Center console... one piece mold or split?

I am working on a slighter larger console than my previous mini console. Main question is if I am better off making a one piece mold or split...

All of the sides of a 6 degree draft except for the rear which is straight up and down.

My previous console had a draft angle of about 4-3 degrees but on all sides. I had to use two holes and compressed air to pop it out and even then it was not the easiest.

My gut is telling me to make a one piece mold and put in some holes for compressed air.

Below is work on the plug... once faired out the edges and corners will all be rounded over.

If it matters I tend to use PVA for release.

 

I can't see any reason why it shouldn't release with all that draft.I have used much lower draft allowances with no problems,down to fractions of a degree but you do need to be particular about eliminating pinholes if you go that far.If,as seems likely,there will be a seat on the lower level it could be an ideal place to put a jacking plate or a blow hole.I'm not a huge fan of PVA in spite of it working quite well and I recommend that you don't use any that has been exposed to temperatures below freezing as I once had an unfortunate experience with that kind of PVA.A clean and well sealed surface,followed by ample wax is my preferred system but a careful coat of PVA in addition could be insurance.

I don't see any mounting bosses for steering head or throttle controls and they can be useful locations for blow holes as there will be hardware covering the area.

 

Blowhole the seat cushion vee; it’ll wedge off, but might not move much there without help.

 

by vee do you mean the corner of the seat bottom meeting the seat back?

 

Great information! If that is the case with draft angles Im a bit less hesitant making this a single part mold given the drafts. I don't mind adding several blow holes if it makes things easier to get out... its not much of a chore to quickly block the area down and polish.

Interesting to hear about PVA and freezing temps. I figured being alcohol based it would not mater much but in my experience the cold has had no effect. I have found that thinning the PVA with some water and good spray technique makes for an easy application with fair results. I only switched to PVA after I had a skiff mold trashed with wax... I still have no idea how or why it happened as I had been using wax prior.

 

yeah

my experience is limited, but I can see you won’t get much lever on the seat back vertical, so a shot of air might be needed

 

To clarify my remarks about PVA-the experience I had of PVA suffering after freezing was with water based PVA.The alcohol based variety shouldn't suffer the same fate and I've had the same type of misfortune with PVA wood glue that had been exposed to freezing temperatures and then not working very well,which is why most of the bottles have a recommendation about storing it in temperatures that don't drop to freezing.I have witnessed waxing going wrong only once and that was in a shop that used more than one type,because they believed an alternative was better on components with textured surfaces,and they mixed up polishing rags.The cross contamination was enough to prevent a clean release and areas of gelcoat were torn off from the force that was applied.The lesson learned was that throwing away doubtful polishing rags was the best idea.

If,the outward facing flange on your plug will be there on the finished console you have the perfect surface to wedge away from the plug and I hope you have included a little extra width to allow for trimming to the finished size.Once you have the initial half inch or so of movement the job is done and should separate easily.I'm not a fan of too many blow holes as each of them can lead to gel creeping into the hole and holding things together or chipping out a piece of gel and it gets worse over a run of components.A tiny piece of tape over the hole is one solution.