New plug & mold

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#1

This is a side panel for a late model sport motorcycle. This is just the flanging stage. I already finished the panel repair work…it was cracked in 3 places. I just finished the repair then polished the primer with Meguiar’s Crystal Polish, followed by 6 coats of mold release wax. I’ll have to do about 3 more coats of wax today over the flanges and the plastic plug panel.

The flanging material was purchased at HomeDepot (from Tony Stewart) in the roofing department. It is just thin aluminum sheetmetal on a roll, 6" wide and about 9 mils thick. It forms easy and holds the shape i need for flanges.

I am starting to use 6" wide flanges now. I have found with infusion sometimes that precious extra few inches of flange is MUCH needed, especially with medium to large size parts you need a wide flange.

After a few more coats of wax i’ll move onto using modeling clay to fill in the tiny gap between the flange and the white panel part.

#2

02-03 R1 by the looks of it.

I’ve got the same panels to make molds for over the next few months.

One question, what do you use to fix the thin aluminium to the panel itself?

#3

I use foil tape… same stuff used for air condition/heating duct work. It’s thin aluminum foil tape.

This is gonna use a lot of resin and fiberglass cloth for this mold… i hate that… means more money out of my pocket.

#4

maybe use csm, isn’t that cheaper?

#5

Huh? That’s a pretty small part. Only a few yards of cloth and a few cups of resin. Doesn’t get much cheaper than that!
Are you using some sort of core material to stiffen you tooling? Or just extra layers for strength?

#6

Fastrr,

tell me something. You said that you are using Aluminuim tape, my question is how you sticked to the panel the tape? because I see everything must be behind the panel. Is double side tape?

#7

What do you use to attatch the aluminum sheet to plug?

#8

could you also show your dough placement and thickness around the edges when you do this also.Thought of using similar sheets of tin for flange.

#9

i used bronze sheeting on my molds and fixed it with the sticky tape i use for vacuum bagging.

#10

TET, how many layers of fiberglass cloth would you use on this and what ounce? I have been using 6oz and 10oz plain weave fiberglass cloth. It takes about 2 layers of 6oz and 10 layers of 10oz = .250" thickness. or 'round about there. I guess the reason i aim for .187-.250" thickness is for mold ridgidity. I’m guessing 8 total yards of fiberglass cloth for this one, and about 24 ounces of resin.

This mold i plan on using only epoxy and cloth …no tooling dough on this boy. Tooling dough would cost around $100 for this one mold so i’m trying to avoid using it for this one.

I use 2" wide foil tape to attach the aluminum flange to the backside of the plug part. The foil tape has it’s own adhesive… just peel the wax paper off and it’s good to stick. You can also tape popsicle/tongue depressor sticks to the backside of the flange to stiffen the flange up.

the foil tape you can buy at an a/c heating supply company or hardware store.

#11

As a rough estimate, I’d use 2 plies of 2oz to prevent print through. Then a couple of 6oz plies, couple of 10oz, core material and a couple of 18oz plies. Strong, light, cheap.
We mainly use NCF’s instead of cloth to avoid surface texture problems.