Hello all from Nashville, TN USA

  I've been browsing the forum and product site for several months now... also have been watching the EC videos on YOUTUBE since they were posted litterally the first day (amazing videos guys, informative and very well put together).  I have played around with fiberglass for several years making odds and ends, but nothing to the caliber of the projects I've seen on this site.  I'm approaching a project where I've already shaped the plug from expandable foam, skinned it with polyester auto-body filler, and coated it with an auto-body primer...  my only concern is that my final primer layer may be detrimental to the mould due to it being thinned with laquer thinner.  This will be my first plug\mould design, and I can't wait to post some photos of the project!

  Thanks again to all the Easy Composites' \ Talk Composites' staff for their efforts in making this field accessible to the average joe!

David Williams

http://www.youtube.com/user/mr2ferrari

http://williamshpf.wix.com/a-work-in

Hey David

Hi, nice to have you here! good luck with the project and post some pictures now and then

Matthieu Libeert
Founder MAT2 Composites X Sports
website: www.mat2composites.com

I thought I may try a smaller side project prior to starting my main one... I've made moulds of the steel headlight covers on my Nissan drift car, and will try my hand at infusion with them first. The first photo is of the steel part itself weighing in at 653 grams. The second is of the plug and mould separated... and the third photo is showing my first problem! It seems there are dozens of tiny pinholes in the tooling gelcoat. I worry these may cause my mould to lose vacuum over the time it takes for the actual carbon part to cure I don't have a pressure chamber to help speed up the degassing process, but I do let the gelcoat stand for ten minutes after mixing. I assume it keeps several bubbles trapped because it is not very viscous? Any help on this issue would be appreciated, and I intend to purchase or build a degassing chamber prior to moving on to larger projects.
Thanks in advance for any information!
David

Hello

You will not have any problems making your mold from this plug. Just wax it with the right mold release wax.(5 coats should be fine) Put on a good coat of PVA and gelcoat when dry and make your mold.

I use laquer based primer all the time.

Fred 

Fred, matthieu,

Thanks for the welcome, and info! I've started the first vacuum process today and will demould this evening (I hope!) Attached a few more photos ...
Thanks again,
David

Gavin,
Didn't mean to leave out your thanks! I'm viewing the site on my phone since I don't have internet capabilities at my home, so the small screen helps me miss several posts!
So thanks for the welcome sir!
David

Looking at your vaccum set up not what you want,your hose looks like it would suck resin out,for wet lay up buy the proper breach unit and place close to edge and put some more breather under breach unit,depending on part size and length add some breather cloth around part to even out vaccum the part your doing is not large enougth to warrant to much breather cloth I would also remember to many materials if not properly placed will cause bridging.good luck. 

Shaneer22,

  you're correct in the aspect of having too much breather cloth (or just not positioned correctly) because I had some slight bridging\voids along the 90* corners.  my third attemp will be made with two layes of breather cut slightly smaller than the part.... hopefully allowing the fiber to stick to the mould on those sharp corners.  Also think I'll try to let the first layer of resin go tacky prior to laying in the first layer of fiber.

  thanks for the tips!!  I'll post results hopefully sometime tomorrow.

david

Had a successfull part released from the mould last night!  the tips I've recieved here helped dramatically, thanks for the help guys!  I tried to post a photo, but keep getting a pop-up saying I've met my upload limit?  anyway, I will order more materials and try a few more of the small moulds I've made prior to stepping up to the largest. 

thanks again for the guidance!

david