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Old 05-28-2009, 07:20 AM   #27 (permalink)
Bicycle Bob
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Mold Making

Quote:
Originally Posted by stevey_frac View Post
Keep in mind i'm a computer geek. I have the fine motor control of a spastic 2 year old.
EDIT: Wait.. i re-read that, and i know what your going for. It'd be fairly sexy, and not nearly as much art as i thought it was. :P
<grin> Chet Kyle remarked that some of the early entries at the IHPVA looked like they were build by blind men wearing boxing gloves.

Getting from that shape, defined by splines, to a finished product, can be tricky. One way would be to pre-coat one side of thin wooden splines with polyester gel-coat. (It will stick a lot better if you heat the wood first, so the cooling air inside sucks the resin in, while the heat thins it out.) That way, you can build up almost a whole mold surface from splines, and glue them to a backing to hold the shape. Spray foam caulking and plywood might be OK for that, but epoxy putty, blocks, and plywood would be best. Then, you just have to fill the cracks with more gelcoat, sand and polish, and you have a mold. Wax it 3 times before use. Problems over the thickness of the part affecting fit can be sanded out.
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