I’m currently trying to foil an MVG for my longboard or egg, and it is painful trying to foil two small inline fins haha. I thought if it worked well, I’d try to make a mold so I didn’t have to remake them by hand, as I might try them in my twin keel too. Anyone have experience with mold making??
It’s just a normal longboard box mate. Foiling was quite hard!!!. It’s a bit rough, but if I like the result, I’m keen to make a mold, for obvious reasons haha
Beerfan, what kind of fin box is that? I’d like to try one.
How do you foil those? Under a micro-scope?
Yeah, I would what to mold those to.
Barry Snyder
Just need waves!
I managed to find a plastic centre fin, that i never use ( plastic! ), so i chopped up the base, and stuck it on. Its a fraction too long to fit both this and my 9" dolphin in my longboard, so im going to re drill the hole and take a bit off the front. Pretty confident i'll be able to squeeze both in the longboard. Im off the next few days, but it looks like i'll struggle to get a wave even on the 9'1". Fingers crossed!
yes plenty but never yet with fins, the closest ive had was with hollow rc heli blades its prity simple as long as you dont cut corners and do every step. there are plenty of good molding vids on you tube that will show you what you need to do better than words.
Hey Beerfan, Looking forward to seeing them.
Herb Spitzer would be a good guy to send a private message. I know he knows about this sort of thing.
Cheers guys. Brett, what products do you use to mold?. There are so many molding products I don’t know where to start haha. I plan on just using some kind of molding clay, and making a mold I can just pour into. No tabs, i’ll just glue them on. I should have the first one on my longboard tomorrow. Will pm herb too
Hi Beerfan, I’d go with John Mellors advice … " Herb Spitzer would be a good guy to send a private message. I know he knows about this sort of thing."
basicaly if its a simetrical profile you want to make a two part mold. first you need to make a spliter plate that goes around the outline of the fin and fill any gaps with modeling clay. Then wax then pollish then use pva resease agent on the mold surface. next use a resin/cabosil mix with a dark coulorded pigment as a gel coat then when its green a good 6-8 layers of 6oz chopped matt. once cured remove the spliter plate then repeat the process from the waxing stage again on the second side. after all done you should have a perfect mold that splits apart easy and redy to layup in.
Beer! Here is the thread by Benny1…http://www.swaylocks.com/node/1022521
Hope its of more help to you!
http://www.smooth-on.com/Sculpture-and-Art-/c1239/index.html
get the silcone mold stuff and use casting resin but I’d ask either Mark or Herb first since those are their fins you are copying.
pen makers are using the stuff to make acrylic resin blanks all the time
Cheers guys. These fins are for me, I’m not going to patent them or anything haha ( I’m joking guys, don’t get upset!!). I have pm’d herb for some molding advice. Is mark still around here?.
I'd just lay up a small panel in thickness to fit the box and fabricate them one at a time. If it's just for you and not very many, likely about the same amount of work - plus you could make changes as you dream up designs for new ones. Are you sure that's the optimum design?
A set like those could be done in all of about 5 minutes with a Dremel cut off wheel, a rat file, and sandpaper once you have your panel ready to cut.
When I look at the screw heads I couldn't help wondering if some sort of fin bolt extensions and multiple screw plates wouldn't be fun to play with... like maybe a series of cut up eyebolts sticking up? The main idea is flow disruption ahead of your main foil (fin), correct?
For now John that’s what I intend to do. It is a bit of stuffing around, and you have to make a “master” anyway. I want to try a set for my twin keel, and I have a few small fin blanks. I definitely need some very small files, which I might be able to find at work. I just got a greenough fin for my longboard, but it’s just too long to fit both in the longboard, so I might have to cut the MVG down a touch further. The one I’ve made will do me as a first attempt for a bit. Forecast for small waves next few days. Pretty crap today, fingers crossed I get some before I go back to work. Only problem I have now is, do I try the MVG with my usual 10" dolphin, or do I try out my new greenough 9" 4A ??
I like the idea of the screw heads John. All you’d need then is a screw and plate, with a small fin like Finlet welded on top. Interesting
How about this Beery,
get a thin aluminium plate with a hole in one end for the screw, then glue or resin the fin-ettes on at the other end of the plate… The screw that holds the fin in place also holds the plate with the fin-ettes.
The small plate sits flush on the surface in front of the box and they don’t need a molded base or room inside the box.
its the sort of thing that could work on FCS fins as well by cutting a rectangular slot in the thin plate.
Yep, that might work too brett. Plenty of options i suppose. Im off the next few days so i sure bloody hope i get to try it!