martno1fan

I agree with Mike if your planning on using the mould more than a cpl of times id make the best mould you can .Regarding the brush marks maybe one of those sponge type brushes would work? not sure as ive never even used one for paint just an idea maybe?.Hey mate if my name goes to the top that would be a first [X(] haha just kidding mate its no biggie i was just messing.Good luck with it.
Mart

mike the snake

To edit my last post;

The end-grain allows the resins to kick off WITHOUT evrything getting too hot.

Molds are great, if taken care of they pay for themselves quickly. They also bring a premium if really nice.

Brushing the gelcoat on it was impossible for me to get ALL the little thin areas in one coat. I'd do 2 coats to be sure of complete coverage. It's not a huge deal if you plan on painting the boat.

Dreamin Hemi

You've made your point Mart, you're a top man! I personally don't mind the bottom.....anyways, just to keep you smiling, Your now #1.

If I spend any more money on this project, I may be headed towards my 2'nd divorce! Already over budget on this project. Just layers of glass is what I intend to use since I have pleanty already in the shop. If it makes 3-5 hulls, I'll be very happy, heck, just give me one good hull, that was my origional intention before I started getting emails for possible requests. If I start making several, I WILL infact make a carbon reinforced mold from this plug as suggested.

Don't have the pictures, but I noticed this morning the plug had a minor flaw. While picking the imperfection over, a 1" section of gelcoat just smeared away! I sprayed over a very slight area of bare wood that was filled with tree sap. Apparantly the resins in the gelcoat reacted with the sap softening the sap and never hardened! Had to scrape [>:] that area out and apply epoxy to fill the void. Sanded to a blended smooth appearance, reprimed, and just laid more gelcoat. Hopefully I'll be able to wetsand that area this afternoon once cured and start setting up for the molding process.

Dreamin Hemi

I think I will be applying 2 good coats of gelcoat with a brush just for that reason. Probably 2 heavy coats for the mold, what do you think?

martno1fan

just dont over do the gelcoat on the actual hull it cracks easy and looks like crap .

ps thanks for making me top man for the day

Dreamin Hemi

Are you talking about the gel used to make the mold, or the gel that's applied TO a mold for making a fiberglass hull?

ps, no problem![:-]

martno1fan

I was thinking about the making of the hulls themselves as you see alot of real nice gelcoated finnishes and they last five minuites when been bounced arround at 40 mph or more .I was told thinner gelcoat is better than thick as its less likeley to crack.

Dreamin Hemi

Makes sence to me! I'll keep that in mind....still will brush on the 2 coats I plan to do for my hulls, same goes for my mold.

mike the snake

My mold is made from gelcoat, but tooling resin, or even just epoxy resin can be used to make the mold surface.

I brushed the gelcoat into my mold making a part.

My gelcoat mold surface seems to have held up OK over time.

Dreamin Hemi

Good! I'm just using finishing gelcoat for my mold surface, two brushed laters should work.

Dreamin Hemi

In case you were wondering, haven't abandoned the build, just waiting for supplies to ship. Should be here middle of next week. In the meantime, have time to make this hull perfectly smooth. More wetsanding and buffing was required, but the bottom hull is finally ready for molding!
The flanges will be trimmed down and evened out once the two halves are joined and glassed together

martno1fan

Looks really good the finnish looks awesome good luck with the mould and keep the pics coming.
mart

Dreamin Hemi

Update....found a good suplier that sold me tooling gelcoat (orange) that I'm going to use for my mold surfaces. Still debating whether to apply with a foam brush, or spray.

Dreamin Hemi

PHOTOSHOP FOLKS...........NEED YA!!

Anybody good at photoshop???

I'm posting these pictires in hopes someone could help design the top deck for this hull. Could be a team effort here! I really do like the look of the canopy there, and want to base my design off of that. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated! Good luck, and hopefully let's see all these great design possibilities!

dwr9

If you like a curved deck it doen't come much better looking than this. I hope Danny doesn't mind me posting pics of his boat. He is a member here (dannyual777) and if he has plans for this deck you might be able to get them from him. Danny did a gorgeous job on this boat. Doug

Dreamin Hemi

That ship looks superb! I want to raise the deck a little higher and give it a more agressive stance. Here's something like what I had in mind. But a little more rounded corners.

Dreamin Hemi

OK, the fun starts now! All parts and supplies came in, and I attacked this job as soon as I came home.
Shown here is the hull after 5 coats of "PartAll: have been applied. This paste form wax is VERY thick and is a pain to remove.
Notice the worktable is covered in wax paper....I made this table out of 200+ year old 2.5" oak planks, and it's PERFECT. Don't want to ruin it.

Dreamin Hemi

Once the Partall paste has been applied, and buffed to a shine, a spray release agent was applied. Partall #10 comes ready to put into a spray gun. A little tricky to lay...1st coat is a "mist". I thought I was misting, and runs began to appear, had to wipe down and start over. The mist layers dries in about 10 minutes. 2 additional "wet" coats were than applied with 30 minute drying periods. Notice the even green tint that apears when the spray agent is layed on. Nice even overall appearance means good coverage.

Dreamin Hemi

Finally the finish layer of tooling gelcoat was sprayed on. I used this method because.....well I just wanted to!
So far what you see here is one layer of a medium build

KD0EM

Looking vary goog.

RaceCraftRC

wow its amaseing some of the skills you guys have i am very happy if i get my boat started LOL

dwr9

That's lookin great Scott. I hope it continues going as well as it has so far. It'll be cool to see you pull one out of the mold when it's done. Doug

toyotatruckin

you have the look right on the money check this site link out for a couple other ideas
http://www.offshoresuperseries.com/teams.cfm

Dreamin Hemi

Here is the first item that gets slapped on. West Marine Systems micro fiber. Mixed with resin to a peanut butter consistancy and spread on to shart bends makes laying the .75oz matting much easier.

Dreamin Hemi

1'st layer of .75oz matting. If you've never layed fiberglass, it's pretty much the nastiest thing you'll ever handle. Between the odar and everything sticking to your gloves as you're working........I absolutely LOVE IT! Unfortunately, I thought I had an entire gallon of resin left over from another project, however it wasn't resin! I had just enough to complete, well almost complete the 1'st layer. Tomorrow hopefully I'll get more resin, lots more.
The matting was applied my wetting the mat on a table with a resin roller, and placing the wet pieces directly in the plug. Working out the bubbles with disposable brushes and extra resin. Few bubbles still exist, but I still will be wetsanding and buffing this mold when complete anwyway.