Sail Life - Making a fiberglass mold for the new rudder, part 2 of 2 - DIY boat project 

Mads I wanted to say thank you. You were one of the inspiration for my wife and I to buy a sailboat and move aboard. We got a 1974 Morgan Out Island 36 and for the first time today we raised her sails and she flew. I've found a new passion in my life and you played a part in it. Thank you.

Now you can make a bunch of rudders and sell them online to other people who have the same type of boat. Make sure that you wax the mold several times before making the first part. When I worked at a fiberglass shop, we waxed new molds 7 times before making the first part out of them. Them waxed 3 times between each part made from the mold after the first. Cool video.

That’s turning into a proper shop now

Mads has a masters degree in the school of hard knocks and is working diligently on his Phd! Looks great.

Been following along for several months now..perhaps a year. I am always impressed with your desire to learn and willingness to put in the time required to do so. I am also one of those guys who tends to over think and over build stuff a bit, or so I am told. I can think of no place where those traits would be more acceptable than in vessel one plans to take around the world. Really enjoy your channel.

Just came across your channel about a month ago. I have binge watched from your first video up to now 310. I just want to say thank you for the amount of time and effort you put into producing this content so that others can learn from your experiences. I have learned so much. You are an inspiration.

That is a beautiful mold! Better than pros make Such attention to detail. Those molds would make 100 rudders easy

Geeez, I wish I had your patience. I live on a 41 year old boat so I have a great interest to see what you find inside of your rudder. What a great shop of tools.

As always Mads your attention to detail and the love of over engineering never ceases to amaze me! Don't ever change!

Just like boatworkstoday but with an accent,excellent work

I came for the sanding, but stayed for the molding

I really like how you think. I appreciate your patience and enjoy watching your very methodical work processes. You study various procedures as you approach a project, then in your own way, you make it work. Sometimes even improving the process. That is sort of how I approach things too. Well done young man.

Band-Aids do that spiffy light trick when you take them out of their package too!

That peel-ply light show was awesome, and beautifully shot!

OK,.. that settles it,.. Mads, you're the time-traveling engineer who constructed the Egyptian Pyramids. ..eventually you're gonna sail the Med, go to Egypt, make a mold, and spiffy those things back up! Also, thanks for showing us the ancient mysterious "tiny lightning" power of Peel-Ply.

Mads: mold-making god.

A great series of videos on making molds for someone who has never done so! I really admire your willingness to take on new challenges!

Mads you have really done well here.

Suspense he says...!!!! I want to see the insides of the old rudder now!!!! ;)

spiftacular episode Mads :) Cheers from PEI Canada, Bryan

Wow !! you are making some great content, I am here because of the great things Boat Works Today said about your channel and he was right !!!

I really enjoyed your rudder mold series...thanks for enriching my mind once again!

Is this over engineered? YES! Am I having fun? YES!

Looking good!! Most people would say sink it or burn it but I say keep going. I'm looking for a project boat myself

Dang now we have to wait till next Sunday!

Step 1: the rudder Step 2: The hull Step 3: the deck Voila! Mads 38 :D

Great video as always, when are you going to open a boatyard? Your skills are miles better than most

I always enjoy seeing your progress, Mads. Thanks for sharing! Watching you has become part of my sunday routine, and inspires me to put in more effort both planning and executing my DIY projects. My home is getitng spiffier, slowly but steadily. Not through major hasty makeovers but step by step and carefully so. It's an enjoyable way of doing things, and the results are so worth it. Please never stop posting improvement-y videos!

I happened to catch your comment a few videos back about your boat not being the only one made that uses the same rudder.... and they are all about the same age as yours... taking the time to prepare the mold for multiple uses is just smart (and potentially profitable?) thinking.

Nice video ,very instructive. A quick tip, You can drill small holes in the mould and fibreglass car tyre valves over the holes on each side of the mould so you can use an air line so pop them off of the new rudder when you have finished laying it up.also glass on a wooden frame to one side, it will help stop twisting and keep it level on your work bench.

This is a great demonstration of how to build a fantastic mold...It is really over built, but as you plan to share this with the community then overbuilt will help with longevity. Thank you for another fantastic video Mads :)

Crisscrossing strips of wood works well.

You’re a great engineer

Quality of your content is amazing, your channel should have at least 500000 subscribers :)

Not gonna lie, I am a bit jealous of that shop space! I went to school for CNC Machining, it is good stuff, it will make building bulkheads so much easier if you come up with a good way to measure them which I am sure you can. Looking forward to the progression here for sure!

Wonderful great mold , i say that as a long time mold and pattern maker. I still hate that stupid coupling coat. One other thing would be to add some additional blocking on the back so the mold sits flat instead or rolling around when you work on it but that's minor. Oh and I still hate those silly alignment pins and you will too in a while. Cheers Warren

It’s going to be tough to leave the shop behind when you finally go sailing! Great job on the video, I enjoyed it

Mads....the electric light show was amazing!!

Finger sander! Also, I don't know anything about laying glass or much of what you're doing but that mold looks incredible. What amazing work for something you've never done before. I'm so happy to have found your channel.

Nice to see the result is almost perfect. Can’t wait to see the structure of Athena’s rudder.

Mads I have been watching you for a few years and I can say your my kind of guy. Do it right and do it once. And if it is your first time over do it and scale back later.

Learning more and more each time I watch your videos. Very impressed with your work. Hi Ava.

Very Spiffy Mads!!!!

Cool as all get out light show!!

CNC mills are awesome!

LOL...I particularly enjoy injuries to the middle finger "What happened to your finger?" "You mean THIS?!!?"

No I want to go out and buy a warrior so I can rent Mads mould and replace the rudder!!

very interesting, I need to save this video.

A more practical suggestion. Put some additional structure on the outside of the mold so that each half can sit flat when you are doing lay up. As you have it now it will be hard to keep the mold in one spot during layup - the curved reinforcement will let the mold roll back and forth.

Cutting Cloth, Mads if you get an Olfa rotary cutter you can cut nice straight pieces of cloth. 1) Mark the width of the cloth. 2) Pull a strand of glass out at the mark. This is your cut line 3) Lay the cloth on a piece of plexi that is longer than the cloth. Plexi is much easier on the “$” rotary knife edge. 4) Cut along the line left from removing the strand. You don’t need a straight edge. The cloth doesn’t need to be laid out square or straight. Just follow the line. Thanks for the RU-vid clips.

Great progress. I love how you stay on task for such a large project. Its really inspiring to watch. Thanks for making these videos.

You need a little flex to get the new rudder out of mold. I worked at a plastic manufacturer I made dashboard we heated the plastic vacuum on mold. The mold had holes all over it about the size of a pen tip. The plastic was vacuumed on let cool we add some air pressure to get the dashboard off the mold. You could put small holes in the mold and a air chamber to help the mold to release the new rudder. And new a release spray than cover it with plastic film like peel ply to keep the spray from damaging the resins and glass

Triangles would be less material. But amazing as always.... Waiting for the 'oh glorious sanding' shirts to be avalible. I actually made that joke in central usa, and met somebody who watched your videos

Loving your work, Mads! The same luminescence happens when peeling open envelopes that have the pre-glued flaps (not the ones you lick); this is why I like to open my mail in the dark!

Nice work Mads. Now order some more fiberglass, 20 liters of PVA and some resin and build a hull mold for Athena.

Looks spiffy, great work. Another interesting video. So glad to get my weekly project video fix back. I missed it whilst you were in the US etc.

You are a force to be reckoned with. You just keep going, and with a great attitude. So inspiring to watch!!! Keep it up, brother!

Use the compressed air to part your mold, puts less localized stress at the wedge points. It is pretty dang spiffy! Great job as always Madman!

Another interesting story, cheers

Nice job on the mold. That is some awesomely spiffy work!

Absolutely love your vids, I myself have contemplated building a mould for my rudder out of carbon fiber. After seeing the process through your 2 part series I feel confident about giving it a go! Thanks!!

One smart dude !

Did any body else smile when the mold finaly separated

Nice work, very professional :)

Very good job. Congrats.

you are brilliant , the master of spiffiness your videos are outstanding and so interesting they inspire everybody so much

Mads, Excellent work on the mold for your new rudder. Very informative set of videos. Thank you very much. Have a great week!

I really look forward to your videos, so thanks for all your effort in sharing your work

get a push stick for the table sw

Great work, thank you for the video.

That's what I call being sidetracked but I love it!

If you ever have to do a big mold again, you can use air to help separate the sides. Just free all the edges and then which ever side or end seems the freest, just shoot air in there off your compressor.

Mads, when cutting fiberglass strips like you did for the foam reinforcing, an Olfa rotary cutter (pizza cutter) is much easier to use than a utility knife.

Great video, I learned a lot!

Nice! Can’t wait to see the dissection.

Nice work!

super pretty dang spiffy if you ask me Mads :)

Good job 👍🏻

Great work

Well done mads .

Can wait to see the rudder rebuild just loving this show …

Great Video.

They will dig that mould up in a few thousand years and it'll still be good to go :)

Just first class

Wow that peal ply light show was off the Spiffiness chart.

Thanks!

I think some polyester resin and chopped strand mat would have been alot easier,after a few layers of mat, add some wood or core to the outside and glass over it. You will have a very strong mound then. Either way, good job !

nice job!

I like my mould in blue cheese. Thanks for sharing.

My rudder is really heavy too. It will be tangs welded to the shaft and filled with that resin/plaster type mix. Standard practice in those days. Hopefully they will be stainless tangs. On mine a common fault mentioned in the tomahawk owners forum is that they used mild steel tangs that rust with water ingress! I don't know why they make them so heavy with that weird filler though. Stability of the rudder at sea I assume??

A blood blister. If it hurts when you bump it, poke it with a needle and drain the blood out.

Great work Mads. Enjoying your videos.

Awesome Mads... looks like you had a lot of fun with this one

never underestimate the inherent ouchy-ness of those squeezy thingies.

Perfect timing. I am having to rebuild my rudder and I believe they may be of the same composition.

Great work again as usual. Love the CNC machine. Funfunfun! Hey, wot is the tracked machine behind you in some of the shots? More fun?

Sweet!

Thanks Mads. Great video as usual.

Man your killing me..........I am supposed to be out working:) There are a total of 13 dislikes on this video and I can only imagine they are from haters that have no clue what the abbreviation DYI even means

The difficulty you had getting the second half of the mould off was a result of you fixing the strengthening ribs before separation, maybe on the next one add the ribs after separation?