Can I use freekote seal and release with epoxy molds?
In general, yes. But TEST TEST TEST
Also, epoxy molds tend to be reactive on the surface. Doing the first 2 releases with PVA seems to help getting rid of that surface reactivity.
Freekote works great, no worries with airtac… done loads of these sorts of parts. Apply several coats of freekote and your release is good. You can probably do 2-3 parts without re-releasing but, i tend to add one coat between parts. Hence it’s semi-permanence. Using spray tack on free kote doesnt effect release. I think airtac kinda sucks personally. I have had issues of it leaving residue in parts. I was using vinylester at the time, and maybe that was part of the issue?
I started using another brand called infuzene and it was much nicer, stronger, and easier to manipulate; the can says its for infusion specifically. I found that you can’t get it in california now so I bought some stuff called star stuck and it is similar but not the same.
Also freekote comes in pre soaked wiping cloths. We just got 4 cases in and are not buying the gallon cans anymore. The wipes are supposed to have like a tenth of the vocs… or some huge reduction. I’ll write up a little blurb after I try em.
Simoncbrr1: yes you can seal and release with freekote products. As herman says, testing is good. But I’ve used freekote sealer and release on epoxy molds and prefer it over wax, much safer and easier releasing.
does Kreekote works with aluminum molds ? i would like to try it out too
Freekote works with aluminum and epoxy molds.
Definitely worth a try. One of the best releases in my opinon
a simple Tackifier can be obtained by mixing a small amount of resin with MEK, Acetone, etc. and make a sprayable solution.
when the vehicle (MEK) evaporates the cloth will be tacky
the trick is in the delivery. spray gun/pre-val/spray bottle
we did this for the first ply on metal tooling. The prepreg wouldn’t stick to the metal so it needed tackifier. Ours was some of the resin dissolved in acetone and then just sprayed with a spray bottle. Then you waited 5 minutes or so for it to fully evaporate. WOrks but, if you’re doing a dry layup this would not work. I think I’d rather use 3m 77 or some other off the shelf brand.
That’s a very interesting and far more economical solution than using spray tack. Does anyone else have experience doing this? When you say resin + acetone, you mean the uncured resin part without the hardener, correct?
I’d imagine that if you’re using it on prepreg, acetone on it’s own would be enough to tack up the surface layer and the dissolved resin didn’t play too much of a roll, right?
This is pre-preg, so the resin is already A+B.
SO the resin used is the same as in the fabric. It comes in a bag for dissolving in acetone. It’s a solid that we keep in the freezer and then smash it up and mix it into acetone to use as tackifier.
You can’t do this with room temp resin as it would just turn into nothing. You have to mix A and B parts for room temp stuff and if you mixed in acetone it would mess with the cure and physical properties of the cured resin.
The acetone would do nothing for tackifier as it evaporates so fast. The tackifier is applied to the metal mold for the first ply only. You spray it on, the acetone flashes off and leaves the resin behind, which is sticky. THen the first ply is laid down, and debulked.
Just throwing the info out there, but this is a pre-preg specific process.
For dry fiber, I always use a spray tackifier.
Hey guys, rad about loads of gd stuff about frekote. Planning to move to semiperm release as im gonna wonder into prepreg world. 
One question, i checked the krayde website and the price for 1 gallon ( i believe its nearly 5 liters) frekote nc770 was $84. Am i correct about the price and the amount?
I live in Turkiye and had a henkel rep yesterday and he gave price for a gallon frekote nc770 and it was about $450+vat.
450… damn… maybe cause the shipping over seas as a hazardous chemical? Or maybe it’s robbery?
Yah $84/gal sounds about right.
Pure robbery her mate. Hate it
Wish krayden can ship to turkey
Got the frekote mold sealer, how do I use it though?
freekote FMS right?
Ok I got the fms and release and tested it on my mold. Works good so I went ahead and infused a piece. I do have 2 questions though, 1. I was unable to buff the release and make it shiny, it was relatively smooth but had a dull look to it. And 2. When using adhesive spray is it absolutely essential you get every fold ad crack right? I mean the pressure of the vac pump also holds the fabric in place so is the spray adhesive used just to make it a little easier? Is it possible to infuse a part without the spray adhesive? Just wondering.
The adhesive is just to keep the fabric in place. I’m not sure what you’re molding but I’ve done extremely detailed intricate layups with very small step backs and doublers, compound angles, right angles, sharp corners, etc. With out the spray tac nothing would stay in place. And per normal layup, you can debulk the first and every fourth ply to make sure they’re all down and in the radius.
If it was a simple layuup you could in theory do it without tac. Maybe tape the edges in place? Spray tac just keeps everything down nice. Including the final layer of peel ply. It’s close to feeling like prepreg layup.
As far as every fold and crack… I try to use as little spray tac as is necessary. Especial on the first ply since it can show up, depending on the spray tac being used. And some types are much stronger holding than others, so less can be used.
ANd yah, freekote is kinda a pain for the buffing out. The instruction say to wipe on and then buff up… but it does get that frost on the surface, or haze. As long as the mold is very smooth and shiny, you should get a good part.
Thanks, what do you mean by “debulk”?
De-bulk also knows as compaction
It’s when you lay up one or more plys and then put on a vacuum bag in order to compact and consolidate the plys together. Helps to compact the plys and in when doing dry layup, adhere them together via the spray tack. That way they are nicely stuck when you continue on to later plys nothing will shift.
Nice! Ok I never thought of that but I bet that helps when you have many layers! Thanks, also how should I clean the mold for my next use?
yah, a debulk helps but, after the vacuum is released the fibers will spring back. So before infusing a good long time under vacuum is necessary to remove air and compress the fibers again.
For cleaning the molds… scrape any resin residue away with a plastic, wood, or composite scraper. Clean with IPA. Re-release if necessary.