moulding away

[masterofinsanity]

hi guys, anyone artistic here? has anyone made/moulded their own panels or anything? i'm looking at designing and moulding some panels but aint got a clue where to start or what to use? RobB didn't you do some resin stuff in the past?

[Gemini]

would this help?



gem

[masterofinsanity]

quality

[deviant]

would this help?

an early model cbr600f, yesterday...

I'm going to be embarking on this fairly soon for the GS[1]. I haven't quite decided how to go about it yet other than get some foam and start hacking into it until it looks right or I have to start again.




[1]Yes I have actually done something to it. Go me! Just need to get round to updating the build thread now...

[RedexRobB]

Ive been thinking about it for years, but because of one thing and another i never got to try anything out, its all just ideas still.

http://www.mci.i12.com/carbon/index.htm

this site gives some good info, but as for the resins that was somewhere that i was stuck and i think i posted here to see if anyone had any ideas what to use.

[Caz]

made a fibre glass body shell for the SAE car at uni - many many hours of work.

Made a buck out of wood / foam / etc, then covered it in something resembling gelcoat.
hours and hours and hours of sanding to get a good finish, then made a fibre glass mould from that. Then I wasnt involved in making the actual body shell

very long process.

Caz

[deviant]

Step 1:



Step 2:

[masterofinsanity]

ok when i said panels i meant something along the lines of this.........

[deviant]

erm...good luck making a pattern for that. Unless you actually buy one, take a mould of it, then return it


I'd guess you'd need to be looking at making a clay model and taking a mould from it, rather than trying to shape it in foam. But what do I know?

[masterofinsanity]

i was thinking more making a clay model then covering it with fibreglass or P40?

[deviant]

I suspect if you just laid up the final tank straight onto the pattern then you'd lose a lot of the detail of your design through the thickness of the fibreglass.

You're talking about going

clay model -> final tank -> cut out clay model from inside

ie laying up the finished product straight onto the pattern?

I'd be tempted to do that if I was just making a plain/smooth tank (and I think the carbon one on the link Rob posted was done like that). But for something like the picture you posted I suspect you'd lose a lot of the detail of your design through the thickness of the fibreglass.

If I were doing it i'd go

clay model -> mould -> final tank

Although I'm also not sure whether you could go direct from clay model to fibreglass mould or if you'd have to take a mould in plaster or something like that first.

This is all conjecture, I've never actually tried anything like this. Just want to propose a few things that might go wrong so you can research them, prove me wrong and make yourself a nice tank!

[RedexRobB]

In that link I think the tank was made using a lost foam technique. You make the shape from a large block of foam then lay the fibre/carbon cloth over. When its set you pour petrol or thinners or something on the foam and it melts it.

[masterofinsanity]

thats gotta be a f*ckin art mate to make that skull by pouring petrol on the foam, think i'll pinch the kids moon sand kit and practice.

[RedexRobB]

no i meant richards carbon fibre pages

No idea how the skull one was done. Probably as deviant said, a clay model made up then a split cast made from that. Bolt the two splits together, make your mould from carbon/fibreglass then seperate the two halves.

[masterofinsanity]

can't you just stick some p40 to the tank and shape it?