Let me start this over. I want to learn the right resin to use for mold and plug making.
I don’t want the mold to shrink or expand after it is cured, at least not more than 1/32" across the entire mold.
I saw this resin on fibreglast.com products. It is the third product down from the top of the page:
http://www.fibreglast.com/category.php?categorycode=9&trksrc=HelpfulProd
I ended up buying that iso mold building resin. I am still interested to hear what you guys use.
Moulds for cosmetic parts can be made out of cheap poly resin, with few problems.
If shrinkage is critically important, then perhaps best to use epoxy and powder bound csm to make moulds.
Small scale production will require multiple moulds, so its a good idea to keep the costs of making these as low as possible, which will help keep the dealer price of parts reasonable.
I rarely build anything for myself. But your heading in the right direction by sticking with products that are specific to a certain task.
Just make sure if your using poly keep it cool, and dont rush the demolding process. When a bottle says “full hardness in 5 to 7 days” you can also read that as “done shrinking in 5 to 7 days”.
Anyone know what type of PER Bondo brand resin is? I used it last time on a project. I will probably stay away from the stuff, but i was just curious so if i needed in a pinch i could buy some. Not for molds though. Shrinkage sucks.
Is there a problem with using a PER & tooling gel coat mold to pull epoxy parts from? Or will paint and wax completely protect the mold and epoxy/carbon part?
I do want to make 5 or 6 parts just for my personal bike. Other than that all my molds will be for production parts.
Also Classicbike, i may very well make a mold out of epoxy and the right csm for that. If it works out better than the tooling gel coat/ or iso mold PER then i’ll go that route for all future plugs and molds. It’s about experimentation and pro advice at this point.
I’ll post pics of the c/f parts in a few weeks or so. I still need to buy some 2x2 carbon twill, and kevlar cloth for reinforcements.
Lets hope that using expensive materials to make mould tools for simple cosmetic parts, is something thats going to help with keeping unit costs down.
The area of cosmetic parts for sport bikes is one of the most competitive in the world, and I think personally you need quite a lot of experience to make top class marketable parts, and also to keep a very close eye on costs, to have any chance of success at all!
C
Bondo brand resin is Poly. Used it on a mould for my kayak motor mount. I let it sit for 5 days before demolding. Still got about 1/10" shrinkage.
No problem with poly/tooling to pull epoxy parts from. Thats the standard for a lot of people. Ive pulled epoxy parts off solid urethane castings before. Wax is the key.
Thanks JRL
Classic, what would you have me make full on carbon fiber frames for bikes or what? I’m not looking to build a composite empire so you can relax.
Are you building Formula 1 monocoque chassis?
If there is anyone on these forums doing that I will work for them for free untill my bank account expires.
No doubt huh.
If you are looking to sell parts in a highly competitive market, then it seems a bit silly to increase production costs needlessly, by using resin systems that are not required for cosmetic parts!
Do you even know anything about sportbikes Classicbike?
What I do know is that poorly made, and overpriced products are not likely to sell!
Quality can be improved through gaining experience of the various methods of manufacture, but competitive pricing is something that will be extremely difficult if inappropriate materials are being used.
well i dont know much about you but i do know much about fastrr…and i can say that i bought the resin from fiberglast and it works PERFECTLY for making molds…the potlife isnt very long which sucks but if you are only doing 1 part at a time then its perfect…i was trying 3 smaller parts and it set in about 10-15 min which wasnt cool at all…
i have a part in the vacuum bag right now that is a streetbike part and its already sold…just had a guy msg me about buying it $130 for a carbon fiber windscreen…cant beat that i guess…now i have to make another one for my bike
Maybe you could make carbon fibre visors to go with the screens? Might not much return business from buyers of either though…lol
Racedout, use less % of MEKP to get a longer work or Pot time. It should be closer to 30 + minutes.
Try small test panels and time the resin curing times.
its so funny how much you badmouth people and talk about how products wont sell…there is a buyer for everything you can make out there…so how do you figure its “pointless” to make say a carbon fiber windscreen or cosmetic parts made from very highquality materials? people buy smoked out or even blacked out plastic windscreens…and a carbon fiber windscreen is literally half the weight…not only do you get a cosmetic part…but its lighter also for racing applications…i dont know if you are overweight or how your lifestyle is…but if you have ever TRUELY rode a streetbike…or even race for that matter…you would know that you cant even see out of the windscreen, the eye level of your helmet is just a hair above the top of the windscreen…you never even look through it…perhaps on some bikes MAYBE but on the 2007 yamaha r1, this is not true
so maybe you should stop bashing people, esp people like fastrr and myself that are VERY new to composites…most of us arent out to have an evil empire of composite companies like you…this is fun for us and we make some extra money on the side if possible…i guess if you were in the USA you would understand that there is a HUGE market for these types of parts and people have deep pockets to satisfy their carbon fiber cravings no matter the purpose of the part…they want the look, they want it to last, they will always buy from the same person provided its of the best quality…end of story thats how the united states of america works…the powermotorsports industry is a multi-billion dollar a year industry, and i can imagine that america is the top seller of streetbike and streetbike parts/gear…more people, more kids that want them, more sales overall…
thank you, i will try that…im using west systems for epoxy, i made a small carbon fiber part lastnight and finally pulled it out of the vacuum bag…the peelply was so hard to pull off, that was the hardest part of the whole process i think
i got about 2-3 small wrinkles hopefully when i epoxy over the whole thing 2-3 times it will hide them, other than that…not bad for my first part, ill make sure when i put the peelply and breather fabric i will take alot of time to make sure its very smooth against the surface…its all just practice right?
on the small molds i made where the potlife wasnt very long, the glass pulled away from the mold a bit, i popped the plug from 1 of the molds thinking it would be ruined…it was just fine!!! so im going to mix up some filler and fill in the edges where the glass pulled from the plug, then keep glassing the parts until i get about 10 layers thick…
If there is indeed a huge market for things like blanked out screens for race bikes, then proper pricing seems to me crucially important…at least if you are looking to make such parts commercially.