Fiberglass Mold Making and Fabrication How To – Project Blog

I just finished building a new mold for a 1/10 scale radio controlled car. One of the great things about making radio controlled car bodies out of fiberglass is the detail and the undercuts that can be formed using multi-piece molds. The realism is much greater than that which can be found in a vacuum formed body.

Multi-piece molds are always necessary for building three dimensional objects – whether those objects are hobby related or not. With the exception of very simple molds, multi-piece molds are almost always required or at least preferable. The obvious reasons for the use of a multi-piece mold are driven by the ease of extracting your parts from that mold. Molds that are very deep are difficult to lay-up parts in and can be very difficult to pull your parts out of.

The draft angle of your plug is a major determining factor that will determine the need for a multi-piece mold. Smaller parts may require no draft angle while larger parts that are deeper than 12 inches will require a draft angle of up to 5 degrees.

Automotive parts other than hood scoops, fender flairs, spoilers, etc are often done with one piece molds. Larger parts, such as doors, hoods, entire bodies and the like are almost always done as two piece molds.

I was looking at my first and main Fiberglass Mold Manual in which I outline the procedures for building a simple one piece mold. The funny thing about this manual is that the project that I follow in this manual ultimately required 3 separate one piece molds. A project requiring 3 separate one piece molds can also be labeled as a multi-piece mold.

Multi-piece molds do give many benefits to the builder, but there are a few drawbacks. Multi-piece molds do produce a flash line that must be dealt with. Flash lines require filling, sanding and refinishing. Flash lines are created by imperfections in the edge of the mold and in the general alignment of the pieces of the mold. In my opinion flash lines are a minor trade off for the many benefits of a multi-piece mold.

Happy Glassing

Steve

www.fiberglassmoldmanual.com

Now that the foundation for my plug is laid, I can start building a fender. At this point I will just take a moment to regress.

When I was younger, I am sure that this plug would have been built from a much more difficult process than what I have outlined. I am not sure how I would have done this but it wouldn’t have been easy – I probably would have used a template of the rim, done complicated measurements of the total tire diameter and so forth. Building plugs for projects like this are much easier and more likely to provide a nice product if you can use the base object as the foundation for your plug. In this case, I used the actual rim itself. In one of my manuals, I actually used the hood of my jeep as the foundation for building a plug for the hood scoop. This method of plug building takes much of the guess work out of the building process.

Getting back to the plug, I begin building the plug by laying a layer of 1 ½ ounce mat and resin over the foam. Once this cures, I follow with a plastic spreader and bondo to smooth out the surface of the fender. Once the bondo is cured, I smooth out the surface with my electric sander with a course (100 grit) sandpaper to smooth it out. Like with any plug build, I go through many bondo applications followed by sanding to smooth out the surface.

As with many plugs, just about the time that I get this thing smoothed out I see a problem with it. From a side view, it appears as though the center section of the fender, when viewed from the side, isn’t as thick as the ends of the fender. In order to check this, I drilled a hole in the end of a 1/8 inch, inch wide by 36 inch long piece of aluminum stock. The hole is just large enough to slip onto the hub of my rim. I then clamp an L bracket onto the stock aluminum and slid it down until it makes contact with the fender at what I perceive to be the highest point. As I sweep the L bracket around the top of the fender from one end to the other it becomes obvious that not only is my center section low, but I have many uneven points along the surface of the plug.

Fixing these uneven points is pretty easy. I now have a way to measure the outer diameter of the fender and I can use this tool to obtain consistency in the outer diameter.

To smooth out the surface of my fender, I lay a bead of bondo in the center along the length of the plug. While the bondo is still able to be spread, I drag the L bracket which is still attached to the hub through the aluminum stock along the surface of the plug at a level that represents the highest point of the plug. The L bracket levels the surface of the plug creating consistent thickness of the plug.

After this application of bondo cures, I can begin spreading bondo over the surface again to smooth it out. This time I am careful to use the newly laid central ridge of bondo as a guide.

Happy Glassing

Steve

www.fiberglassmoldmanual.com

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Fiberglass Mat Fiberglass Cloth

I let this mold cure on the plug for almost a week before demolding. This mold popped off its parting board with little effort. Likewise, the mold separated from the plugs with ease. The process for removing the mold from the plug is simple. I use a half dozed small plastic putty knives that I insert between the mold and the parting plane.

Once I have one putty knife between the mold and the parting plane, I simply insert another putty knife at the edge of the separation that occurred as a result of the first knife. This is repeated time and time again as I work my way around the perimeter of the mold. Once you get started, this is an easy process.

At this point the mold is inspected for any flaws, repaired and then prepped for its first part pulls.

Making parts with this mold is very similar to making the mold itself. I begin by applying five coats of mold release wax to the inside of the mold. Once the mold is waxed, I can apply a coat of PVA to the inside of the mold with my spray gun. After the PVA dries, I can do my first parts lay-up. This is part that I really enjoy – I am very close to seeing the results of my efforts and planning.

Happy Glassing

Steve

www.fiberglassmoldmanual.com

I have written blog entries in the past in which I have shared my experiences with new techniques and new products that are available for construction with composites. This is another one of those.

Whenever I am building the surface of a part that is being made of chopped mat, I end up with a fairly course surface that will need a final finishing.

I have employed various means to smooth out a fiberglass surface. Some of these finishing methods include the following:

For some applications I use veil over the final layer of chopped mat. This method hides most of the course fibers of the chopped mat without adding an excessive amount of extra weight to the final product. In fact, when I add a final veil covering I very rarely have to add any extra resin to the finish. Usually I can use a small roller to press the veil onto the surface of the still uncured mat / resin underneath it forcing the resin to seep into the veil and provide adequate saturation on the surface. The individual fibers of veil are much finer than those of chopped mat so the final surface is smoother.

For other applications I mix a putty-like consistency combination of resin and cabosil that I use to smooth over the surface. This has been one of my favorite methods for finishing a fiberglass surface. The cabosil / resin mixture can be made as thick or thin as your project requires. Once this mixture is spread over the surface and cures, it can be sanded smooth and finished.

Sometimes I will simply skin the surface with bondo. I like bondo because it sands so easily and cures so fast. You can smooth out a surface in a hurry with bondo. The drawbacks to using bondo are that it is easily chipped / damaged and it almost cures too fast. I have wasted a good amount of bondo over the years by mixing more than I could use in its working period.

The other day I went to my local fiberglass supply store and asked for a ¼ pound of cabosil. The gentleman that helped me asked if I wanted something that would sand a little easier. I said “sure” and he suggested microballoons. The microballoons mixed into a nice white paste and spread easily on the surface of my project. It also sanded easily as promised. In addition to easy sanding, it also seems durable as it passed the hammer tap test that I performed on the tip to the bow of my boat project. It didn’t hit it full force but I hit it hard enough to crack bondo and the microballoons didn’t crack. I was impressed.

In the beginning of this article I said that I was writing about a new product. Microballoons are not “new”, they are simply new to me. Once again, we tend to get comfortable with methods and materials that are known to us and close ourselves off to other products and procedures that are available.

Fiberglass Deep Vee Radio Controlled Boat

Happy Glassing

Steve

www.fiberglassmoldmanual.com

Now it is time to break out the fiberglass. Fiberglass resin and 1 ½ ounce mat is applied over the foam surfaces and allowed to cure. When I fiberglass over this kind of foam, I like to brush a nice thick layer of resin directly on top of the foam and then lay resin soaked pieces of mat on top of that. Like with all my projects, I allow the mat and fiberglass resin to Read the rest of this entry »

Once I realized that my sponsons were too large (had I been paying better attention I would have figured this out prior to covering them with fiberglass!) my attention turned to what to do about them. Read the rest of this entry »

Now, I move forward with creating buck stations. A buck station is a guide that ensures that your plug is going to resemble what you want it to in the end. For this project I use the same 1/8 inch mahogany that I used for the initial profile pieces. My strategy for placement of buck stations is simple, I put one anywhere that I am concerned about maintaining the correct lines of my project. Usually I am of the opinion that more stations are better. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve received some more questions about Fiberglass Mold Making Gelcoat and how to end up with a high gloss shiny finish.

Sonic 1 High Gloss

When constructing a mold for duplication of parts, there are several considerations that must be addressed.  The main reasons for using tooling gelcoat versus finishing gelcoat have to do with the hardness of the finish and the shine of the finish.

The finished surface of your mold should be abrasion resistant.  Polyester gelcoat is used for making tooling masters and molds where good gloss retention of the surface is of paramount importance.   A high gloss finish of the molds surface allows for easier release of your parts and thus extends the life of the mold. Read the rest of this entry »

First I want to wish you a HAPPY NEW YEAR ! ! ! !

I hope your new year celebration was safe and enjoyable.

I have covered the following information in a post quite some time back before the last time this blog was hacked.

I have been getting some more question I think this will address regarding Epoxy Resin for Mold making. Read the rest of this entry »

There are several ways to join fiberglass halves. Fuselages, boat hulls and car bodies usually require joining of at least two pieces in order for the project to reach a point of completion.

With some applications, a sleeve can be built into the plug with will allow the second part to slip into which will result in a nice joint that can be epoxied together. An application that comes to mind in this circumstance would be the deck of a model boat to the hull. This technique needs to be planned well in advance since it requires integration into your plug. This technique also is only applicable to those projects that won’t be visually hampered by a visible seem or joint on the final product.

Most of the time, in order to obtain a clean joint that can be filled, sanded and finished in a way that produces no visible joint on the final product, you will need access to the inside of the joined pieces in order to produce a clean union. The best way to do this is to align the halves and use masking tape to hold the pieces together. I like to use thin strips of resin saturated fiberglass mat that I can lay across the inside of the seem. Depending on the strength of the bond that my project requires, I like to have about ½ inch of mat overlapping each side of the seem. Once this cures, your joint is complete. The only thing left to do at this point is finish the exterior.

Another method that I really like for joining fiberglass halves that don’t have to be water tight or incredibly strong is by using what I like to call “chemical applesauce”. “Chemical Applesauce” is a mixture of resin and cabosil that has been catalyzed with MEKP that has the consistency of applesauce. I use this mixture by taping the entire outer surface of the seem, making sure that the pieces have proper alignment. I then use a gloved finger to apply this mixture to the seem line from the inside. I use my finger to push and work the mixture into the joint. This makes an excellent filler as well. Once the mixture has cured, I can remove the masking tape and I am left with a strong, clean joint that requires only minimal sanding and finishing.

These are some of my favorite ways to join two halves of a fiberglass project. I do have a challenging project on the table now that will require special consideration when joining. I will keep you posted on my progress.

Fiberglass AH-1G Cobra

Happy Glassing

Steve

www.fiberglassmoldmanual.com