Wood materials for mould?

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Wood materials for mould?

Author	Message
chrbje76	chrbje76 posted 10 Years Ago HOT Topic Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 2, Visits: 9	Hi Fairly new to to this, I have a little project to make a rig that needs carry some weight and i thought I would see how nice and light i could make it with carbon. I picture mainly making carbon U-beams, custom fitted in lengts and ends to the craft it wil be mounted on. idealy i would just make a mokup in 2x4 timbers and then use these as a base to make moulds over that i can then lay the carbon on for vacum infusion. Is it possible to use wood materials for mould making, or will it absorb resins and coatings and be impossible to split apart again or get a nice surface for the mould?. Any other suggestions for suitable materials?
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Dravis	Dravis posted 10 Years Ago HOT Post Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 592, Visits: 1.9K	Yes, wood /timber can be used for moulds.. but they need to be sealed and "surfaced" with resin, preferably epoxy. I have made many simple moulds form pieces of wood and from MDF boards in various thicknesses.. So: get your timber, plane/sand nicely down to 180 grit or so, then apply the required number of layers of epoxy resin .. The green EC "epoxy tooling gelcoat works great" It will not give you a "mirror finish" since it will not take a mirror polish. But in your case I guess you will be making a "plug mould" so the mould side will be "inside" the finished product. when you have the required surface finish, wax the "plug-mould" carefully, to ensure an easy release .. Thats it really ... "Sapere Aude"... Dare to KNOW! The written word is the only truly efficient vehicle for transmitting a complex concept from mind to mind... 103% of all people do not understand statistics... Do not adjust our mind, theres a fault in reality :-)
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chrbje76	chrbje76 posted 10 Years Ago HOT Post Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 2, Visits: 9	Hi Thank you for your reply, actually I dont want to use the timber as a mould,, but to cast the mould on, as in the timber makes out the basic shape i want to recast in carbon, with any of the mould making kits from easy composits. But I imagine that it will be har to make the topcoat come of again to make a nice inside for the mould. Sorry if that was unlcear earlier. Edited 10 Years Ago by chrbje76
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Hanaldo	Hanaldo posted 10 Years Ago HOT Post Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 2.5K, Visits: 28K	Works the same as what Dravis explained, all that changes is whether you are working in male or female form. Wood works fine, you just need to seal it before you paint/finish it. Easy to do with a coating of epoxy resin, though that can be an effort to sand smooth again. If you have Duratec surface primer available to you, that was made for the purpose and is very easy to sand flat and polish to a gloss. Otherwise, do as Dravis explained, shape your wood and give it a costing of resin to seal it. Sand smooth, then apply whatever topcoating you prefer!
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