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Olivier
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Group: Forum Members
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Hi, I use Uni-mould and I love it but my neighbour complains because of the smell. What would be an alternative? EC epoxy mould? Will EC green epoxy fix my issue? How to reinforce epoxy moulds? Can I use CSM and IN2? I plan to make CF infused with IN2 and or without GC50, twaron, prepegs and natural fibres. Thanks for your advices.
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VVS
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Group: Moderators
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I use EC green and IN2 for the majority of my moulds.
It is almost vapour less, you can use it in the house with no problems.
The IN2 doesn't get on too well with csm so I use 200gram glass woven mate and this works very well, I'd say its much easier to use than uni BUT you have a few issues in that.
1- you have to do the mould in one, as you need to apply each layer once the green hits a tack, there may be work arounds but ive found it best to do the whole lot in one go.
2- I don't believe the green and IN2 can be used for pre preg do to temperature limits, it will work for infusion but would be at or above its limits with pre peg.
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Hanaldo
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Group: Forum Members
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Just be careful with epoxy. Just because it doesn't have an odour doesn't mean it is totally safe. Amines are actually very harmful, more so than styrene which is what you smell from the polyester/vinyl ester resins.
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MarkMK
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I've also found the epoxy gelcoat a bit more prone to trapping air bubbles, owing to its thicker consistency, so be careful not to create pools in corners and apply as evenly as possible on a first coat. You can end up with little craters otherwise and it's not so forgiving with remedial repairs when trying to get it back up to a shine. Not quite as easy to use as with Unimould, but EC's compatible CSM helps if you didn't want tu use woven reinforcement.
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Olivier
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Group: Forum Members
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Tanks everybody, I Will use epoxy with the same safety tricks as polyester. And I do not use huge quantities. Most of the time I make small moulds, my biggest was an iPad back. But it will help with my neighbour. Last time she complained I coated 4 straight razor blades with EC pattern coat. So I prepared half a mug, very small quantity but enough for her to smell it. So is it possible to coat a pattern with epoxy? And sand it the same way as polyester? I try to get rid of CSM I have then I switch to woven FB. I learn somewhere than there is specific CSM for epoxies or polyester. I have EC 100 g CSM but also 300g CSM without any label so I have no idea if this 300g CSM is compatible or not. Too bad for prepreg. Is it another solution than Uni-mould?
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Hanaldo
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Group: Forum Members
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One of the EC staff may be able to pitch in here, but I suspect that you could use the epoxy tooling system with pre-preg if you cured at 80 degrees. The mould would have a shorter life and the surface finish may suffer, but it should work for a small production cycle. You won't have an epoxy solution like the EC pattern coating system. Polyester polishes up much nicer and easier than epoxy, so it's a good system for pattern coating. That said, when I was first starting off, I used high gloss laminating epoxy thickened with a bit of calcium carbonate (not too much, it's difficult to sand!). This worked quite well, though it took a few hours of sanding. As for the CSM, the stuff you've got won't be compatible. You need powder bound CSM for epoxy, and it's freakin awful stuff. You're better off using woven cloth.
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Olivier
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Group: Forum Members
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Ok thanks Hanaldo, I try to sand EC green tooling epoxy (180 - 400 - 800 - 1200 - 1500 - 2000 by hand 3000 and 3M polish compound with a Mirka machine) to test how is it difficult to repair in case a mould needs repair. I was not able to get a surface as shiny as an untouched mould and the surface is soft but full of tiny little holes. Ok it was an old pot and I did pay a lot of attention to mixing it because it was just layed on a piece of vacuum bag for a quick test. Is it something I can fix with degas? How to get a shiny finish?
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Hanaldo
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Group: Forum Members
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Yeh that's what I mean, it isn't easy. You can probably do a bit better though, for one 180 grit is way too course to be trying to sand out. Try not to use anything below 400 grit when flatting down, and then you've skipped a few grit stages in there as well. Always go 400>600>800>1200 and then you can continue on from there or compound. With epoxy I would probably go up to 2000 grit. As for the tiny holes, that sort of sounds like the epoxy wasn't fully cured before you started sanding.
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Dravis
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The "green stuff" is a b*t*h to polish up, it really will not polish well --- been there many times .. Epoxy is just not brilliant for polishing .. Thats where the Unimould gelcoat really shines (pun intended  ) If I need to repair the "green stuff" I normally do it with coating epoxy .. works fine, and polishes better ..
"Sapere Aude"... Dare to KNOW! The written word is the only truly efficient vehicle for transmitting a complex concept from mind to mind... 103% of all people do not understand statistics... Do not adjust our mind, theres a fault in reality :-)
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Olivier
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Group: Forum Members
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Thank you guys I will buy different EC epoxies and woven FB. Have a great day building all kind of things
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