Tooling gel is thick stuff!

[juiceclark]

The guys out at the molds are doin' great work. They finished all the smaller molds (cap, bridge, etc) and are now laying two layers of glass in the hull mold. After about 350 more sanding disks it will be ready for the mold tooling gel (gelcoat) to get sprayed in there.

Question: we're using the black gel and it's very, very thick from all the powdered pigment additive. So, after experimenting with pressures and such, the spray still leaves a fairly significant orange peel finish. No biggy but it would save a lot of sanding time on that huge mold if she sprayed smoother. Does anyone have a trick up their sleeve??

Thanks very much, Tony

[waikikin]

Tony, have a look at duratech products by hawkeye industrys I think, I've used their suracing products-primers,gloss topcoat & their gelcoat additive, all worked well for me, at first I thought it was expensive but saves time & $ in the end. Had a look at your gallery to see what your doing- looks cool. All the best from Jeff.

[the1much]

and spraying tooling gel you'll always get orange peel,,but sounds like your getting it bad,,,if ya cant get it to "less'n" try spraying it a little thicker,,,and sand first with some 220,,,then ya can go to your wet sanding after,,,saves alot of time and money.
and thats gotta be the strongest mold i've seen,,,GREAT job man hehe

[juiceclark]

yeah much,
where it's thicker in the corners it's sometimes like glass. Really it is not too bad...normal I think. But hey, that what this board's for...seeing if some ol' salt has a trick or two to save us all some $ and time. Like the dry sanding tip you just gave...worth cash money.

Mold: yeah the guy runnin' the show out there doesn't screw around. He made that hull mold frame by hand...nothing but steel, plasma cutter and welder. When he was done, the greatest variance we could find from the plans was 1/32 of an inch! Crazy man.
That thing will pop 1000 production boats for some big company when we're done.