Matt (Staff) (17/07/2012)
As a mould surface for flat sheet you simply can't beat glass. It's flatter, glossier, much harder to scratch and widely available.
If you use a
chemical release agent you will have no problem releasing composite sheet from any type of glass. Neither wax or PVA will go properly onto glass which is why Alex had problems with his sheet sticking to the glass. It doesn't matter whether you use cheap standard glass (float) or toughened glass in terms of a release but you will find that float is very easy to accidentally break so unless you have a good frame and base to place it into for protection then you're better off with toughened glass. We use a company called
Express Toughening for all our toughened glass, they're really cheap, will make the glass to any size and will deliver too!
--Matt
I've been using glass that's bonded to a table since 1988 and use PVA release agent applied with a sponge and in all that time I've never had a panel stick. Resins vary from Polyester to Epoxy, vinylesters and even phenolics. The glass is 5mm normal stuff from the glaziers. I was making 50 panels a month for flight cases and never had a reject.