Frank

Did you want to mention if it was a one or two piece mold. As I said in previous post a one piece mold with one piece in it will let you experiment a bit more. To cast all the parts at once is really hard especially if you have cut outs for hinge hardware. When I did one with the cuts I cast it with the cuts on the bottom so I would not get air bubbles. Anyways before you pour the part if you have any deep impressions I brush the rtv in those spots so I know there will be no bubbles at least not there. Mix the rtv real good so there is no streaking from the catalyst. Good luck for which ever way you do it. Oh and make sure your master is real good. I see you are in so cal if you like take a drive up north and I will show you how I do it. I will be home all weekend. Frank

I do understand that createx has to be heat set but he said he was using auto air. This is the same co. but not the same product. And there site says that heat withair will speed up the process of drying. It does not say it needs to be heated it just need to be dry. As for your clear that kind of product is great cause it is in the same family as far as water is concerned. Never had an issue with some product lines but when you mix them it could be a problem if not done in the right way. And that way is up to you. What ever works for you may not work for the guy with 90% humidity. Ive been in temp controled booths for many years now and we keep the temp ideal all the time so these problems are a thing of the past at least for me. We are using water bourne base coats now all the time.

The bait looks great. Some suggestions on making a mold. I as posted in earlier threads I like one piece molds for the simple reason that if you should mess up one piece of a two piece mold with all the parts in one you messed up a whole lot of rtv. I suggest you start out with one piece and make a mold and it looks good . Make the next piece and so on. Also your master need to be good, real good. Your slots need to look as good as you would like them to be. Just remember if you cast a bad mold you will get a bad part forever. Take your time and make your master good. Good Luck.

Hey KF thanks for that, hope you never run out of bullets.

Well you had me until you said that you put a heavy base coat.That is the worse thing you can do with any paint system. With water based paint there should NEVER be heavy coats. Light to medium coats is all you should need. As for heat setting I have yet to find on the auto air site the NEED for this. It needs to be DRY to top coat. Heat with air helps speed up the process. And yes the temperature has alot to do with reactions that never happened before. If you read some of the tech pages on any paint co material they always have an ideal temp to use there pruduct. The hotter it is the faster it will work, the colder it is the slower it works and usually X2. If you did not put any kind of sealer on the bait then it is probably the heavy coat is not dry all the way. When you go to repaint it sand it to see where the failure really is and post so we can add it to the memory banks.

Epoxys usually dont have solvents in them. That is why they dont die back when dry. Auto air claims they can be cleared with any clear. And water based paints seem to be pretty resistant to solvent so that is not in my opinion the problem. For auto air to claim that they can be cleared by any clear means that it is very pourios and will mechanically bond to your clear. Auto clears do have some solvents also but most now a days they are high solids which means alot less solvents. The hot solvents found in older clears are pretty much gone now. I believe they were used to chemically bond to the base coat. Believe me we are using a far better product now than in years past. Water based or water bourne I mean. Try to use a complete system and this will not happen.

The question should be what did you primer it with? That is not the paint it is the undercoat. My guess is that it is some kind of enamel. The reason that it does that is the auto air is pourios and let the solvent get to the undercoat. ANY solvent based top coat has the definate possability to do this. This is why the paint companys have a system that is compatable within itself. When you change the system this is what could happen. If you let the undercoat dry longer this might not have happened. It is colder now and it takes alot longer for things to dry. The wrinkling of the underside is just a reaction to the solvent. Not much you can do but remove and start over. Now why it only happened on some and not all of the baits is not clear to me. There will be people that will say that they have never had this problem with enamel based primers but it does happen. If you used an epoxy top coat without adding anything to it that would not have happened. Try using a primer that is not enamel based at least when using a solvent type clear.

This might be worth a try.http://www.coastairbrush.com/proddetail.asp?prod=F%2D103&cat=23

Well said I think I will sacrafice one or two rather than a dozen.Will try it tomorrow. I also have to deal with making it float(cork).

To day I made two new molds as I speak they are in the pressure tank with a light on the outside to keep the chamber warm. Tomorrow I will cast some new parts with the new menthods I have learned here. You all know how good it is to have a post go on this long without there being any arguing. Just good info that may work for or may not. Just give them a try. What will it cost but a few cents in resin and a little time. But maybe it will save you time later. One other question do you guys weight in the mold or after it is cast?

That is a pretty large order for a product like that. If I understand you right it has to shrink at the end. The stuff I use will strech and shrink but not that much in a small area. Maybe you should consider stencils. There are some here that make then from thin plastic and heat. If I find such a product I will be sure to let you know. Maybe the next time I go to the sign supply store. Sorry About that.

Is this the stuff you tried cause I think this is the same one I have used. It comes in high tack also.http://www.tcpglobal.com/kustomshop/ksmask2.aspx

Ck with auto body paint stores thay have one that is pliable and should work for your application. I will post the name when I call my supplier. It is frosted in color and rough enough to write on.

I dont paint right away maybe at the earliest the next day but the oven thing sounds real good. I have tried to drill the same day and got some type of wettness from the drilling. I will try this. And you are right once they bubble they never do it more in different spots. Thanks for that. The view counter need to go over 1000 so keep going!!!

The problem Ive had with covering over the pin holes is when they get hot in the truck Ive had some bubble the top coat. I had an old one on my bench for a while like that so I cut the bubble off and nothing. At least not to the naked eye . So I sanded and sure enuogh there was some under the primer. As for foiling I use leaf products and they show up more cause it is really thin. This post has gone on for a long time I hope all who read this dont get discouraged and not try it. There is so much good in the posts that you should be able to cut alot off the learning curve. Come on and buy some resin and some rtv and join in it is really not that hard. Thank You all for reading. Rookie click the add reply below the yellow box below the last post. It is not in any field but next to the new tpoic box.

I think he is answering your earlier post. Rookie look at the ever coat putty it comes in a chaulking tube so the hardener is dispensed at the same time. Sands the same as what you are using. Nothing wrong with what you are using though. You probably have alot too. For pin holes lately I just use water borne primer and rub it on with my finger so it get in the holes then primer over it. You can spray it and rub in the holes also. Working in a body shop does help alot.

Here they are. It does stretch out pretty good. Look at the hardness posted on the spec sheet and you will get the differances this one is 25a shore hardness material. I know it is hard cause you only have one but you can get pretty close to compare. I see that smoothon has different levels do you know witch one you have? This product is not cheap but it takes alot of time to fix the parts every time in a bad mold. With a one piece mold you should have at least 1/4" of wall between the part you casting. If not you could distort your part cause of no support.

Funny you should ask that cause an earlier post by deimai showed larry rolling a bait to make it hollow. I though it would be like you say thin and bubble free on the outside any ways. I will have to give it a shot. I thought of putting it on a rock thumbler to roll until it sets.Thanks forall the differant ideas this is good like food for the brain. By the way my castings are about 90% bubble free now that I changed a few things. Thank You

Without kwowing what you mean by pretty firm it is pretty easy to get one out. I use the silicone rtv from tap plastics. I pour my mold material around the master with two dowels out the top in a box. When dry pull the box off then at the dowels cut the mold apart till you can squeeze out the master. It is ready to use. I put my pour spouts where it is easy to sand after say like on the nose or top of the back. I will try to post pictures tonight when I get home.

Filling these pin holes is not a problem.Not getting these is my goal this will take one time consuming step out of the process. I think that is my reasoning. Samples sent to me by one resin co had none at all.

sent you a pm

Thank You

That compressor you are talking about seams like a good choice. I wish there was info on the air usage of an air brush, I cant seem to find any. Which leads me to believe it is not a problem as far as air consumption goes. When you are using an air brush you are rarely using it for more that a few minutes at one time if even that. If they can sell someone those little compressors then you should be fine. Max psi is of no concern for what we are doing with air brushes. When you use large paint guns to paint say a car is when the cfm comes into play and still not the max psi. CFM is the ability for the compressor to recover the air being used at the given pressure. You do not want your compressor to run all the time because the heat will cause moisture in the air. Anyways you will be fine and will really happy with any unit with those capabilitys, for air brushing anyways. Hope this helps.

Sorry to hear Versus dropped his show but I hope another channel pick it up caues my sat co. dropped versus but that is ok. As for Larry at least he takes the time to show us how to make these baits and not just plug the big co. that sponsor different people.

What I learned for rtv is mix it well then put in vacumn chamber to remove air bubbles you put in when mixing. It takes a few minutes but you can get very air free molds. And yes I brush on rtv to the bottom of my master to prevent the bubbles from gathering there. I pour in the corner of the box and let the rtv climb up the master until full. But here is the best thing by far that has helped me get a better mold is I put it in a pressure chamber to compress the bubbles until it cures, over night mostly. Rookie I also use the pressure chamber to cast a part. You do not want to expand the bubbles you want to compress them until it is set. The bubbles that I get are like champange bubbles that are not large enough to escape from the pour holes. They just gather at the top of the mold. If you use a one piece mold i learned that if you open the mold and pour the resin in wait a few seconds and let the small bubbles escape the large opening then when you release the mold most of the bubbles come out the top. Makes a little mess but the end product is more bubble free. Then I put it in the chamber and put pressure to it till it cures. One more for Rookie is it a secret additive you add to the resin or am I going to buy one and cut it in half to see what you use? That has not been beyond me to do this. But what a shame for that kind of art.