Originally Posted by
fanman61
Im going to throw this out there.Im a fiberglass tooler .I havent made any planes yet but worked in cali making snowboards for sims and Mc Burnie coach craft making kit cars.Miami vice ferrari..Been alot of years since Ive done any tooling but the wrinkles we called orange peeling.The cause of this was to much catalyst in gel coat.Gel coat can be a pain but you only have so much time to laminate on gelcoat before running into bonding issues.The gel coat cant set up to fast because of the heat generated that causes the orange peel affect.Being to thin can also cause this but your thickness is ok..I hope this helps I use bees wax for release.Remeber to clean mold after every part.Im in the process of tooling my first giant scale warbird using carbon fiber kevlar blend to make parts out of.I have a question if anybody knows.Will the carbon fiber kevlar material affect radio signal??
Kevlar is not a problem, but the carbon will block the radio signal. the usual remedy is to drill small holes in the fuselage and extend the antenna outside.
Be very careful if you plan on using any polyester in the plug or mold, When using carbon you will be using epoxy laminating resin, which doesn't play nice with polyester. It can be done, but styrene migration is a big problem and must be accounted for in your mold release system.
One final thought. West systems resin is probably the worst choice for laminating. It is a boat surfacing resin not intended to be used for laminating. The makers do mix a true laminating resin, called Pro Set, that seems to work fairly well. There are many true laminating resins on the market now, so pick the one that you like. I use MGS, US Composites, and PTM&W resins, depending on what I am making. Do your research and choose wisely.
Scott