Other Newb composite questions

[XJCrawler]

I'm want to try making my own ride plate, chinpad ect... I've made a mold using polyester gelcoat and resin, it turn out pretty good I think. For laying up the actual plate I was going to use glass because I don't want to waste money wrecking carbon fibre.

How many layers and what weight of cloth do most people use for chinpads and ride plates?

What do you guys use as a topcoat for epoxy based layups?

For parts you want with gelcoat as a top coat, can you use epoxy resin or is it better to just stick with polyester resin?

 

[Roo]

you need to head over to:

http://compositescentral.net/

for the rideplate, you need to figure out your target thickness.

go to: http://uscomposites.com/

they list how thick one layer of cloth is. add up the amounts to get an idea of how much you might need.

can't mix gelcoat / epoxy. do the whole thing out of epoxy. you could mix some color powder for the outside layer if you wish.

 

[XJCrawler]

what are sponson's made out of since they have gelcoat?

 

[JETSKIHORDER18]

Make sure your mold has a near perfect finish, and make sure you use mold release. Hair spray will work just fine.

 

[Roo]

what are sponson's made out of since they have gelcoat?

more then likely vinyl ester resin.

 

[Roo]

Make sure your mold has a near perfect finish, and make sure you use mold release. Hair spray will work just fine.

hair spray as a mold release? hmmmm

i would wax the mold many times, and use PVA as your release agent (moral of the story, if you are going through all this work... do it right).

 

[JETSKIHORDER18]

Hair spray and pva are almost the same thing. And yes waxing is important.

 

[Breese08SJ]

Hair spray works fine if you are in a jam.... It is very hard to get hairspray to laydown in a nice wet coat that comes out with a smooth shiny finish rather it is always textured due to the cheap 2 cent spray tip on the can. If you want a perfect finish on your parts PVA and a decent HVLP gun is your best friend. Best idea is to practice with different pressure setting etc on a pc of glass until you are comfortable with spraying PVA. The glass allows you to see what exactly what the PVA layer is flowing like. You can dilute the PVA with a few DROPS of water if needed but only a few. PVA is really sensitive to humidity and moisture in the air, so what works one day at 60 degrees might not work another day at 60.