Adding a mold flange?

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#1

So a handful of months ago I made a mold from a racing kart seat that is no longer available (original manufacturer closed down and lots of molds got scrapped). Anyway, the mold I made didn’t have any additional flange, which has worked okay for wet layup, but I’m really interested in trying vacuum bagging/infusion (I love learning new skills) which will require having a much wider flange. I’m curious about what would be the best way to add a nice consistent flange to an existing part to take a new mold from, or adding a flange to my existing mold?

Thanks in advance.

#2

Picture of a finished par pre trimming

#3

one way is to fasten sheet metal to your mould using Clecko’s, then lay fiberglass on this, remove sheet metal and fill/repair the holes or any other defect. You could also do this same technique to the plug and make a new mould. Ive done this several time is the past, it works well. Just make sure to taper the fiberglass before laminating

#4

just envelope bag it, it will be fine

#5

I thought about the envelope bagging, but I didn’t think it would lend it’s self well to infusion?

The sheet metal was what I was figuring I was going to have to do, was just hunting for other ideas though because there are so many curves to the flange. I suppose it is what it is though.

#6

I’ve envelope bagged moulds made for wet lay before, it works fine. The main thing to watch out for is excess fabric overlapping the edge of the part and locking it into the mould. Not a big deal if it happens as you can just grind it off, but this can result in damaging your mould.

#7

I second the envelope bag with infusion. Its a little tricky to set up but I’ve done it on several parts and worked fine.

#8

ive enveloped with infusion plenty of times. same reason really, older flangeless moulds or customer supplied moulds, the biggest issue really is having such a big bag to wrestle with but other than that its straightforward

#9

I buy 0.40 styrine plastic sheets for all my flanging. Works very well and tooling gel won’t bond to it.