Here is my first attemp at building a mould. These are the kickplates off my gixxer. Finish product thinkness I am think will be 0.125" so figured mould needs to be about 3/8". I have so far stuck down my plugs with clay. I waxed board before I did anything. Stuck clay arond all edges. Filled in the cutouts and bolt holes in stock piece with clay as well. I then carefully waxed everything. Wiped down waxed again. Brushed on a thin coat of pva release. Let it dry. Brushed on a thicker coat of pva. I have then brushed on one coat of polyester tooling resin. That is curing now. A second coat will be applied as soon as it starts to become tacky. Here is project as it sits now.
Tell me how im doing so far or if I have already messed it up.
DON’T MAKE MOLDS ON YOUR KITCHEN TABLE!!!
grinz
No, looks good. Thought it was the SV/TL guards…still, looks like suzuki 
As long as yout PVA has a nice finish, keep on going once it dries with your tooling coat/layers. Make sure you have good filling in the corners so there are no bridging. Maybe 1/2" to 1" strips of glass in the corners…then add the main layers of glass.
I made kickplates for my bike, but I just polished one side of the original kickplate, sealed and released, then laid up on it.
The plug looks great. Any updates?
You look to be going in the right direction and a great little part to start with for a first mold and part. Cudos!
My only suggestion is make the clay flush with the edges of the original kick plate before laying up the mold. Also kick plates are great little parts for compression molds… a sandwich type mold you compress together. If you have questions on compression molding just ask. It saves not having to vacuum bag the lay up, thereby saving $ on vac bagging materials. I’ll show you an exhaust guard mold done this way.
sorry as usuall my wife only knows where the camera usb cord is.
Could you describe the process you used for the compression molding?
Ill get some more pic up of what I have so far. Finished mould. Turned out ok, it worked to make a second plug. Had some low spots in mould from the clay not being perfectly flush to the part which in turn caused a high spot in part. Sanded part smooth and making a second mould of that so hopfully my new mould will be ready for production of a finished piece.
I used 3x 2oz 3x 4oz and 1x 8oz fiberglass to make my part. Mould is 4 layers of each fabric.
I have everything I need to vacuum infuse a piece minus the epoxy. Unless I can get my polyester resin to travel more then 6" into a layup.
To make a compression mould do you make a mould female like what I have now only leave the piece in pva the naked side of part and mould and then make a male mould of the back side?
Ok here’s the pics. First is the part after sanding and smoothing and now being put into a mould.
Second is the mould right after I pulled my second part out, the part for other side of the bike. You can see the differant shape. More arrow head shape and no bend.
Third is the arrow head piece just pulled from the second “pre” mould.
And last if the arrow head shaped part and sanded and finished and ready to be moulded so I can finaly make a finished piece.
This looks really good remy5405! Would it be possible to see the other side of the heel guard as well? I am looking into trying the exact same thing as my first mold, only for my ZX-10 but really have no clue where I’m going to start. I got the supplies to make the mold, and the piece waxed up all nice… Just need to jump in the deep and go!
Fastrr - Would you be able to provide me details about compression molding as I would be interested to learn about that as well!
Compression mold just make a mold of the front side of the heel guard, mold release wax it. Now insert the plug back into the mold, make sure the backside of the plug is waxed good and then mold the backside so the plug is “trapped” inside. Once mold is cured crack it apart, trim, and wax it. You can simply use clamps to push the mold halves together while curing the laminate. Use Vinyl Ester Resin… no gel coat needed for the part… just clear coat the part.
I use spring clamps or vise grip clamps.
Why do you suggest Vinyl Ester Resin, instead of Epoxy?
Update. Got mould made of the two finished plugs. It is now ready for a vacuum infusion try. Got my west system 105 and 206 today so I think im ready. Here is the new duel mould that holds both kickplates. Also I took a pic of the back side of the plug. This is a wet layup of west marine poly resin and fiberglass. Its basicly has a texture of a sheet of fiberglass cloth. Not bumpy but not smooth.
the vacuum infusion part should be much smoother. Also a piece made with the mentioned compression mould should beas pretty on the front as on the back. The arrow head part looks strange cause it still has release film on other side.
Looks great! I look forward to seeing it in carbon.