Sunday, March 23, 2014

Framework.


I'm making a frame out of 12 mm beech plywood. It will make the mold sturdier and it won't flex when we start to pack the concrete.
Fixing the frame to the cured fiberglass mold using epoxy mixed with filler, then reinforcing on both sides with strips of fiberglass and epoxi resin.


Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Preparing the mold.

 After the mold had cured i used a jigsaw to saw of the excess fiberglass and resin.
 Feels like this actually might work.
 After some bending and prying i managed o lift the plug from the mold. The release agent worked well. Last time I made a mold like this that did not go so well.
This is the almost finished mould. To do now is some sanding and building a frame attached to the mold. The frame will make the mold more rigid which is necessary when working with concrete. The finished stars will be heavy, about, 75 kg and it will probably take some force to get the finished casts out of the mold so it must be strong.

Laminating.

 My friend Lars Gustavsson, designer and craftsman is helping me on this project. We started preparing for laminating taking measures for cutting out the fiberglass.
 The first layer is a 163g/m2 a material that follows the shape of the star very good.
We laminated a total of three layers. The second layer was 390 g/m2 and the third and last was a rowing, 580 g/m2. Now the mould will cure for seven days.

Preparing for laminating.

After a lot of sanding i covered the whole star with epoxy resin. Two coats. After curing sanding with coarse to finer grit ending at 400 wetsanding paper. I expect to get a silk smooth matte surface.
When I was satisfied with the surface I applied a film building release agent, Marbocote 227. Then I brushed on two coats of white gelcoat.