Making the mould.

Making a mould to get a epoxy hull was a first voor me. On the internet you can find a lot of instruction video's in which you find a lot of usefull information.

I ordered the epoxy, the glassfiber roving and tools at HP Textiles and from a other supplier some bended sicccors to cut the roving during laminating.

The first step was making the baseplate and the separation plate out of chipboard panels. In the separation plate the form of the hull is removed with a saw. The separation plate is necassary because I want to make the hull and the bulwark as one part. This means that the hull can't get out of a mould that is made in one piece.

 

opbouw

fitting the hull in the separation plate.

opbouw

this part will be done in the second stage.

opbouw

klei

To lock the hull to the baseplate and to fill the gap between the hull and baseplate a layer of plasticine.

Before this is done I waxed the hull about 6 times and between layers each is polisched. This fills the small holes, scratches and dents

 

wax

the applied wax,

was

and polisched.

opbouw

The hull is fixed to the baseplate, excess plasticine is removed with a wooden stick and then smoothed.

opbouw

After a final adjustment the separation plate can be mounted, between the hull and the plate is a thin layer of epoxy putty to get a good sealing between the both.

 

was

The hull and the plate gets a final layer of wax to get a good releasing.

 

slagmoer

Because the mould has two parts I mounted M5 nuts that will be laminated in one part. They are glued with the hot glue gun.

 

gelcoat

The gelcoat is applied

gelamineerd

Laminating is done.

gelamineerd

The structure of the roving is clearly visible

gelamineerd

On the right side you see resin with cotton flakes

neus

klaar

Finished.

klaar

After removing the the separation plate the edges are trimmed en the thread holes are closed with plasticine.

klaar

A topview of half mould.

tweede helft

The gelcoat for the second part of the mould is applied.

tweede helft

a thick layer of gelcoat.

tweede helft

The gelcoat flattens in about 15 min.

tweede helft

Once the gelcoat starts to dry and doesn't stick to a brush, laminating can start.

lamineren

The second part is finished.

lamineren

the filled bow section.

lamineren

Here are also the cotton flakes visible.

lamineren

The most difficult angle of the mould.

lamineren

Finished.

steunen

To handle the mould during laminating there are two supoorts mounted.

After I finished the laminating I let everything harden for more then 24 hours before I started to separte the mould. I was a bit nervous to do this because when something was wrong this meant I could start all over again. With a big screwdriver and a wedge I carefully separated the two parts of the mould and let some water between the mould and the hull to help the separation. This helped to release he parts and with some force I pulled the first half of the mould free. The second part was somewhat easier and all three parts were still in good shape and undamaged.

mal

The empty mould.

stern

The stern section.

bow'

the bow section

mal

Both parts of the mould.

romp

The original hull after releasing it from the mould.

steunen

To make the laminating easier I mounted some supports made out of styrodur foam.

steunen

wax

The next step was waxing the moulds and polish it ( did that 8 times ).