Casting FG questions

hiya,

I'm putting together a mold for FG armour out of wood. will i need to seal the grain of the wood or will a release agent like silicone spray or WD40 be enough to stop the FG bonding to the mold.

thanks
___________________________
|newkid|

WD40 won't work very well as a release agent, and yes you will need to seal the wood grain very well, too. A skim coat of Bondo would be best to seal the wood, or you could just spray on several coats of primer, lightly sanding between each coat.

If you don't want to buy actual release agent for fiberglassing, I've used Turtle Wax paste with pretty good results. Just smear the wax on in a thin layer, let it dry a bit, then buff out the excess.

Good luck!
Wayne

yeah a wax based release agent will be your best bet I think

Thanks for the for the info.
Bondo is not on sale in the UK so i need to find a best match, does bondo have any specific properties, is it fibre reinforced?

cheers

Sorry about the Yankee product endorsement.

Bondo is a brand of automotive body filler, stuff you use to fill in dents in the bodies of cars when repairing them. It is polyesther resin based, I believe. Hopefully, if you find an automotive repair or parts supplier, they will have something similar. But I think a few good coats of primer would work just fine if you follow it up with some car wax (you probably don't have "Turtle Wax" over there, either) as a release agent.

Wayne

Originally Posted by newkid

Thanks for the for the info.
Bondo is not on sale in the UK so i need to find a best match, does bondo have any specific properties, is it fibre reinforced?

cheers

Look for Plastic Padding product called PP100. It is what i use here in sweden and from what i can tell has the same properties as "Bondo". Used to fill in dents in cars and such. You should be abel to find it in Autoshops or in bigger handy-man shops/store/retailers.

thanks Boba Swede, I know where i can lay my hands on some Plastic Padding.

does anyone know if there is a list of UK or European equivalents to the materials commonly used in the U.S.?

cheers

I used some car body filler from Halfords as a bondo substitute. Works brilliantly