Mould thickness


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Dantheman
Dantheman
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Hi. I've read elsewhere that a mould should typically be about 3 times the thickness of the part to be laid up in it.

Is this always the case or just moulds made using polyester resin? Would an epoxy/roving mould need to be so thick?

Dan
Hanaldo
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I've never followed that train of thought. It's probably accurate to an extent, but I've made 15mm thick parts before that certainly didn't require a 45mm thick mould, that's unreal. I also don't think it works at the other end of the scale, I've laid up 1mm parts that needed a mould thicker than 3mm. Infact I would never make a mould only 3mm thick, that's too thin. 

I think it depends more on the shapes of your mould and how likely it is to deflect. A very large flat sheet is extremely likely to deflect, and so you would want to build it up much thicker and probably also incorporate some stiffeners on the back. Flat parts need to be much stiffer than objects with curves and angles. A bonnet mould for example would likely need to be thicker than a fender mould, and a big aeroplane wing would need to be substantially thicker than a bonnet mould, and would definitely need bracing, etc. 

Also yes, better materials make for stronger moulds. An epoxy tool reinforced with woven fibreglass or carbon would be stronger and stiffer than a polyester mould made with chopped strand, so you could make it thinner and lighter. The downside is that you need to account for fibre orientation, and to get strength in all directions you would probably want to do more layers of a lighter fabric. This means more layup time as well. 

It all depends on what you are moulding and what your requirements are.

Dantheman
Dantheman
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Thanks for that. Interesting stuff. 

One of the things that confuses me is in the instructions for the unimould system it says just to lay up 4 layers of 450g CSM. That doesn't seem like a lot...
Hanaldo
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1 layer of 225 and then 4-5 layers of 450 is plenty if you're using tooling resin. That will give you a mould thickness of 5-6mm, which will be a very solid mould for most things. If you're using regular laminating resin without any fillers in it then you would probably want to do 6-8 layers of 450, and you would need to do it in 2 or 3 stages to prevent warping. 
Dantheman
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Ah so the resin makes a difference...I was thinking of using regular epoxy (mainly to avoid the stink of poly/vinyl ester) and 600g roving in two lots of three layers?
Hanaldo
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Yes tooling resin has fillers in it. You can add some calcium carbonate to your resin to achieve a similar 'bulking' effect. 

Would be easier to comment on your layup knowing what you are moulding? 
Dantheman
Dantheman
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I'm making some body panels for a car I will be building in the not too distant future. Still working on the patterns at the moment. This is a picture of the one for the rear panel. 
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Hanaldo
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Very nice pattern work. 

I think you will struggle with 600g fabric on that piece. What I would do is 3 layers of a 300g twill glass, then do 2 layers of 600g with relief cuts in the corners that want to bridge and lay a couple strip's of the 300g over those cuts. Let that cure, then do the same again. 

Depending on the epoxy you are using, you could get away with doing the layers of 600g in one go. Just want to be wary of exotherm. 
Dantheman
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So when you say corners do you mean inside or outside?
I'm thinking I will have to split the mould along that top edge across the width anyway so that might make the layup easier. 

I'll probably use the slow setting epoxy. I'm in no hurry and hate being against the clock!

The time factor is what concerns me the most I think. You can't just make this up as you go along and see how it goes. 
racecomp
racecomp
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Try to keep your projects out of the bed room, I'm sure you love it but cross contamination from parts to bed sheets is not good. Keep it in the workshop 😉
GO

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