How to make male female keys with epoxy tutorial

PART (1):

This is how I make male/female keys. How to proceed depends on the materials you use, the kind of pieces you have to key, etc., so do not take it as a dogma, this is just one possibility, you have to try and find your own way by adapting the below technique to your needs.

A)
[1] the piece with the female key, [2] the piece with the male key, [3] some epoxy putty (Magisculp), [4] liquid vaseline used to avoid male/female sticking, [5] 96 degrees alcohol used to thin/blend/etc. the epoxy putty, [6] blue (white) tac [7] nylon strips and [8] tape all used to secure the piece while making the keys

B)
the female key [9], made drilling an hole bigger than the male plug

C)
the male key [10], made placing a blob of epoxy putty and shaping it when set

D)
once you made the male/female keys, secure the pieces on a firm base and do a quick/dry test [12] to see if it's all right, if the piece is well balanced the whole thing should be able to stand by itself just using a bit of white tac [11]

E)
prepare a blob of epoxy putty and place it in the hole for the female key, do not use so much, the filled hole should be concave [13], not convex, wait at least 10 minutes before pushing the male key into that blob of putty, 10/15 minutes are enough to give to the freshly mixed epoxy a better consistence, another trick is to mix the epoxy (70%) with some Sculpey or any other polymer clay (30%) giving to the epoxy a better consistence

F)
brush a good amount of liquid vaseline all over the male key [14]

G - H)
big male keys cannot be plugged in the female hole all in one go so just plug the first half, gently retire it [15] and carefully remove the excess of the epoxy putty [16], repite the process untile the male key is all plugged in the female counterpart, try to do it in no more than two or three times, after that sure you will deform/destroy the shaped putty into the female hole

I - L)
once plugged it all, secure the piece [17] and refine a bit the putty dribble

Let the putty set naturally (24h), without using heat or any other trick that would deform/ruin the shape of the female part. Any question or if something unclear feel free to ask

PART (2) coming soon...