What release materials work with epoxy glue?

[link]

I’m going to use epoxy glue in a small mold to form a roughly cork shaped plug. The glue mold was made by drilling into a roughly 1” deep piece of aluminum. The hole will get partially filled with epoxy and then left to dry. Once the glue has dried, the plug will be removed from the mold.

Does anyone have any recommendations on what to use as a release media for the epoxy? That is, what media can I put between the epoxy and the aluminum so that I can remove the plug from the aluminum and also remove the release media it after the epoxy has dried? I considered doing some experiments but thought I’d ask around first.

Thanks for your suggestions!

[barry12345]

A small amount of mold release agent from any hopefully local place that works in lay ups should get you by. You need so little they would probably give it to you.

You also may be able to put the aluminium mold into hot water so it expands a little before trying to release the molded part. Most resins and plastics will probably tolerate 180F degrees. You will need something molded into the part to pull on as well and cut off later I suspect. Hopefully epoxy resin shrinks a little as it cures. I have tried various ideals as separation barriers. Things like hard waxes seem to be attacked by some of the resins to some extent.


This may not have any relevance or use. When I want a plug or cork shaped object. I take a piece of hard rubber and drill into it with a hole saw. With the drill removed of course. You get a tapered plug to extract from the hole saw. If say you want a one inch top and a 3/4 inch diameter bottom type of thing 1 1/2 inch long it works well for me.

I used to pour waterproof concrete containers like very large septic tanks on location. To keep the plywood forms separated I used 1/2 ID hard plastic pipe. This with a 3/8 inch threaded rod through it and the plywood sides. After curing and pulling the rods and plywood forms. I Drove the plastic tubes out of the concrete easily. Then drilled all the rubber plugs required and drove them into the smooth bores. I figured they would last almost forever in that service and they provided a pretty absolute hole seal.

Really upset the inspectors although they could not fault the tanks in any way. It did enable good two and three thousand gallon holding tanks to be poured in place very economically. Usually for about a tenth of the retail cost plus an average days labor in total. So not for the first time with me they changed the regulations to require only csa or ul approved in America type certification tanks. Actually mine were better. The regulations at the time stated the manufacturer of the tank was responsible for the tanks integrity until they changed them. I knew at the time my areas large concrete and pre cast tank supplier was politically well connected and I thought that this is where all my attention was originating from.

After I had poured the sides and bottoms in one pour and removed all of the forms except the one on the very bottom. I would form the top and pour it and the access hatch cover . Go inside a couple of days later and remove the top support form. Also these tanks were reinforced with 6X6 wire mesh. They did want to know where I sourced those rubber plugs from. They were kind of questioning that I was able to drill them after examining one. I knew they were wondering how can he drill a smooth tapered rubber plug? I also sized them so they were a bare start into the holes and you really had to drive them in.

[link]

Thanks for the suggestion and story. I’ll look into mold release agents. I’ve used a tool to cut precise tapered plugs from wood before, but this particular application requires something molded.

I like the story about the cast holding tank. I’ve thought about putting a holding tank under the house to collect rain water, but getting a tank into the location presents a formidable challenge. A cast tank would solve that.

[Simpler=Better]

If it's a part that I really need to stick and I'm in a pinch, there's always some invisible film that foils my plans. So just tell the mold that you neeeed it to stick, and it won't.

I'd run wax, no way an epoxy will stick.

[link]

Thanks! I thought this thread had crawled away.

The best wax suggestions mentioned to me were shoe polish and also car wax. But no one was certain if the epoxy wouldn’t have a reaction with the wax and end up absorbing some of it or leaving some on the surface. Ultimately I’m going to glue the part I fabricate into another part and can’t have a coating on the fabricated part that will interfere.

Some suggestions at another site got me to look into using some mold making material and then easy casting epoxy with the mold

The best candidates for the first round of mold making anyway are on the link below, and the casting epoxy is made by a few different vendors.

http://thebluebottletree.com/amazing-mold-putty-vs-easymold/

There is also a variant of casting epoxy by one vendor which doesn’t require exhaust ventilation and a full face respirator to use.

The tools above are actually less expensive than the epoxy glue I planned to use and will probably provide at least identical results.

[cmac2012]

I use waxed paper for various glues to prevent unwanted sticking. In my earlier days making musical instruments, I would make would clamping blocks and the like by heating small wooden bits in a low temp oven in a beeswax bath. Would take them out and continue the heat so excess wax would drain off. One needs to careful of fire of course. Nothing ever stuck to them.

[kerry]

Saran Wrap releases from epoxy resin also.

[INSIDIOUS]

1) Do NOT get it on your fingers.

2) Failing that do not touch anything.

That is all

[jplinville]

I've used a number of things in the past with success...Vasoline, bearing grease, motor oil, etc. Just a thin coating should be enough. If the dimensions are important, look to a spray on mold release, and cross your fingers.

[link]

Thanks for the added information!

I use waxed paper for various glues to prevent unwanted sticking. In my earlier days making musical instruments, I would make would clamping blocks and the like by heating small wooden bits in a low temp oven in a beeswax bath. Would take them out and continue the heat so excess wax would drain off. One needs to careful of fire of course. Nothing ever stuck to them.

Good to know. I didn’t mention it before but I’ll be making a lot of these plugs and the amount of work related to using wax paper would be pretty high. BTW, what kind of instruments did you make?

Saran Wrap releases from epoxy resin also.

That was one of my first guesses for so1mething to try. The problem in this instance for my application is that the wrap would have some issues causing the glue to not match the mold closely enough due to possible wrinkles or corners which aren’t square with the mold. But I really liked that it would leave the plug with little to no residue once setup.

1) Do NOT get it on your fingers.

2) Failing that do not touch anything.

That’s a real problem ‘cus I’m a chronic nose picker. Seriously I wear exam gloves when working with almost anything. They are too good to not use. Exam gloves, that is…..

I've used a number of things in the past with success...Vasoline, bearing grease, motor oil, etc. Just a thin coating should be enough. If the dimensions are important, look to a spray on mold release, and cross your fingers.

The spray on mold release would have been the best for my application, except for the need to clean it off after; but as I noted above, instead of epoxy glue, I’m going to try using some silicone mold putty to make a mold and then some quick dry resin. The resin cost about 1/10th what epoxy glue does and sets to touch (the so-called pot life) is about 10 minutes. I’ll be making a lot of these plugs and the combined time and cost factors were very influential. Another big factor is that once I make this plug, it will be glued onto something else and I don’t want to have to clean the plugs prior to gluing them

[barry12345]

I remembered I used pam no stick cooking spray one time.. For the life of me I do not remember the results.

[cmac2012]

Originally Posted by link

Good to know. I didn’t mention it before but I’ll be making a lot of these plugs and the amount of work related to using wax paper would be pretty high. BTW, what kind of instruments did you make?

Acoustic guitars mainly. I made four Bulgarian tamburahs at one point. Similar to a Greek bazouki. More or less a mando-cello. I had a buddy who was a Bulgarian music specialist, had students who wanted the instruments.

[Jim Anderson]

Used silicone. I used some industrial stuff that was about as thick as real thin oil, probably available in a 5 gallon size. I expect some commercial light silicone, like in a spray, would work.

[link]

I remembered I used pam no stick cooking spray one time.. For the life of me I do not remember the results.

Thought about that at one point. Then dropped it as I didn’t wanna clean the plug once made.

Acoustic guitars mainly. I made four Bulgarian tamburahs at one point. Similar to a Greek bazouki. More or less a mando-cello. I had a buddy who was a Bulgarian music specialist, had students who wanted the instruments.

Very cool. Never listened to a tamgura (google’s spelling) before today. The piece i heard sounded a lot like the sitar used in the Beatles “Within You Without You” I don’t know bubkiss about this genre of instruments. Guess there is a fair amount of overlap in various native India stringed instruments. Must be danged difficult to make a tamgura or anything similar and do it well!

Used silicone. I used some industrial stuff that was about as thick as real thin oil, probably available in a 5 gallon size. I expect some commercial light silicone, like in a spray, would work.

I was gonna try at one point. Very easy to apply.