I’m looking for a company that can sell 5 gal pails of laminating or tooling resin. Something for making molds. Something that has a distortion temp of at least 180. What I use right now is from Eager plastics. 5 gallons for $200. Roughly 650cps, 183 distortion temp, and its a laminating resin.
I’d like something just as good for cheaper if possible. Opening up a new shop in a few days (got my keys today) And I just need help with getting resin for a cheaper price for now.
If anybody has a 55 gal drum and has some to spare I’d be happy to purchase 5 - 10 gall of off ya :D.
Never use any kind of polyester resin for making molds. It just sucks and shrinks badly… even ISO poly shrinks too much.
Stick with Vinyl Ester Resin for making frp molds. You’ll be happy, your customers will be happy and it costs a few dollars more is all.
CompositesOne has it for $125 - 5 gallons. They charge a $25 haz mat fee for delivery. So your looking at $150. Catalize with MEKP winter mix. 1 gallon of MEKP runs $44.
A 5 gallon pail of tooling gel coat runs around $250 from CompositesOne.
Also build your molds using triaxial fiberglass. It is -45/+45… usually you do 2 to 4 layers of triaxial on top of two layers of 2oz fiberglass mat. Vacuum bag the mold if possible, but only after you get the mat laid down and cured.
for say a hood mold i would use 2 layers of mat and 2 layers of triaxial fiberglass. Triaxial sells for $10 a linear yard 50" width. Vacuum bag down that triaxial and you will save tons of resin and have a strong mold Vacuum bagging csm or triaxial saves about 50% resin useage. and it gets rid of ALL air bubbles.
Good ISO polyester toolings resins work fine for mold making. Vinylester is better, but more expensive and not always necessary.
I think you’re confused about what triaxial fabrics are and how to use them. Triaxial non-woven fabrics generally have 0, +45, -45 fiber orientations. Just like other reinforcements, they come in different styles and weights. So “2 to 4 layers of triaxial” means nothing. 2 layers of 9oz is very different from 4 layers of 27oz.
Furthermore, what you described is not even a balance layup, nor does it provide a very good skin coat. The two consecutive plies of resin rich and weak 2oz csm behind the gelcoat will make the mold warp towards the lay-up surface. Then the “2 to 4 layers of triaxial” would probably all be laid up with the same orientation, leaving a mold ply schedule that is unbalance from its midplane, and not having any continuous fibers in the 90* orientation. Much worse than the effects of using poly resin.
And I see no mention of a proper skin coat, or first ply/plies. 2oz CSM behind gelcoat will give a hell of a print through. A light cloth (~2-3oz/sq yd) or surfacing veil should be used instead. This provides a resin rich barrier and minimal texture between the surface of the mold and the bulk of the layup.
Good luck saving 50% resin usage with CSM, as it will still require excess resin to wet out. You might remove some of it to throw away and make the mold lighter, if the bagging can be done fast enough before the resin gels.
REMEMBER: The gelcoat is the actual mold, the fabrics and structure are just there to properly support it.
As to the OP, most suppliers do sell and prefer 5 gallon pails or larger. The main issue is shipping the stuff, as price and quality is generally pretty similar.
Look into purchasing 5 one gallon containers too. When I purchase 5 gallons from a local company (www.easternburlap.com 757-622-5914), they ship the 1 gallon containers for cheaper than shipping a full 5 gallon pail- even though the 5, 1 gallon containers added together techincally cost more than the 5 gallon pail by itself.
I think of triaxial as 22oz per sq yd… yep i did forget it comes in various weights. I was unaware that not having 0/90 orientation would warp the mold. For others who are interested in using triaxial it is available in 0/90. obviously -/+45 also. that would even the ply orientation. 2oz csm i use all the time against the gel coat surface, never have seen any print thru in over 20 molds. But i do understand the concern… just doesn’t happen though unless the gel coat is applied too thin. I usually spray down a 15 to 20 mil gel coat.
We did vacuum bag a car trunk support structure today… 3 layers of 2oz mat, a few layers of 3K cf in hardware locations, using VER. You do have to work fast to vac bag it.
My appologies for getting off topic…
back to someone helping this fellow with obtaining resin
Vacuum bagging csm or triaxial saves about 50% resin useage. and it gets rid of ALL air bubbles.