Hey guys looking for a little hands on know how.
I've done about 4-5 boards now, that I like and am abusing the crap out of, as a result I bang through a number of fins and find the cost of these to be rather high. In addition after seeing a few racing vids I was pretty impressed with the speed of the race boards and would like to build one of these to add to my quiver, however the cost of racing fins is RIDICULOUS. for something I'm probably just going to use as a high speed lawn mower.
I've researched mold making a little bit and have convinced myself that stealing a mold from an existing fin design or prototyping and then casting identical fins of my own design will be the easiest method.
I get how to make a 2 piece mold for some 3d shapes. But it appears I have a number of choices from what , I can make the molds out of
a) fiberglass
b) clay
c) silicone
d) pure epoxy.
e) poured epoxy with some type of filler.
f) Aluminum (Not an option no access to a cnc machine)
I've experimented with fiberglass and clay. Both created a decent mold of my part.
However I'm not having much luck getting a casted epoxy based part to release easily. It destroyed my clay mold and I expect my fiberglass mold will require signiciant bending and possible buckling to do the same. A pure epoxy mold I suspect I'd run into the same problem and not get the part out when I cannot bend the mold.
n addition the surface finish of the glass mold I popped off a smooth fin is lacking with visible and has significant visible weave despite my use of excessive amounts of resin.
If I could do it out of aluminum I would simply add threads to pull the mold apart
I'm currently using TR 104 hgh temp mold release wax. Applied in 5-6 coats and allowed to "set" inbetween coats as instructed. This is horribly time consuming and the end result is still a shitty release.
Are there any spay on mold releases that will work with epoxy and give me better results such that a clay/fiberglass mold in more plausible.
Is a tough release just par for the course and I should use a flexible silicone mold
I understand epoxy fins will not have a lot of structural strength and So I plan on adding reinforcments.
Thinking short strands of carbon with some thickener for the epoxy to try to keep it from becoming a unworkable, black hairball in goo. Anyone have any experience?
Better suggestions than epoxy?
Thanks for your help