I produced the mold no problem, and i waxed it several times before putting the PVA release on it. After pulling the finished part from the mold, half of the part was ok, the other part was still sticky resin, and gobs of resin were left inside the mold also.
I wanted to know if what i should use to get out the sticky gobs of resin out of the mold, and if theres any way to fix the part as well. My only guess to what went wrong is that it looks like there was less PVA on the area that has the sticky resin. This is my first attempt, and i would like to know what i did wrong and how to fix it. Thanks,

David

try a bit of mould cleaner or acetone and a plastic spatula to knock the blobs off the mould surface without scratching.

You will of course need to totally rewax the part for releasing.

Its better to leave the part too long to cure.  In low temps it takes massively longer and sometimes just wont cure at all in a reasonable time. So try and get temperature to 20 degrees celcius.

Ok, thank you. I got most of the mold clean with some acetone. Im going to wax it 10 times instead 4, like last time. I did leave the part at room temp (20 degrees celcius) for about 10 hours. I am guessing maybe that wasn't long enough, since the resin was still very sticky in most areas, (i thought it was just because i used to much resin). I am thinking maybe i can save the part also if i sand down the bad areas and add more resin on top? Or maybe not.

I always leave my bits 24hour minimum.

Take youre time throughout the process (except where potlife speeds you up) and you will find the quality of the parts go up and less mistakes are made.

Ok, i attempted again. This time the part came out of the mold fine, but the part has a dull finish, and the sides didn't form properly, the resin sort of flaked off and i could pick it off on the sides of the part. Almost like there was to much pva release in these areas. I will post pictures tomorrow.

Hi David

You say there were places where the resin wasn't cured. I will pass on a little advice to you on mixing. I have had some of that problem when I started learning so I make it a practice to always "Double Cup" and I mean always.

What this means is that I carefully measure out my resin and hardener on a grams scale and combine in one cup and mix thoroughly, scraping the sides. I then transfer this mixture into a second cup and continue mixing using another new mixing stick. In this way you know for sure that you have a complete mix. Mixing is far more important with epoxy than polyester. Since I follow this practice I have never had a problem.

The second piece of advice I would give you is that you need to heat your mold and resin to a nice warm to the touch temperature. Don't demold for 24 hours and you should be fine.

Hope this helps.

Fred