Talk Composites - The Forum for Advanced Composites

plug fineshing

http://www.talkcomposites.com/Topic4080.aspx

By george25 - 1/2/2013 6:44:33 PM

hi i have started this project of making this plug 
would it be safishant to coat it with epoxy tooling gel coat
wet sand it then polesh to have the right finesh to take a mould
from.would i need to add wax additive to it.
By fgayford - 1/3/2013 1:20:07 PM

Hi
I have always used epoxy high build primer,then wet sand and polish but it will not polish to that high of a luster.I have also used Duratec but it still doesn't polish to the place I want to be. Seeing epoxy mould surfaces cannot be polished well I have tried a different technic with my mockup surface because I want a really high luster part. I still use the epoxy primer but then shoot it with black base coat and then 2 part clearcoat.
I wet sand this and then more clear coat. The reason for the black base coat is so I can see if I break through when wet sanding, it is also easier to see what you are doing on the surface when wet sanding.
I then go through to 1200 paper and then #1 #2 #3   3M polishes. The surface is now like a show car and has a very hard surface.
Now I apply my release system and  make my mould.
Hope this helps.
Fred