WOW, surprise discovery.

[mark farkward]

Hi, I messed around for a couple years with carbon fiber mostly trying to create my own lightweight bike parts. But I did quite a few other projects that weren't cycle specific. The one thing I found consistent with every project I use a mold with, was it getting the finished products the hardened cured product away from the mold was always tricky. Even broke a part or two trying to get it to release. At one point I even popped for,, well now, I forget the name of the hard paint on liquid but it puts a hard coating on your mold and it's quite expensive. But anyway even that didn't work as well as I had hoped it would.

 

A decade later, and I'm confronted with a problem that requires me to decrease the weight of a swinging door, because I have now replaced the glass with corrugated plastic. The fiberglass frame of the door is too heavy for the corrugated plastic because it does not supply the rigidity that the glass did. I remember I have some leftover carbon fiber in my storage, so I buy a quart of resin a couple cheap paint brushes and as a cheap release agent get a tub of Vaseline. I've never tried this before but I knew it was a cheap alternative.

 

Here's the wow part. After coating the fiberglass frame which I was going to use as a positive mold with Vaseline I see there's a stack of tissue paper in the corner of the room. By tissue paper I mean the very light thin stuff that you use to wrap China in. Gift tissue paper I guess. I decide to cover a section of my mold with this tissue paper as a layer in between the mold and the carbon fiber. (I was thinking cheese) It's was not easy getting it flat and laid nicely over the mold but once it gets thoroughly greasy with the Vaseline it's doable. The Vaseline alone didn't work very well at all, and I'm not even sure I'll be able to get the peace fully separated from the mold. But I am amazed, just absolutely amazed at how well the greasy tissue paper as an intermediate layer worked. I think I almost could have just lifted the mold up and tilted it vertical and the piece would have slid off had I done the whole piece with this tissue paper technique. And mostly everywhere the tissue paper peeled off the back of the carbon fiber as well. What I don't understand is why this hasn't been something that somebody else has tried? I think someone must have, but why I've never heard of it before I don't know? But if this is a new technique that I've discovered check it out. It works very very well.

[jenn4536]

Ooo, I'll have to try this! The few small prices I've tried making had the same sticking problem. 

[Tanoak]

Thanks for sharing @mark farkward! Now someone has talked about it, you. 😎

Did the tissue paper cause excess finishing work, or bubbles, or out tolerance problems?

[Clark82]

4 hours ago, Tanoak said:

Thanks for sharing @mark farkward! Now someone has talked about it, you. 😎

Did the tissue paper cause excess finishing work, or bubbles, or out tolerance problems?

 

I too really want to know... With all my experience with epoxies and resins, I would swear that epoxy would find a way to bond to the tissue paper despite the vaseline and turn the finished product into a mess.

[Tanoak]

35 minutes ago, Clark82 said:

 

I too really want to know... With all my experience with epoxies and resins, I would swear that epoxy would find a way to bond to the tissue paper despite the vaseline and turn the finished product into a mess.

I guess a slight surface mess is better than not being able to get the model out of the form at all. Probably a situation where the quality needs greatly depend on the end use.

I'm super new to this, so time for me to go look at how to make forms.

[mark farkward]

So, I read through the comments a few days ago. I wanted to reply then, but it had been an experiment on such a small part with my layup I had some doubts. I thought maybe this is just an anomaly I just got lucky for that little section. I wondered if I could reproduce the results? I didn't have time to try until this afternoon.

 

On 12/29/2023 at 9:59 AM, Tanoak said:

Thanks for sharing @mark farkward! Now someone has talked about it, you. 😎

Did the tissue paper cause excess finishing work, or bubbles, or out tolerance problems?

No. No. And I don't understand.

First no, because the tissue side of this project was going to be the inside edge. That is it was the top edge that would be facing out and be visible. The tissue edge would be the back side.

And no bubbles.

 

From a strictly release aspect this technique is absolutely brilliant. To be clear I don't suggest my part in this is anything more than that of a lucky fool. But how this works feels like something close to magic to me. As I stated before I have always had problems getting my work to release.

 

I took a few pictures, the first shows the tissue paper laid over the Vaseline coated fiberglass that I was using as my form. The next show right after I pulled the cured material off the form. I basically just had to pull it away from the fiberglass and not with any Force just a couple fingers under the edge and it just lifted away. Is he can see the tissue paper stayed with the project. And it was easily peeled away in complete strips. I just got a hold of the loose end and basically lifted it up and the projects wait pulled it away from the tissue.

 

As far as pretty goes, I don't know how well this technique might work. That is if you wanted the tissue side of your project, the side that's butted up against your form or mold to be very pretty I don't know if that's possible. I don't know that it isn't I just have never been able to have a finished project look like those commercially sold for their beauty. (That has really never been my aim, and admittedly I don't have the knowledge or the skill to create such pieces.)

 

As far as hand layup goes, I think this might be a super valuable technique in the hands of someone more knowledgeable and skilled than I. I'll keep an eye on my email notifications cuz I'd really like to know how this works for others who might try it.