Hi,

Thanks Matt,

 

Ok I get what your saying about laying it down, Now that I know .5mm is the max then I can better/quicker gauge where I should be at and lay it down a little faster. I was thinking much thinner, then kinda kept trying to ad a lil more add a lil more and I ended up building the speckles up. I'm just gonna Jam it on thier quick. How many passed to you typically do over the same spot? Just one? 1.5?



 

I am thinking that Laying down the GC50 is even trickier when working with small parts under 1ft by 1ft.

 

I will be back with pics'



If Brute Force Isn''''t working your not using enough...

Hi Don,

I'm glad it's arrived with you. I think it hitch-hiked all the way there!

For your release surface I would just go with a couple of coats of Easy-Lease (clean the mould first to remove any old wax or other release agents) and give the Easy-Lease a bit of a buffing off between coats to ensure you don't see any built up spots or relase agent on the mould surface after it dries. The release agent shouldn't make a massive difference to how the gelcoat goes down but you don't want it to be so repellent that the gelcoat fish-eyes away from it.

Putting the GC50 down is a balance of getting it going down smoothly (not speckled, like it does if you go very thin with it and let a lot of the styrene evapoiurate out before it has a chance to self-level) and yet not putting it down so thick that it starts to affect the clarity (much over 0.5mm and it will start to look milky. I appreciate (from people's feedback on this forum) that the balance (and the technique) is not the easiest to find but it remains the case that the GC50 is the best (and pretty much only) UV stable in-mould clear coating process for epoxy infused parts. Your other options will always remain to either leave the parts without any clear coating or to clear coat them after they're made. If the GC50 can be put down satisfactorilly smoothly then we all know that this is considerbly less work that a clear coat/lacquer after the part has been made (because that will invariably require a flat and polish) so despite the relative difficulty of getting the GC50 down right we still feel that it's well worth trying to perfect.

Speak soon, Matt

Matt Statham
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical Sales

Yesterday my Easy Lease made it to AMERICA! I had given up on it, turns out it must come by slow boat if using royal mail to USA. Thats cool with me as long as I can avoid the FedEx hazmat fee, I am trying to avoid it until I test all the products you offer that i need. Once I find all of what I need I will be ordering GALLONS of stuff.

 

So now, I have a bit of GC50 left, What would I have a better chance testing with, using just PVA "no wax" Or the Easy Lease or something else to get best surface for the GC50 to lay properly?

 



If Brute Force Isn''''t working your not using enough...

Well for the LOVE of god will someone post a pic of what this is suposed to look like once sprayed in the mold?

 

I have sucessfuly burnt through the whole bottle of gc50 and get it to lay right for the life of me on multiple molds. Does not fish eye just has a rough texture...

 

At this point I give up on GC50.......



If Brute Force Isn''''t working your not using enough...

I wonder whether there was any trace contaminents (silicone or polish on the cloth etc.). A few people have had silimar problems and been able to trace it back to polish or silimar substances on the rag.

Matt Statham
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical Sales

Easylease.  I cleaned the mould and tried again, no problems second time round. Not sure why it was doing that, it had been cleaned with a new cloth etc.

Hi Mike,

What's the release agent on your mould surface?

--Matt

Matt Statham
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical Sales

Well I brushed it on and it just fisheyed like mad.  Mad it thicker - still fisheye.  Waited a bit for it to thicken and was too late, there are fisheyes all over so it's back to the drawing board.  I'm not going to waste carbon on it, going to put glass on then release it in the morning, clean the mould and have a rethink.

O how I need this now....



If Brute Force Isn''''t working your not using enough...