If you're picking up a bunch of glass for some molds, look at
www.thayercraft.com for the fiberglass. If it's a fuse mold, you may
want to make sure the cloth is flexible, so you might want to stick with
the volan finished cloths. Some of the other cloth with tight weaves or
some of the silane finishes can be pretty stuff. If you intend to use
S-glass for the parts, go to www,sweetcomposites.com for the S glass.
Stick with all epoxy. And slow cure since you want to build up a few
layers at a time but don't want to end up with too much heat.
Avoid trying to make a full frame with any other material. The key to a
stable mold is to make in consistent from surface to surface so it's an
even sandwich. If there are differences, then there will be temperature
expansion ration differences and things will warp or twist or bow on
you. I even finish up the last layers of my molds with a finer cloth
since it makes less likely you will have a rough mold with pointy
fiberglass bits sticking out as a benefit.
You're better off with gluing on some posts if you want the fuse mold to
sit flat on the bench while you are laying up the fuse.
Don't go crazy on thickness if you only need a few parts. But if you
want to use a bladder, then you will need the thickness for strength.
Jimmy Prouty wrote:
Hi Jack,
Check and see if there are any boat shops in your area. The nation
wide chains carry West Systems epoxies which are pretty high quality.
They also carry fiberglass cloth but I think you'll find it less
expensive if you order it There are several sources for the materials
online, AerpSpace Composites, CST, US Composites to name a few. I
prefer to lay up my molds with epoxy due to it's stability and how
long the molds will last. I prefer tooling resin from ACP since it's
epoxy based and compatible with the resins I use.
When making a mold I a layer of tooling resin followed by a couple
layers of 4 oz then several layers of 6 oz and 10 oz. The amount of
glass depends on how big the mold it. I've never had to use a frame
for my molds and store them with both sides connected to each other
with Clecos. I haven't used a bladder on any of my fuselages yet but
can see advantages to them. My biggest reason for not using one is
the cost of having it made.
I have a tutorial on my website for making molds if you're
interested. Go to http://www.jtmodels.com/molds.htm
Hope this helps,
Jimmy
Where do I get this stuff... anyplace in Albuquerque, Amarillo, Lubbock,
or El Paso? Primarily looking for mold wax, tooling gel, parting agent,
such as PVA or better if you have a recommendation. Also should I use
polyester to make the mold, or epoxy? I'll be using epoxy (MGS) for the
fuselages. How many layers of what weight cloth for the mold? Do you use
a frame to keep it from twisting / warping? Do you use some kind of
bladder inside? I built one once, for a Legionair. It turned out OK, but
sure could've been better.
Thanks in advance...
Jack
--
schrederman
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