3D CAP 232-ST design / build / prototype

[Terryscustom]

Still experimenting, but with the mold there are two layers of thick black tooling gelcoat, then some filler to put a radius on all the corners and inside inlets and hard to glass areas. On the last one I did two layers of 4oz, four layers of 6oz and about 5 layers of 10oz.

On this one I'm using some satin fabric that I got on sale and sucks for cowls, it is 9oz and the satin conforms to very complex shapes so I'm going with one layer of 4oz, probably 4 layers of 9oz satin and two layers of 10oz. I also got some filler material on sale that adds rigidity to the mold so I'll be putting a few strips of this on the outside as well.

For the cowls themselves I'm also still experimenting but with a gelcoat layer it seems to work nicely with one layer of 4oz and one layer of 7.5oz. I'm going to experiment with a few different layups on this one just for the sake of learning.

Waiting for gelcoat to set a bit then we'll get some filler mixed up.....

 

[Flyrcjoe]

Looking really good !!

 

[Terryscustom]

Well, we'll find out in the morning how my luck is with removing the plugs from these molds. I did the normal layup of glass and put some patches of bulker on the outside. This really is nothing more than a soak pad that fills with resin and is 2mm thick. Supposed to add tremendous strength to the mold. I'm not so sure this will not take a little beating with a rubber mallet to get the mold to release the plug so I used it for safety. Let this cure for the night.......and fingers crossed for mid morning success pictures.

 

[BalsaDust]

 

[Fibertech]

Wow thats some high $$ soak pads there dude. I use extra 2 layers of 10oz in those places. Looks good..

 

[Terryscustom]

I know, that stuff is expensive for a resin diaper!! I got some on clearance at fibreglast for about 10 bucks, otherwise I would not have used it.

 

[Terryscustom]

Well, I anticipated a good hour of pounding, pulling, sweating and blowing air to get the plugs out of the mold. LOL, it was 15 minutes from start to finish!!!

Molds are perfect. I washed, sanded, washed sanded, wet sanded, washed and applied two coats of wax. Letting that dry for a bit while I do some real work to get ahead for tomorrow. I'll lay up a cowl tonight before I go home so we'll see the finished deal tomorrow AM.

Actually kinda sucks that you spend hours trying to get a glass smooth finish on the plug, then you have to spray PVA that has less than ideal spraying qualities and you end up with a slight orange peal effect that has to be sanded out of the mold. If I do much more of this I'm going to experiment with some different mold release products for making the mold. The stuff I use for laying up parts is amazing but it is not recommended for mold making.

 

[WMcNabb]

Molds look great!! Nice work!!

 

[Jetpainter]

They look great Terry!

 

[Craig77]

nice!!!!