Hi ya ! I used to be the Foreman in a yacht building company, and we used TONS of frp plugs and molds. ( I once built a plug, and then the mold, and then the hull, for a 54' racing sailboat,for the Vancouver to Maui Race. ) and yah, the glass slivers from a mat layup was just plain painful. Well, we started LIGHTLY hand sanding the exterior of the part, ( plug, mold, part, whatever. ) with 60 grit paper, and NO more slivers !!! We only spent a couple of minutes doing it but boy, did it ever save 'time with the tweezers'. You might just want to give it a try. Oh yah, by the way, I used to race RC model boats, ( A and B Mono & Offshore, A and B Tunnel, and Sport 40 hydro. ) as part of the "Puget Sound Model Boat Club". I even got to race in the NAMBA Nationals at Half Moon Bay, California, one year. Nothing but good fun, and great friends !
Great video! You provide us with a whole lot of good info! But MAN YOU GOT LUCKY!!! That plug just popped out!!!!! Next time if you wanted to save weight you could look into vacuum bagging the mold.
You've opened a huge can of worms, but the short answers are; Very carefully and yes! I'll be laying up some new cowlings fairly soon, so maybe I'll shoot a video showing how to do it.
Does the PVA work on fiberglass to fiberglass? I have a fiberglass part I want to duplicate...but I want to duplicate it with fiberglass resin and pop it off after curing.
MAte get yourself acetone and an empty bottle so You can wash your brush once finish with resin! Dirty acetone like any other liquid will let heavy particle seat at the bottom so you end up having decadent acetone recycled for your new washing!
It's available almost anywhere fiberglass products are sold. One good source is Tap Plastics www.tapplastics.com/product/fiberglass/fiberglass_fabrics/surfacing_veil_mat/90
I see thin gel coat and lots of air in the outer layers. The outer layers should not be a problem but if you have air in the first layer you have problems. Should make a good part though.
Yes, I did watch the video. I was just commenting on what I saw. Not trying to tear you down. Thin gel coat and air pockets can cause big problems when making quality molds. Looks like you got lucky and your parts are good. Nice work.
What do you use to seal the wood? I’m making a basic v hull boat (its my first boat ever) and I’m just wondering if there are different methods of how to do it. I would like to do it as cheap as possible with stuff I can get from a hardware store. I’ve already finished the hull and just have to seal it and add the Electronics. Thanks
It's funny that you ask... I'm shooting a mold-making video right now! I wax the plug several times with a molding wax and then spray it with PVA that I get from Tap Plastics. The new video will be much more thorough, going through the whole process of building the plug, then the mold, and finally the production part. Coming soon!
Hi Kyle, if you do a nice job fitting everything on a wood boat you should only need a very light application of a surface filler to take care of the wood grain and any tiny gaps. For this I use a polyester blending putty called Metal Glaze. The name is deceptive... It works excellent on wood and fiberglass and can be applied over primed surfaces as well. I fill larger areas when needed with thickened West Systems epoxy in most cases, but do use a lightweight filler such as USC's Feather-Rite on occasion Hope this helps!
@@M5PerfHydros ..." if you do a nice job fitting everything on a w...">>> LOL well, maybe next time. I fiberglassed a fiberglass "nose cone" to the wood cockpit, and it definitely needs some blending to the cockpit sides, ugh!. Thank you for the info.
Do it with West Systems epoxy! It will be much stronger and less likely to get stress cracks. Thicken the epoxy with West System's 406 Colloidal Silica to a consistency like peanut butter and smooth it in place with a popsicle stick or your finger. It'll look great and be mucho strong
Kyle Boyer - at the 4:20 mark of the video you'll see the product I use. Fiberglass mat is impregnated with a resin that is soluble in polyester products so you must use a polyester resin to form mat properly. When I make my parts from a mold I use West Systems epoxy and fiberglass cloth. The cloth does not have any product impregnated within it so you can use any layup product you prefer with it. The cowling turned out great! Check out my Facebook page for more pictures and other content; facebook.com/M5-Performance-Hydroplanes-237635276373511/
Kyle Boyer - Ha ha! I don't mind the questions... I use several different weights to make molds as well as when making finished parts from molds. The main trick is for your first layer to be a very light material so it conforms well to the shape/angles of the part. Heavy glass doesn't form well around corners and you'll get a lot of air bubbles there. So for mat I use 3/4 oz veil as my first layer, then let it set up until tacky and go with my heavier layers thereafter, 2 oz or more depending upon how strong the mold needs to be. Fiberglass cloth takes the same approach, starting with a 1 oz veil, then going to a 3.5 oz cloth, 4 oz, even 6 oz where I want more thickness and greater strength. Along critical areas I sandwich carbon fiber cloth or strips between layers of regular glass. I hope this helps!
