Hi there all,




I've finally finished the plug and i'm now looking to take off a mould . I feel fairly comfortable with making the moulds, creating a split mould with flanges etc using the uni-mould system, the surface area is approx. 2.5sqm. What i'm really after advice for is how to make the final piece. I have access to a suitable pump and was going to do wet lay and vacuum bagging using epoxy resin. Given that the final piece will be painted am I as well using woven glass matt and epoxy rather than going to the expense of carbon. My original idea was to start with 400g of woven carbon cloth, followed by woven glass matt, coremat on the flat areas and then finished with another layer of woven glass matt. Does this sound ok for this type of bodywork? Is it too much or too little? Given that i'm painting the final piece should I save some pounds and just use woven matt? Also is it wish to wet lay all of this in one go or in stages? Any advice would be greatly received.

If you are worried about the strength of the foam then just hand laminate a layer of woven glass with polyester resin over the foam to stabilise it. You can then use the Pattern-Coat Primer and Pattern-Coat Hi-Gloss to get the final smooth finish ready for moulding.  If you are careful then you shouldn't need it, but on what looks like a big ish part it might be worth doing for peace of mind.

Warren Penalver
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical Support Assistant

I use a low density PU foam board (Xtratherm) to make my male plugs. I then coat the foam with two coats of Polyester resin (sanding down between coats) to produce a good, tough surface which gets fine sanded to 800 grit before it gets waxed, polishing and PVAd. I then apply a generous coat of polyester resin to act as a gelcoat layer followed by three layers of E-glass woven fiberglass to give me a very nice female mold which I then use to fabricate carbon/kevlar parts. You can see lots of photos here:

http://carbon-dragon.ihpa.ie/index.php/cd-builders/phil-lardner-s-cd#new - scroll about 2/3rds down that page to find some photos of a foam plug.

http://carbon-dragon.ihpa.ie/images/carbon-dragon/CD%20Builders/Phil%20Lardner/Photos/Carbon%20Dragon%20-%20unsorted%20photos/thumbs/20150102_004425.jpg

Phil.

Your foam isn't too low density, it will be fine using the EC pattern coat system. 

Thanks, i've seen that and it looks great, but the foam i'm using though is a lot lower density, and I m concerned that when I start polishing the final finish it will crack or ill end up puncturing it. Do you think it would be ok with a low density foam (I think its about 30kg/m3)?

Hi

p.s the foam is celotex insulation , a low density polyurethane foam.

Thanks, it looks like a light cloth and epoxy resin might be the safest option if not the cheapest. If i was to use the polyester pattern coat system does it give a hard enough surface to work off or do i need to combine it with some matting? Thanks for the replies .

Hi