first time using uni mould. potential problem.

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first time using uni mould. potential problem.

Author	Message
andrewt1971	andrewt1971 posted 12 Years Ago HOT Topic Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 13, Visits: 824	Hi I was attempting to make a mould for a car hatch/boot and ran into what i presume are a couple of problems in that i applied the gel coat, catalysed at 1.5%,, after reading the instructions that indicated you should leave till tacky or overnight i was surprised that in under two hours the gel was dry to the touch in places with no tack at all. At this time i did what was probably the wrong thing and decided to put the coupling coat on, which again went past the tacky stage in places before i'd noticed so i put the reinforcing on. my question is, can you 'rescue' the job if you get a cure before the next layer goes on, should the job be abandoned or is it not a major problem? in truth i will probably only ever pull two or three products from the mould so long term durability isnt an issue. Thank you for your time
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Paul (Staff)	Paul (Staff) posted 12 Years Ago HOT Post Details
Group: Administrators Posts: 134, Visits: 614	Hi Andrew, The Unimould system is very forgiving although as you identified you may have left it beyond the 'ideal' point you should still obtain a sufficient inter-laminar bond even days after application, so you should be fine especially if as you say it's not going to be used that many times. I will add though (for other people reading this thread) that this is not true when using an epoxy mould making system, timing the 'tack' properly is vital to getting a good bond between layers. I hope this helps. Paul Statham Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical
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