Couldn't help myself, another mean trick

General Composites Discussions Composites Talk
#1

We had completed layup, bag, and cure of a large part. (Large being defined as 14 foot in span, 9 foot in chord) We were detooling the part this past saturday. The owner was out there watching as several people went around the tool with wedges and dead-blow hammers. The part did NOT wish to come out of the tool.
I came up to said owner carrying a piece of scrap laminate and said “Watch this”.
As the guys were fighting with the tool and part, I started bending the scrap. Every now and then you could hear a fiber bundle break with a small CRACK. Dead silence as everyone would stop and stare at the part. A little bit later, another louder crack and people started to get that paniced look on their face.
The owner was having to turn away or they would have seen him laughing.
I finally bent the scrap till it achieved “failure mode”. A big crack sounded through the shop and people all stopped. They turned towards where I was standing and saw me with the broken scrap and their boss laughing his butt off.
The language they used!!! Also, I wish to make something clear. My parents were too married, and I CAN read!!!
We got the part out of the tool. I drilled a hole in one of the plastic wedges and shoved an air nozzle into the hole. When I got the wedge under the part I hit the air and we got more seperation. We repeated the process till the part got free of the tool.
I hope everyone else had as much fun this weekend as I had.

Larry

#2

Man, I would have loved to had you as a student!

NOT…lol!

Priceless! :smiley:

Another tip on seperating stubborn parts from the mold…pour water between them to hydro it out.

#3

Thats to funny! Sounds like my old job, only minus the joke, and actually breaking parts on the tool.

#4

ever get a part stuck IN a tool?

and that is why I am so pro-CAD’ed metal molds!!!

#5

That shouldn’t happen if the people involved know what they’re doing.

Composite tooling is more desirable for making composite parts. The metal molds are not idiot proof either. I see plenty of examples on a daily basis of metal molds with heavy resin build up, parts difficult to remove, and deep scratches/gouges causing poor surface finish of parts and air leaks under bagging tape. Not to mention some molds that weigh over 7,000 pounds and require a forklift to reposition, instead of the same tool in composite being about 2,000 lbs.

#6

I have never actually had a part that I prepped stick. My co-workers however, were pro’s at it. Mostly because all they cared about was how close it was to 5pm, and waiting 20 minutes for wax to dry was unheard of.

#7

700nc is my buddy, Also one thing that i have learned from watching co-workers is that you should always use a sealer on a new or reworked mold before putting on the release. Without a sealer sometimes the parts will stick even if you released the mold. And when it comes to pranks i pefer to take the coffee cup and stick on the rafters that are 30 feet in the air.

#8

New or reconditioned tooling used for high temp cures should also go into the oven or autoclave to “bake” the new release agent. I sometimes have it done twice.

#9

coffee cup pranks?! …we drilled a small hole in the bottom of a coworkers coffee cup starting the bit from the underside of the mug until it just made a pinhole through the mug…dribble dribble :smiley:

That is so mean… just the thought of a part being bad can be severely stressful :o still funny though.

#10

I bought this aerosol release spray once, think I may still have some… PolyEase … it comes in a blue/white spray can, runs about $13.

Nothing will stick to the stuff, and your parts will almost fall out of the mold. And if you spray down Gel coat… do a couple very light coats first, let it tack up. Then come back and lay down the heavy coats of gel.

#11

Thats right, thank you for picking up on what i missed…baking the sealer or release is a very important part.