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JohnH
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Group: Forum Members
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I have taken the top part out of the mould, see attached pic
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JohnH
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Group: Forum Members
Posts: 20,
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Hi I am doing a trial run of one of the parts of the quad, (top part) a single layer of carbon cloth, plus peel ply, infusion mesh and bagging material, I have bagged everything up and infused the resin, so will see how it turns out tomorrow evening, I have left it in front of the log burner in my workshop to cook. I am using 2/2 twill 200gram, I suspect this is too heavy for what I need, I may need more layers of lighter material, we will see.
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JohnH
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Group: Forum Members
Posts: 20,
Visits: 151
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Hi I have now completed both moulds and have removed them from the pattern. The first half separated nice and easily, the other took a little more digging to get out, so there is some small damage to the bottom half of the mould which I will have make good. The moulds look very nice and smooth and I hope to get some nice mouldings from them, see the photo's. |
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JohnH
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Group: Forum Members
Posts: 20,
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Hi again I have been working all last week on respraying and polishing the pattern again, so that I can make a new mould with wider flange. I have cut a new corex shroud out of two pieces (so that I get the correct width for the pattern, see photo) and taped these together with brown packing tape, then put a tape line around the pattern at the point that I going to encase the first half of the mould, this has been hot glue gunned to the pattern via the brown tape, then I added a fillet of wax from the underside which I have forced through the gap so that the corex is a snug fit around the pattern. I have now gel coated and epoxy puttied one half of the mould, so I am at the same stage as last time. I have removed the corex shroud (see photo)and I have to clean up the pattern and mould so that the second half can be moulded (hopefully later today) One thing I did come up against this time was epoxy putty got VERY HOT (exotherm?) so I had to take this outside to try to cool it, this may have been due to large amount of putty I used (3.5 kg) The resulting bottom mould is much cleaner than last time and I hope this will give a good result. |
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Joe
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Cant wait to see it... Keep us updated 
 A $1000 electronic device will always protect a 10 cents fuse
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JohnH
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Group: Forum Members
Posts: 20,
Visits: 151
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Hi Again I have talked to the guys at EC and it looks as if I have not made the flanges that will support the infusion lines and mesh wide enough to be able to use the mould efficiently, plus:- I was having second thoughts about the way that I had finished the pattern, (some parts were 2K finished and some were not). Also when I cut the corex shroud my cuts were not precise and I filled the gaps with yellow wax this made small ridges which I would not have liked on the finished mould and would have meant that I would have to fettle after the mould was released. I got excited, I rushed things! So the bottom line is, I have extracted the pattern out of the bottom mould so I can make a new one (hopefully correctly this time). There was damage to the pattern, so I will have to make this good, I am going to give myself more time on the new one and allow the paint to cure for the correct amount of time. One mistake I made which may be of interest for someone in the future is that the weather has been so good in the UK! that I thought to leave the pattern in the sun after I had coated it with gelcoat, BIG MISTAKE, this apparently lowers the viscosity of the gelcoat and will not give the correct thickness. I will also use more than 2 applications of easylease and 2 wax coats the next time, with the view that this may aid in getting the mould/pattern to release. This may seem that the process was a small disaster, but that was not the case, I have learned some new lessons and if I had continued I would have been able to rescue the mould with some post operative work, (if I could have separated it) I will post a pic of the first bottom mould for info.
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Wabba
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Group: Forum Members
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Looks great! Very inspiring work there.
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JohnH
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Group: Forum Members
Posts: 20,
Visits: 151
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Well the canopy has "popped out" I thought I may struggle to release it, but it came out so easily! and the finish looks great.
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Wabba
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Group: Forum Members
Posts: 21,
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JohnH
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Group: Forum Members
Posts: 20,
Visits: 151
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Hi Again I have finish polished/polished "easyleased" and waxed the pattern and then installed it into 2mm corex about half way through the thickness of the pattern, this is then sealed with a fine bead of yellow wax to stop the Gelcoat seeping through. All in all a fiddly job, but hopefully this will work, attached are the pictures of the three stages, from the pattern fixed and waxed into the corex shroud, then gelcoated, then epoxy resin moulded, using the mould making starter kit. I hope I will see the pattern again! Sorry about the pics being 90' out
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