Building my 2.4 metre ( 8 feet ) dinghy hull mould from scratch.. To make something as large as a boat out of liquid resin and floppy fabric, you need a mold to shape and support the materials until they solidify. when building with a male mold, fiberglass fabric is laid over the mold’s exterior surface and is then saturated, or wet out, with liquid resin that has just been catalyzed.. The old fashoned way is to essentially build a wooden boat plug, fair it, then make the mold from it. mold's don't last forever, and manufacturers pull a hull, re-fair it and make a new mold from the faired part..
Mold build up from now on is up to the individual builder. some people use foam core, or x-glass, or woven roving, etc. the idea is to build up a stiff strong laminate about 3/8 to 1/2 inch thick for small molds, thicker for bigger molds. i have seen boat hull molds that are 1-1/2 inches thick. for small molds, i just use 1-1/2 oz mat.. Think of a mold for your fiberglass. if you are making fiberglass for project, like a simple box, bowl, or other shape, you probably want to assemble a "mold" or "form" to make sure that your fiberglass, which starts off in liquid form, adheres to the right shape.. Mold strength and thickness can be built up more rapidly by adding woven roving or tooling fabric. with polyester molds, the first step in making the mold is the application of a tooling gel coat, which is distinguishable by its bright orange or deep black color. prior to its application, be sure to catalyze the gel coat at the proper ratio..
Comments
Post a Comment