Alternative to gel coat?


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orhanyor
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Hello guys, newbie here Smile
Recently i created my first negative mould and used up most of the epoxy gel coat on that. so im working on this very small negative mould as big as my hand. i just finished polishing the actual part's top surface that i should be spreading my gel coat on. The thing is i want to use the remaining epoxy gel coat on my next item and i dont have enough at the moment for the both parts.
So is there an alternative to gelcoat that i can make with epoxy resin? I have some fumed silica, i was thinking may be i can use it to thicken the epoxy and use it instead of gel coat. has anybody tried it?
my approach on my first mould was 2 coats of gel coat on top of the part. leave it to cure but when its still tacky i applied fiberglass with epoxy and then vacuum the whole thing. as a release agent i bought Easy-Lease Chemical Release Agent, PVA release agent, number 8 release wax and MANN ease release 200 spray 

i guess i have enough release agents but im not really sure which one works better. i read PVA is almost guaranteed so i used it in my first mould and i guess i brushed it too thick so it gave me abit of a problem during demoulding. Can i just use MANN spray as a release agent as it is very easy to use, is it reliable? Thanks

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Hanaldo
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orhanyor - 10/12/2020 11:10:13 AM
Fasta - 10/12/2020 3:56:17 AM
orhanyor - 10/10/2020 7:17:50 PM
Hello guys, newbie here Smile
Recently i created my first negative mould and used up most of the epoxy gel coat on that. so im working on this very small negative mould as big as my hand. i just finished polishing the actual part's top surface that i should be spreading my gel coat on. The thing is i want to use the remaining epoxy gel coat on my next item and i dont have enough at the moment for the both parts.
So is there an alternative to gelcoat that i can make with epoxy resin? I have some fumed silica, i was thinking may be i can use it to thicken the epoxy and use it instead of gel coat. has anybody tried it?
my approach on my first mould was 2 coats of gel coat on top of the part. leave it to cure but when its still tacky i applied fiberglass with epoxy and then vacuum the whole thing. as a release agent i bought Easy-Lease Chemical Release Agent, PVA release agent, number 8 release wax and MANN ease release 200 spray 

i guess i have enough release agents but im not really sure which one works better. i read PVA is almost guaranteed so i used it in my first mould and i guess i brushed it too thick so it gave me abit of a problem during demoulding. Can i just use MANN spray as a release agent as it is very easy to use, is it reliable? Thanks

Yes it does work, I just add a thix powder called Cabosil to get a good consistency. It takes a while to blend in well and you need to be sure it's not too thin as epoxy resins seem to separate/fisheye on release agents pretty easily.
im thinking abit more thinner than a peanut butter consistency  just enough to hold on vertical walls. when cured but still tacky i will lay some fiberglass and i hope its going to work. thank you for the response. have you tried MANN spray or Easy-Lease agent?


Don't use Mann release, it's really more of a casting release agent. Easylease is a superb release agent and is made for what you are doing. If you do 6-8 coats of Easylease with 15 minutes between each coat, parts with good draft should virtually fall out of the mould.

GO

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orhanyor - 5 Years Ago
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