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Mould ruined after 1st use..
Mould ruined after 1st use..
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Mould ruined after 1st use..
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carbon man
carbon man
posted 5 Years Ago
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Hi, this mould is made from high temp epoxy and oven for 17 hours following the data sheet.
I think I could of took more care in mould prep which didn't help. But it had about 8 coats of easy lease and struggled to out. Now the mould has carbon print through and cracked gel?
Carbon use xpreg xc110 oven cured following standard curing cycle.
Edit : carbon was in the mould over night before going in the oven as it was getting late and could fix leak in the bag.
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5 Years Ago by
carbon man
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oekmont
oekmont
posted 5 Years Ago
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This looks quite unusual for me. The only time epoxy gelcoat really cracks like that is if the mould flexed to much under excessive force. With such a small mould and >3000g/m^2 carbon reinforcement this seems unlikely.
There are two things I can say with certainty:
-There is something wrong with the gelcoat. Properly tempered there should not be any texture print. My best guess is the mixing ratio. To get this clear: I have never ever seen a bad charge of epoxy. problems were always caused by the user or a resin clogged scale.
-the sides of the mould really ask for trouble with mechanical lock.
IF the gelcoat was not mixed properly, the laminating resin might be mixed wrong too. This might make the mould flexible enough to crack the gelcoat.
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Mould ruined after 1st use..
carbon man
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5 Years Ago
That's a total bummer! The print into the mold is not abnormal - release systems generally work better on shiny surfaces - at a micro level there's less overall surface area with no scratches. This.....
explorecomposites
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5 Years Ago
The mould lay up was 1 x thin gel 1 x thicker gel 1 x 200g carbon 6 x 450g carbon 1 x 200g carbon All layed on tacky stages Cracks possibly from the struggle of getting the carbon out? Lots of....
carbon man
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5 Years Ago
How accurate were you with your mix ratio when you made the mould? It does look/sound like an under-curing issue. I've had similar before and realised I had used the wrong mix ratio. The mould cured....
Hanaldo
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5 Years Ago
Yeah all ratios weighed out and mixed properly, and yeah the mould was dull I was ok with that because it was getting clear coated. Next time I might make mould glossy to help with release
carbon man
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5 Years Ago
Did you use any sealer before the easylease?
Fasta
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5 Years Ago
No? Just mould cleaner
carbon man
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5 Years Ago
Using the sealer is just one more layer of insurance in the whole process. I imagine there is one as all semi permanent release systems seem to have one and they are recommended in their application....
Fasta
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5 Years Ago
Easylease is a one part system, it's sealer is 'built in' to the release agent so it doesn't need a seperate sealer initially. In all honesty, there are so many possibilities for what could have...
Hanaldo
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5 Years Ago
This looks quite unusual for me. The only time epoxy gelcoat really cracks like that is if the mould flexed to much under excessive force. With such a small mould and >3000g/m^2 carbon...
oekmont
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5 Years Ago
Hoping iv solved it! Been using easy lease that's 2 years old.. Didn't even know it expired. So tried again tonight with a new bottle..
carbon man
-
5 Years Ago
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