Did a casting using filled epoxy into an aluminium mould. Used plenty of coats of Easy-Lease but it was well and truly stuck and had to chisel / grind it out. A few queries if I may : Has Easy-Lease got a shelf life ? This was several years old. Because it was cold and I was in a hurry I used a hairdryer to speed it up - and I didnt leave it for an hour before casting - wish I had now. Should I persist with Easy-Lease (is it suitable for aluminium) or swap to PVA ?

EasyLease has a 12 month shelf life, so if it was several years old, it could well be the cause of your problem.   EasyLease does degrade over time (hence the shelf life) and is also hydroscopic so the more it is opened, the quicker it will degrade.  

EasyLease normally works very well on aluminium so if you get a fresh batch, you should have no problem getting it to work.  

Clean up the current mould and start afresh with all new release agent, allowing 15 minutes between each coat and at least an hour before you use the mould and all should be good.

Warren Penalver
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical Support Assistant

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Warren (Staff) - 4/22/2020 3:22:19 PM

EasyLease has a 12 month shelf life, so if it was several years old, it could well be the cause of your problem.   EasyLease does degrade over time (hence the shelf life) and is also hydroscopic so the more it is opened, the quicker it will degrade.  

EasyLease normally works very well on aluminium so if you get a fresh batch, you should have no problem getting it to work.  

Clean up the current mould and start afresh with all new release agent, allowing 15 minutes between each coat and at least an hour before you use the mould and all should be good.

Thanks Warren, much appreciated. Having read some other posts here I suspect also it wasnt fully cured before I tried to remove.

Yes that also wouldn't help. If the resin is slightly green, it really can grip the mould making demoulding difficult. You might find the large aluminium volume compared to the cast wicks out a fair bit of the heat that normally builds up as epoxy exotherms.  In doing so, it will slow the cure down so you can end up accidentally demoulding too soon despite following recommended demould times.

Warren Penalver
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical Support Assistant