K9 Diaries - Sticky Situation

With high hopes, I started gently inserting wedges and tapping them in. The mould should have just popped off.

After carefully working my way round tapping in wedges, it became apparent that it wasn't going to be that easy.

Unfortunately the release agent hasn't done its job. Rather than separating easily, I had to apply excessive force, which ripped the recess out of the pattern.

Wailey, Wailey!

I now had a big hole in the pattern and was quite anxious about the rest of the mould.

This is strange because the top half has released reasonably well, but in the worst possible places, the recesses, the mould has stuck to the pattern.

I messaged easy composites to get their take one the situation and was told that on new moulds they recommended 6 coats Doh!

So the issue was repeated on all four panels.

Side panel
The same with the other side, as well as front and rear.

In the end, I've had to demolish the entire K9 pattern to get the mould off.

This could slow things down a bit :(

And here's the remains of the K9 pattern, 'tis but a scratch. I'm sure that with a bit of glue and a polish we can get it back together and have another go.

The plan moving forward is to remove the MDF from the mould. Then it's the primer coat that'll need scraping off. Then clean up the surfaces.

No doubt a little filling and sanding here and there, but don't get too hung up about scratches in the surface just light sanding and smoothing.





After a day of soaking and scraping, the majority of the MDF is removed, but the primer is still attached. 

I've had some success scraping the primer off with a chisel, as long as I don't scratch  the mould surface too much it could be the way forward. Either way it's a lot more work, and time.