Making a fiberglass mold

[Kris Schaumburg]

A friend of mine just aquired an all fiberglass boat very similiar to a kara, but with more of canoe like wetted surface. It is extremely stable paddles well and is all around impressive. The gentleman he got it off of said it was homemade and only two existed. We are looking to make a couple more. does anyone have a good explanatory link to how to make a mold off the boat?

 

[Ray]

http://bateau2.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&id=5&Itemid=7

Go through here. There should be something about "one off" construction.

I would also check out Epoxyworks which is a Goughan Brothers on line magazine for WEST materials.

Overall it is fairly simple. Coat the boat with lots of wax. Cover with FG cloth. Wet out. Build up layers. Pull off mould.

You can spend days trying to figure out the details though. I tried a small project using clear packing tape with Johnson's paste wax as the release agent and it was pretty easy. Covering a whole boat with packing tape could be a fun way to send a weekend.

For FG materials I would look to the US composites thick epoxy for building up over the mould. Most regular stuff runs off too easily and gets wasted on the floor.