solarez mold1
Fixing my son's surf board gave me an idea.
Since Solarez is runny, but can be layered, I decided to try and use it to make a soft plastic mold.
I crazy glued a Yum Wooly Craw, with all those ribs, smooth side down onto a piece of formica.
Then I made a temporary form out of blue tape around the outside, leaving enough space for strength.
Finally, I brushed on several coats of Solarez, taking each coat out into the driveway for a minute to let it start setting up before brushing on another.
Finally, I filled the tape form to above the bait by pouring more Solarez on top, and set it out to cure in the sun for ten minutes.
Once it seemed hard, I peeled away the blue tape, to let more UV's hit the sides for another five minutes.
Finally, I peeled the formica off slowly and, Voila!. A mold with all the detailed ribs.
It's not a perfect mold, because the original bait has some relief on the bottom that I lost when I glued it down, but it is a relatively easy and quick way to make a soft plastic mold.
I was able to peel the master out, but the heat of the resin setting was really strong, even after a half hour.
I sanded both faces down to smooth, drilled vent holes from the back for the two side flippers, and sprayed it with PAM as a release agent. Then I hand poured it with some med. plastic I already had sitting in a silicone cup.
I was really happy with the results.
It took about an hour, from start to taking the new bait out of the mold.