Hey AJ,
I was just going over your post and sorry I didn't keep up with your progress I whish I would have chimed in, with the wax you are using it needs to be at least five or more coats and if I read correctly you are using polyester gelcoat with epoxy resin in your lay up, you need to use the PVA and you need to apply if as fine a mist as possible, with at least three or more coats or until you see a greenish tint on your mold. PVA it is water soluble. With that said when you lay up the next part leave extra amounts of wet out glass at each end of your part, when you go to remove the part from the mold use a couple of wooden wedges to start the separation and then submerge the whole part and mold in the waterand it will dissolve the PVA and release the part without damage to the part or mold. I will pm you some info.
C
I was just going over your post and sorry I didn't keep up with your progress I whish I would have chimed in, with the wax you are using it needs to be at least five or more coats and if I read correctly you are using polyester gelcoat with epoxy resin in your lay up, you need to use the PVA and you need to apply if as fine a mist as possible, with at least three or more coats or until you see a greenish tint on your mold. PVA it is water soluble. With that said when you lay up the next part leave extra amounts of wet out glass at each end of your part, when you go to remove the part from the mold use a couple of wooden wedges to start the separation and then submerge the whole part and mold in the waterand it will dissolve the PVA and release the part without damage to the part or mold. I will pm you some info.
C
Tim, thanks for sending me the PM regarding help with fiberglass, I will give you a call. Having a big flange on the mold, I had plenty of opportunity to pry open the mold without damaging the part from that. So far, I have always used at least 6 coats of wax. My problems seem to stem from the improper use of PVA. The first problem occurred when I forgot to use it! The other problem was when I used a very thin coat of PVA. The PVA sprayer I bought from tap Plastics shot out globs of PVA, so I tried some household sprayers I had on hand with no success there either. So, I brushed on a thick coat of PVA and it did not level very well, therefore it would have probably caused the part to have the brush lines on it. I washed that PVA off. Then I purposely applied a very thin coat of PVA with a brush in order to avoid the brush lines. The thin PVA no doubt caused my problem, as when I had used a thick coat of PVA there was no problem. I like your suggestion of soaking the mold/part in water! Next time I use fiberglass, I'm going to test whatever I do on a very small scale.
I welded on some small pieces of cut tubing on one bike and ran the cables through...worked pretty good!! Also can weld on tabs with a hole drilled in it to fit a rubber grommet of appropriate size for your cable. Or drill into the frame and run some string at one end and shop vac at other...pull string through and tie onto cable and pull your cable through. And thanks Gary...I too look forward to posting more picts as that would mean that I actually got some more work done!! :laugh:
I dumped the shipping oil and put in the motor oil and confirmed the starter is turning the engine over real well. Still no smoke from any electricals, no blown fuse. Turned the cable ends and fittings from brass. It is so easy to machine! I included in the picture a test of my approach to soldering an end to a cable. I bent the cable strands at 90deg, fluxed and wetted them with solder, and with heat slid the fitting up against the strands, then applied a little more solder. Then I ground the excess strand lengths and solder from the fitting.
I used the wrap for safety reasons as my son rides my mini. My experience is that the white wrap turns brown after so long, so I would go with the black, for aesthetic reasons. I cant say that my engine runs any cooler/hotter, as I don't have a temp gauge for it. Plus it makes my bike look faster lol.
Black header wrap
Black header wrap
Due to the limited range of throttle adjustment offered by my twist grip, I made an inline cable length adaptor. The idea came to me after emailing with Eric at OldMiniBikes. I didn't do exactly what he had taken the time to show me, but just the conversation opened up my mind. I just submitted a question to the OldMiniBikes contact area and almost immediately Eric was helping me. Thanks for the first class response, Eric!
