ORIGINAL: Harley Condra
Here's a quickly read tutorial from one of the top fiberglass/resin distributors.
Read the 6 page tutorial, and learn to speak the language of the trade, so you can purchase what you really want.
http://www.fiberglast.com/learning_c...fibergalss.pdf
miniflyer,
Some people might use lithoplate, but in my 38 year career in aerospace manufacturing as a tooling and manufacturing engineer (Teledyne Ryan/Northrop Grumman on such projects as the B-2 Stealth Bomber, Global Hawk, C-17, etc. dating back to 1967), I've never seen lithoplate used on the surface of a tool (MOLD) . Many are machined from steel, and/or aluminum, and some are even flash nickle plated after machining and hand finishing. A great many are pulled as a splash on the surface of a plaster master model using epoxy face coat, and laminating resin.
Many of these tools are inspected with CMM and Theodolite measuring systems down to the .0001 of an inch. (ten-thousandth of an inch). I think that these tools are "pretty professional', and very precision........as opposed to most of the molds used in the RC model industry.
I'll try to scan and post some photos of C-17 landing gear masters, C-17 aft fuselage FAJ (floor assembly jig) and from some of the the B-2 laminating/curing fixtures if anyone is interested.
Harley Condra
BVM REP
JetCat REP
Yes you are right. I was not talking about professional industrial molds, because there are not many molds for real aircraft trying to duplicate rivets...if a real airplane shows a rivet in a surface, it is most likely a real one :-).
In the modeling industry, the PLUGS (at least those of the ultrascale projects) are covered in litho, and with these plugs the master molds are created.
These don't have much in common with the 3D multi-axis milled molds fount in the real aerospace (or most other) industries.
Since this is a modeling forum i simply wanted to stay on the subject....but yes you are right, my wording can easily be misunderstood for industrial standards.
Best regards
Hank