Carbon Fiber Bodywork

porchev914 wrote:

I'm pretty sure no one has ever been serious about a titanium key blank. ?

You got sumpin' against titanium keys?

kwickstand.net/Hyper-Formance.com/ELS_Originals.html

TexasKZ wrote:

porchev914 wrote:

I'm pretty sure no one has ever been serious about a titanium key blank. ?

You got sumpin' against titanium keys?

kwickstand.net/Hyper-Formance.com/ELS_Originals.html

Damn right I do. They're about as useless as a single sided swingarm on a Kz... :laugh:

The man with the key cutting machine at your hardware store is gonna kick your ass when you bring him those things. I bet they are a tad bit harder to cut than the usual brass keys.

i don't know about the injection mold cost. but i worked in a blow mold plant for 5 years. a set of 4 bottle molds was around 30k in 1997

Porchev914,

How are you coming on your prototype? Haven't seen an update in a few days so I thought I'd ask.

btchalice wrote:

i don't know about the injection mold cost. but i worked in a blow mold plant for 5 years. a set of 4 bottle molds was around 30k in 1997

I figuered it was up there, but DAMN.... :ohmy: :pinch: :whistle:

My apologies to everyone WmsKaw, I haven not forgotten, I was a little busy last week and I was in Barstow and San Diego this weekend. Even so, back to the grind The main reason you haven't seen any updates is a lack of supplies. I placed an order the week before last for mixing cups, sticks, mold release wax and non hardening modeling clay. Horray for UPS, they delivered my goods today:

Also in the pics is a brown paper roll, which as you might guess, is an additional yard of 5.7 oz/cu yd 2x2 twill carbon fiber cloth.

porchev914 wrote:

btchalice wrote:

i don't know about the injection mold cost. but i worked in a blow mold plant for 5 years. a set of 4 bottle molds was around 30k in 1997

I figuered it was up there, but DAMN.... :ohmy: :pinch: :whistle:

I told you that molds/dies are expensive.

Still, $30K isn't quite the kind of cost I expected. Thats like paying the molding company to have a guy work on your mold for a couple months straight :blink: :whistle:
I should have done this last week, but I didn't, I did it tonight. I mixed up another ounce of tooling gelcoat and spread it over the flange. I just about have the flange coated. I also did a little more filling in of pinholes.

You can see the glossy spots on the mold face. I used my bare finger to fill them in and smooth the spots. I find my finger works better than any squeege; I can get into tighter spots, I have more control and the pinholes get filled faster/better.
The next mold will be sprayed with multiple coats prior to any reinforcement added to try and eliminate these pesky pinholes. I hope that after I finish sanding these spots down I won't have to fill anymore pinholes :S That way I can progress to prepping the mold for its first laminations. I suspect that some imperfections my sneek past me on this mold, and that the parts pulled from it may need some post cure touch up.....:dry:

Looking good.

Is it possible to work out the imperfections on a mold after you start making parts with it?

Yes, it is, to a point. If it's something like a mark, scratch or pinhole, it can be filled, massaged and polished away. But if you have reinforcing mat showing up right at the surface (because you didn't wait to add it until after the first couple coats of gelcoat flashed... like me) then it can imprint on the surface of the parts laminated from it.

dude you got some major patience,,,,this will be cool if you pull it off...what's next those big ass ships in the little bottles....