I've done a bit of mold and plug making, and I feel your pain. I gave up using carved wooden plugs awhile ago. I've had good luck carving plugs from extruded foam, type makes no difference. You can even use plain old white beadboard if you're carefull carving and sanding it. I use lightweight spackle to fill the foam, then paint it with several coats of plain 'ol Elmers carpenters glue, thinned a bit. Glass it over to make your mold, as many layers as you deem necessary, let it set up. Then pour some gasoline into the mold to dissolve the foam, and soak the mold in water to remove the glue and spackle. Kinda messy, and you won't have a plug to reuse, but you will not damage the mold getting the plug out. Mistakes in the carved plug are easy to correct as well before making the mold.
On Jul 9, 12:46 am, "Doug Conn" <[email protected]> wrote: > I finished my turret mold, but I had some problems. I could NOT get the plug > out of the mold. I tried everything before I finally got it out. There was a > fair amount of damage to the plug which I'm pretty sure I can repair if I > need to. There's also some damage to the mold and I'm hoping to get some > advice about the best way to repair it before using the mold. I really do > not want to start over so I'm hoping I can fix the mold. > > First, there are some rough spots where I gouged the mold trying to release > the plug. These aren't too deep and I think I can just sand them down. > > Second, I drilled a couple of holes in the top of the turret so I could > press the plug out using a medieval torture looking apparatus I built. My > plan is to turn down a couple of UHMW plugs to fill the holes when I make my > parts. Then, I should just be able to pop the plugs out and use the hole to > push the part of the mold. Does that sound reasonable ? Any better ideas ? > > Third, there are a few places where the fiberglass has split or been > damaged. See the red rectangles, below. Can I just reapply some resin to fix > those spots ? Is there a solvent I should try on them ? > > T-72TurretMold3Small.JPGT-72TurretMold4Small.JPG > > I'm racking the whole mold making encounter up to a "learning experience". I > know some things I'll do differently next time. > > Thanks, > > Doug > > image005.jpg > 28KViewDownload > > image006.jpg > 29KViewDownload --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You are currently subscribed to the "R/C Tank Combat" group. To post a message, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe, send email to [email protected] Visit the group at http://groups.google.com/group/rctankcombat -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
