Removal of Mold Clay from Inside of Intersection Fairing.

I just completed making my first molded part, the lower intersection fairing. I used Plastilline clay to shape the mold. It was fairingly easy to use and I am happy with the shape I was able to form.
Before laying up the glass, I applied a mold release to the clay. After the glass set up, I cut the intersection fairing and separated the wheel fairing halves. I had expected the halves to separate from the clay but instead, the clay fractured and remained stuck inside of the intersection halves. I scraped as much of the clay that I could from the fairing. There is still debris that I would like to remove. Instead of experimenting with a bunch of different solvents to dissolve and remove the clay, I thought that there must be others that have already tackled this problem.
The questions are:
What is used to remove clay from fiberglassed parts? and
Is there a better way to prevent the clay from remaining inside the intersection fairing when the halves are separated?



Thanks!

Fixed link to photo:

Thanks for the photo fix. For the future, what did I do wrong?

It looks like the clay got stuck in the grooves of the matt, the clay is not "sticking" to the fiberglass. Maybe try hot water and a toothbrush?


Maybe what might work best next time is to use a layer of very thin fiberglass cloth on the clay, like 1 oz cloth, then put down the matt. That way all the thick fibers of that matt will not get tangled in the clay.

water

Soak it in water then hose it off. Water and sponge should work if it doesn't catch the weave.

bacstabber said:

Thanks for the photo fix. For the future, what did I do wrong?

Click to expand...

Needed to use the insert photo button or put this coding at the start and end of your link (the add photo button does it automatically) No space though, I put the spaces in so you could see the coding

Thanks everybody for the replies. They are all most helpful!

Water spray and scotch-brite worked pretty well for me. That and a little elbow grease.


Lee...

Mold Clay removal

I removed the modeling clay I used with a scrub brush wet down with lacquer thinner and it melted right away with no damage to the epoxy. It also came out of the weave and any cavities as well. I also used some floral foam for male molds held in place with dabs of bondo which sanded to shape nicely and it seemed to be more stable when working the fabric & epoxy with a brush. I felt was easier to work with than modeling clay. It also stuck to the completed fairing but lacquer thinner quickly melted the residual foam as well.

Dick DeCramer
Northfield, MN
RV6 Flyable but getting new engine
RV8 Slow build Fuselage

bacstabber said:

Thanks for the photo fix. For the future, what did I do wrong?

Click to expand...

Glad to help. Your link was to the whole web page, not just the picture. The img tags don't know what to do with that. To get the link to just the picture go to the web page, right click until you get a menu, then click on the Properties selection. Look for the Address (URL) property. It should contain a file address ending with an image file extension, usually .jpg. (On flickr, I had to select one of the other image sizes to get a link to an actual file.) Select and copy that whole URL to your clipboard (Ctrl-C), then paste it between the img tags in your post.

I'm reporting back with my personal results. Hopefully, this will help somebody else in the future.

I tried using hot water, hot water and soap (Simple Green GP), Mineral Spirits and Acetone. The hot water merely softened and smeared the clay. The mineral spirits was not particularly effective and the Acetone was ineffective. The best results were with the use of hot water, soap and friction from a tooth brush. This now seems like a reasonable solution since the clay is probably a mix of inorganic and organic material therefore needing a soap in the fix.

Again, thank you to all responders!

I'm trying a slower approach to remove the bits of clay from the interior of my intersection fairings. I'm applying light coats of oil, and vibration at about 2400Hz. I haven't looked lately, but after 300+ hours I don't think it has been successful. I'll keep trying though.

That's funny!

When I was ready to glass my right lower interaction fairing, I applied electrical tape to the clay first.



When I separated the two wheel fairing halves from the landing gear after glassing the intersection fairing, the clay also fractured and remained inside the fairing. But the good news is that the tape greatly reduced the amount of clay residue that stuck to the intersection fairing.