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[hybridracers]

I posted something similiar to this on racingcomposites.

I live in the middle of stupid (dont ask why or how just know I plan to be in the good old state of Texas soon enough!) which happens to be Albuquerque NM and well…

I have the worst time finding anyone that knows anything about mold making let alone composite works. The local boat shop can sell me brushable gelcoat by the quart but really that isnt nearly enough now that I am ready to start getting serious.

I have been making simple molds out of small parts for practice with regular car primer (I plan on doing that some more but using evercoat) and using the way too expensive stuff from fibreglast. Using Lowes supply of crap resin and cloth selection. Its just not going to cut it anymore. The practice is over and its time to go bigger with my intentions.

So, in reality I have two questions. I know little about the terminology of the fiberglass but I know I need Continuous strand matt to build up the thickness of the molds but do I need 2oz weave and some 6oz weave cloth for the initial layers?

Hell I would really just like to sum this up.

I need a list of places that can get me supplies to build molds. Carbon is out of the question right now seeing as its price has more than doubled so I am going to focus on aluminized fiberglass.

I will need everything from resin to gelcoats and all the waxes, pva’s and rollers.

Oh and a place to find an accurate scale for measuring out stuff that isnt $300 dollars!

I know its alot to ask but if you guys could help me out I would appreciate it. I have talked to a few places to no avail as a lot of them have very differing ideas to how to do this.

Sorry for the rambling but you can see its contagious from listening to a few suppliers!

[system]

One of the main things that comes to mind with your location is that you will probably end up paying haz mat fees on UPS shipments, I think $20 per container. As far as scales, this place has good, cheap scales and delivers quickly - http://www.saveonscales.com/.

I will take a shot at a list of vendors that I use -

• Vacuum tube bags and end clips: http://www.acp-composites.com/acp-cat.htm

• Flow media / Airtech: http://www.airtechonline.com/

• AircraftSpruce / Various Supplies: http://www.aircraftspruce.com/menus/cm/

• PTM-W / Epoxy: http://www.ptm-w.com/

• US Composites / Various Supplies: http://www.shopmaninc.com/

• Fiberglass Hawaii / UV stable clear epoxy 2:1: http://www.interplastic.com/html/fghawaii.htm

• Fiberglass Supply / Laminating Tools and Rollers: http://www.fiberglasssupply.com/Product_Catalog/LaminatingTools/laminatingtools.html

• Fiberlay / System Epoxy Source (kind of pricy): http://www.fiberlay.com/

• Spiral Wrap: http://www.action-electronics.com/jtsw.htm

• Carbon Fiber: http://carb.com/s.nl/sc.1/.f

• Leak Detector: http://www.reliabilitydirect.com/ultrasoundproducts/INF-whisper.htm

• Spiral Wrap: http://cableorganizer.com/spiral-wrap/?src=googlewords

• Transtar / Auto Clear Coat: http://www.tat-co.com/version2/products_datasheets_en.asp

• Composites One: http://www.compositesone.com/

• Various Supplies: http://www.decomp.com/products.htm

• Zyvax / Mold release: http://www.zyvax.com/

• Revchem / Various Supplies: http://www.revchem.com/supplies.html

• Duratec: http://www.duratec1.com/

• Fabrics: http://www.sollerpaddles.com/composites/carbon%20fiber%20fabric.html

Not necessarily a complete list, but it would get you started.

[hybridracers]

thanks for the info!

Since it was so hard to figure out I bought a bunch of crap off ebay.

Got some 1oz glass for a decent price for my initial two layers but need some 6oz glass for the next few layers and some continuous strand mat for build up for strength.

Also ran into a guy on ebay that was quite helpfull in my epoxy search for doing carbon gas tanks and mufflers.

John Greer is his name.

I guess one of my biggest stumbling blocks would be that I just dont know what a real fair price should be on alot of the stuff.

Have yet to find one complete supplier that can agree with what I have learned so far. Some tell me chopped strand mat is fine while I think that isnt really structuraly sound unless you go crazy with it and then some dont go down low enough into the weight of the fabric which leads to problems with me doing articulate parts.

[hybridracers]

couple more things. So I am not bugging everyone I call.

Best places for brushable gelcoat with pigment? Had one supplier tell me to just add cabosil to my resin and use that. Not really digging that yet as I cant afford to ruin parts or plugs.

Also, is it really stupid for me to just use lowes or auto brands of fiberglass resin for building my mold? Seems cheap as its easy to get. I figure using that crap would cut down my mold cost making it easier to start showing profit on parts after the parts pay back the costs involved.

last but not least, I think problems said he uses Valspar marine clear gel coat for his surface coat on a part. Is this stuff a spray in and if so can I just convert one of my paint guns and not worry about it kicking off in my gun too fast?

[Werksberg]

If you are making a mold, buy tooling gel coat and ISO lamination resin as they will take the repeated heat cycles better than stanard resins and prevent distrortions. But brace any mold to help prevent distortions too.

RevChem Plastics has it all and tell them JM from GGROP refered you and you read it here…ask if they have any FG rems or cut offs rolls laying around cheap. I think I may have just slashed my wrists for getting them for the classroom…LOL.

If you are working with epoxy, then don’t use FG matt as the styrene binders won’t break down in epoxy resins.

PS: I’m socalcollector2 on Ebay, but my composite sales on there go to getting stuff for the classroom…

[hybridracers]

Called revchem and they put me to a voice mail for now but I told the operations manager’s voicemail that you sent me there way. Hopefully they can get me going in the right direction with a bunch of different products.

[Werksberg]

Well, they are on the West coast and since we have not linked where the posters are from (in the works), if you were calling from the East, they may have not open yet for the day?

[hybridracers]

No I talked to a girl and she said the tech guys work in the field so hopefully I can talk to someone by monday.

I am only an hour ahead of west coast time so its not a problem.

[zigua99]

Fiberglass Chopped Strand Mat, http://www.zccyfiberglass.com