My First Scratch build

[Richard]

Glad to see you working away at this, I learned my glass working skills from my early road race days, a necessity breads invention kinda thing, was it the same for you? Great job by the way.
You can save a bit by just using a polyester resin over the tooling gel, usually the tooling gel is polyester based and bonds well to the ploy resin, also tends to be very rigid compared to epoxy, general ya good trait for a mould, Hey just trying to save you a few bucks in hopes you can come up with a better offer on the Flash/Flex combo you want.
Richard

[Vettster]

Hey Rich.. thanks for the tips. I didnt mess with resin till about 3 years ago when I did the F-104.

The guy at Composites Canada told me right off the bat to use Polyester cause is was less than half the cost. I told him it was more than 5 times the cost because I would need a divorce lawyer. lol My Garage is attached to the house and while she cant smell most of what goes on in there.. I know that poly would be way to much. its just nasty stuff as you know lol.

Ill pass on the flex.. but if you ever want an even trade for the Sebring

[JBajkor]

I am waiting to see how your molds come out. I am getting close to doing my first ever mold so I hope you take lots of pictures.

[Vettster]

Wait no longer.. I couldn't either lol I was going to wait till the weekend.. But I couldnt stand it. No worries at all. The molds were rock solid! I couldn't believe the strength they have. I read that removing the plug is actually a very violent thing and they where not kidding! Here you have the plug that you so tenderly handled making sure not to get so much as a scratch and then your smashing it down on the concrete floor LOL It took sometime as expected.. but they did come out and Im VERY Pleased with the molds. There not perfect for my first attempt.. but nothing that cant be fixed with some 600-1000grit paper. Ill give them a 8 out of 10.

I learned a lot from these first molds and Im glad I did the small ones first, all be it.. they where actually pretty complicated due to the sharp edges and being somewhat small parts that make it hard to remove from the mold.

On thing I didnt like before doing the mold was that the guy at the comp store insisted that 6 oz would lay down with no problem. It probably would in most cases... but for this mold I really wish I had of listened to my self and gone with 3 layers of 4 oz instead of 2 of 6 oz. For 3-4-3 instead of 2-4-2

Something else I learned.. When I attached the plugs to the parting board, I used a hot glue gun. It worked great but I used 3 globs of glue then pressed the plug down. This is not a good method as the glue cools real fast and it kept the plug about 1/2mm above the board which allowed/required more modelling clay to be pushed under the edge. If you dont get that just perfect (as I did not) then you get a rap-around effect with the resin and that will make it much more challenging to remove the plug.

In the end.. I am very pleased with the turn out and I dont think I will be able to hold off finishing all the other molds before I do and actual layup with the wing tip molds

[tbrum]

Very cool. I've never seen this done before.. Learning a lot here. Thx

[Richard]

I

Wait no longer.. I couldn't either lol I was going to wait till the weekend.. But I couldnt stand it. No worries at all. The molds were rock solid! I couldn't believe the strength they have. I read that removing the plug is actually a very violent thing and they where not kidding! Here you have the plug that you so tenderly handled making sure not to get so much as a scratch and then your smashing it down on the concrete floor LOL It took sometime as expected.. but they did come out and Im VERY Pleased with the molds. There not perfect for my first attempt.. but nothing that cant be fixed with some 600-1000grit paper. Ill give them a 8 out of 10.

I learned a lot from these first molds and Im glad I did the small ones first, all be it.. they where actually pretty complicated due to the sharp edges and being somewhat small parts that make it hard to remove from the mold.

On thing I didnt like before doing the mold was that the guy at the comp store insisted that 6 oz would lay down with no problem. It probably would in most cases... but for this mold I really wish I had of listened to my self and gone with 3 layers of 4 oz instead of 2 of 6 oz. For 3-4-3 instead of 2-4-2

Something else I learned.. When I attached the plugs to the parting board, I used a hot glue gun. It worked great but I used 3 globs of glue then pressed the plug down. This is not a good method as the glue cools real fast and it kept the plug about 1/2mm above the board which allowed/required more modelling clay to be pushed under the edge. If you dont get that just perfect (as I did not) then you get a rap-around effect with the resin and that will make it much more challenging to remove the plug.

In the end.. I am very pleased with the turn out and I dont think I will be able to hold off finishing all the other molds before I do and actual layup with the wing tip molds

Nice, hope you still have all your skin on your nuckles!
A couple tricks, consider air as an option to release plugs from moulds, either blow it in from an edge that has started to release, or even better build a air connection into your mould to connect air to, it usually blows the piece right across the room, if that fails the trusty large nylon tie wrap works wonders, soft enought to flex and not hard enough to scrape mould, just start sticking them around the edges and eventually it will pop out.
Hope it helps, Richard

[Vettster]

Great tips Rich! Will be using them for the next set for sure. How would u incorporate the air fitting without it being filled with resin..

[Richard]

Man you want all my secrets, packing tape is you best friend, place tape over hole in fitting, place fitting onto plug and lay glass around fitting, you can also install in a mould once it's made, but that does not help release plug first time. In past I have wrapped simple plugs in packing tape to make a thin shiny surface that releases fairly easy, you can also use it to hold down edges of plug works better than hot glue, leave the hot glue for the wife!
Richard

[Vettster]

Awesome! Thanks Rich

[maddog]

Hey Trevor looking good!! making plugs and mould is pretty cool, just finish some for wings, stab's and rudder's for an F-18 did a plug and mould for an 90" T-33 three yrs ago, alot of work ! Hope you bring it to Forest Jets in June so we all can see it. maddog