and funding your kids college education sounds like a pretty good investment to me.
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Aug 10, 2016 02:13
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Carth Dookie posted:Tbh full time dong production for 3-4 years paying off a mortgage and funding your kids college education sounds like a pretty good investment to me. If you want to do it, go for it. However, I wouldn't recommend quitting your day job until you've made dildos part-time for a few months, built up a customer base, and decided you enjoy it. Having a 3-year gap in experience could be a major red flag when applying for another job later on. How would you spin that in a job interview? "I spent four years as the founder and CEO of a start-up in the personal healthcare sector. I started the business with five thousand dollars of my own money, hit six-figure revenue after a year, and sold it last month for $350k. My innovation in the fields of polymer science and biocompatible solids led to unprecedented market penetration."
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Aug 10, 2016 02:38
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Dildomancer posted:I never put one up for sale. That would be super unclassy. And besides, I already used up the world's supply of polydimethylsiloxane making up the first one. drat, as an unemployed recent graduate with student loan payments keeping me down, that doesn't sound too unappealing.
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Aug 10, 2016 02:42
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If anyone is really serious about starting this as a hobby, I can put together a shopping list of stuff you'll need. It's like $500 to get started plus another $500 for the vacuum degassing equipment if you want to produce high-quality toys. Platinum-cure silicone is about $25/liter and most toys are going to be in the 250-800mL range.
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Aug 10, 2016 03:05
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Dildomancer posted:If anyone is really serious about starting this as a hobby, I can put together a shopping list of stuff you'll need. It's like $500 to get started plus another $500 for the vacuum degassing equipment if you want to produce high-quality toys. Platinum-cure silicone is about $25/liter and most toys are going to be in the 250-800mL range.
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Aug 10, 2016 04:58
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well, i was looking at an electrician apprenticeship program, but now I think i might be more interested in freaky dildo smith apprenticeship....
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Aug 10, 2016 05:40
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Nooner posted:well, i was looking at an electrician apprenticeship program, but now I think i might be more interested in freaky dildo smith apprenticeship.... I shall be the one of the judges when you submit your masterpiece to the guild
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Aug 10, 2016 06:36
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Do you/your wife enjoy using weird dildos yourselves?
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Aug 10, 2016 06:43
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You mention knots several times - how is that even supposed to work without the ability to inflate/increase in size*? Or is that something I'm better off not knowing? * and, critically, decrease in size Nooner posted:well, i was looking at an electrician apprenticeship program, but now I think i might be more interested in freaky dildo smith apprenticeship.... I think they're called fucksmiths. (NSFW!) The Lone Badger fucked around with this message at 11:05 on Aug 10, 2016 |
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Aug 10, 2016 11:02
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im guessing they could be made of the softer material while the shaft was harder. Also, have you seen the poo poo people fit in them?
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Aug 10, 2016 12:03
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Wanamingo posted:Do you/your wife enjoy using weird dildos yourselves? Not really. We're pretty vanilla and prefer real dicks. You don't get the same variety in shape or texture, but a real partner actually moves on his own and, for some reason, seems less painful. The Lone Badger posted:You mention knots several times - how is that even supposed to work without the ability to inflate/increase in size*? Or is that something I'm better off not knowing? Toys with knots aren't necessarily inflatable. I'd wager that >99% aren't. The knots are usually solid silicone in a pre-expanded state, and it's generally assumed that any knot you can fit through your ring can slip back out with appropriate coercion. It is VERY important that the flared base is wider than the knot, because otherwise you're going to have a ‼FUN‼ insurance claim for emergent foreign body removal. Inflatable toys typically use a similar apparatus to a blood pressure cuff: bladder inside the toy, pneumatic tubing, release valve, squeezebulb. Close the valve and squeeze the bulb to inflate, open the valve to deflate. Edit: Fauxtool posted:im guessing they could be made of the softer material while the shaft was harder. Also, have you seen the poo poo people fit in them? This is a real technique to make what's called a "core" but I doubt it would be very useful for inflating a knot. There are a couple ways to make a core: 1) Fill your mold with soft silicone, let it partially cure, upend it and dump out most of the (now very gooey) silicone. Pour firm silicone into the void. -or- 2) Put a solid object (I use a PVC pipe with the end capped) in the silicone before it cures. Remove after curing (hope you used release agent). Pour firm silicone into the void. Dildomancer fucked around with this message at 12:15 on Aug 10, 2016 |
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Aug 10, 2016 12:10
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I learned to twist balloon animals in high school and that is a skill that still helps me out today. I wish I'd seen this poo poo earlier when I had the spare time and space because gently caress, how many people can say they make dildos as a second job?
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Aug 10, 2016 14:01
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Say I wanted to start making dildos and selling them online. Just for starting out purposes, is it possible to sell on Etsy (or similar sites) or would I have to probably create/host my own website?Dildomancer posted:If anyone is really serious about starting this as a hobby, I can put together a shopping list of stuff you'll need. It's like $500 to get started plus another $500 for the vacuum degassing equipment if you want to produce high-quality toys. Platinum-cure silicone is about $25/liter and most toys are going to be in the 250-800mL range. please do if you could point me at a rough 'how to' guide to get started that would be chill too, as well as vendors you like (for the silicone and whatever) Wedemeyer posted:Apparently some employees of bad dragon have/had been making transphobic remarks on facebook lol where do they get off considering their profession is making fantasy animal dildos? dumbos Moridin920 fucked around with this message at 18:36 on Aug 10, 2016 |
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Aug 10, 2016 18:22
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Bitter Mushroom posted:Has anyone ever been murdered with a poison dildo? Most dildos you get in sex shops are made of cheap rubber and are slightly toxic. I don't know if anyone's died from one. Good silicone isn't porous and you'd have a tough time getting any appreciable amount of poison to stick to the surface. Now if you embedded some Polonium... Moridin920 posted:Say I wanted to start making dildos and selling them online. Just for starting out purposes, is it possible to sell on Etsy (or similar sites) or would I have to probably create/host my own website? Very few of my sales went through Etsy. Most were via Tumblr or FetLife or FurAffinity or email. Customer asks for a toy, you send them a PayPal invoice. When it's paid, make the toy and ship it. PayPal lets you put in the tracking number. If you really wanted to get lots of sales, I guess you could set up a frontend via Etsy or whatever. They certainly allow you to sell dongs there, so it's within their ToS. Moridin920 posted:please do Shopping list and vendors coming up. For the guide, there is an video series here: https://vimeo.com/album/4072478 The basic steps are there, and there's a new video on advanced techniques every couple weeks. Moridin920 posted:lol where do they get off considering their profession is making fantasy animal dildos? dumbos The dildo enthusiast community is tight-knit and has a LOT of transpeople. When you go out of your way to offend a large portion of your customer base, your only remaining option is to continuously court new customers before they catch wind of your toxic attitude.
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Aug 10, 2016 22:30
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Dildomancer posted:Most dildos you get in sex shops are made of cheap rubber and are slightly toxic. I don't know if anyone's died from one. Good silicone isn't porous and you'd have a tough time getting any appreciable amount of poison to stick to the surface. Now if you embedded some Polonium... Polonium's an alpha emitter, it'd just make the dong self-warming. You'd want to use a gamma emitter as a core.
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Aug 10, 2016 22:58
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