• Mold release info needed for casting fiberglass on plaster mold

    From scotttraviscampbell@gmail.com@21:1/5 to Carl Kelly on Tue Feb 16 19:20:16 2016
    On Sunday, September 8, 1996 at 12:00:00 AM UTC-7, Carl Kelly wrote:
    I am trying to build three fiberglass kayak seats from a plaster of
    paris mold, and am seeking info on mold release compounds. At this
    point, I have a nice mold, but my first experiments with some test
    molds have failed to release satisfactorily.

    So far, I have tried creating a plaster mold of a bowl, saturating the surface of the plaster with paraffin by using a heat gun, then rubbing additional paraffin on top of the mold - the mold could only be
    removed by breaking it out in chunks.

    I have also tried painting the plaster (to seal it), then applying
    liquid automotive wax. In this case, the release was somewhat better,
    but the paint stuck to the fiberglass part.

    I have a mail order catalog with 'part all' mold release agent and
    'part all' base wax. Can anyone tell me if this will work over
    plaster? Should I paint the mold first? Should I consider coating
    the plaster mold with resin and finishing it out before applying a
    mold release?

    Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

    seal it with Tre Wax,and then use copiuos amounts of PVA liquid mold release.. spray it on, fogging it first, and very slowly build up the mold release until it is very green...then add more! you can also add a bit of clay to your plaster to help it
    disolve in water.

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  • From bruceinbangkok@nowhere.org@21:1/5 to scotttraviscampbell@gmail.com on Thu Feb 18 08:00:48 2016
    On Tue, 16 Feb 2016 19:20:16 -0800 (PST),
    scotttraviscampbell@gmail.com wrote:

    On Sunday, September 8, 1996 at 12:00:00 AM UTC-7, Carl Kelly wrote:
    I am trying to build three fiberglass kayak seats from a plaster of
    paris mold, and am seeking info on mold release compounds. At this
    point, I have a nice mold, but my first experiments with some test
    molds have failed to release satisfactorily.

    So far, I have tried creating a plaster mold of a bowl, saturating the
    surface of the plaster with paraffin by using a heat gun, then rubbing
    additional paraffin on top of the mold - the mold could only be
    removed by breaking it out in chunks.

    I have also tried painting the plaster (to seal it), then applying
    liquid automotive wax. In this case, the release was somewhat better,
    but the paint stuck to the fiberglass part.

    I have a mail order catalog with 'part all' mold release agent and
    'part all' base wax. Can anyone tell me if this will work over
    plaster? Should I paint the mold first? Should I consider coating
    the plaster mold with resin and finishing it out before applying a
    mold release?

    Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

    seal it with Tre Wax,and then use copiuos amounts of PVA liquid mold release.. spray it on, fogging it first, and very slowly build up the mold release until it is very green...then add more! you can also add a bit of clay to your plaster to help it
    disolve in water.

    I've seen boat molds made and essentially they paint the working
    surfaces of the mold with an epoxy paint and then sand all the
    imperfections out of the mold until the surface is shinny, which may
    require re-painting a number of times. Then they coat
    e the mold with commercial mold release, see:
    http://www.mann-release.com/prodgude.htm
    for details.

    Two things to note:

    (1) the mold must be made to incorporate "draft". See
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand_casting
    " A slight taper, known as draft, must be used on surfaces
    perpendicular to the parting line, in order to be able to remove the
    pattern from the mold. This requirement also applies to cores, as they
    must be removed from the core box in which they are formed".

    (2) a really well made casting is held into a perfectly made mold by
    air pressure, i.e., about 14 psi, which must be overcome in some
    manner to remove the newly cast part. I.e., a 6 by 8 inch part
    requires (6 x 8) x 14 = 672 pounds of force to pull it directly out of
    thus mold, unless it can be "peeled" out of the mold.
    --
    Cheers,

    Bruce

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  • From Ben Franklin@21:1/5 to All on Thu Mar 25 07:16:38 2021
    I've heard of using automatic transmission fluid for a mold release. Anybody here have any experience with that?

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