"Terry K" <tspragg567@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:50b5b93d-d79b-407a-b605-11384b1da524@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> On Jan 9, 9:32 pm, "Garland Gray II" <gg...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>> If I were to wax the outside of a piece of 2 1/2 inch pvc pipe about 6
>> feet
>> long, and then lay up several layers of fiberglass and epoxy, would the
>> resulting tube slide off the pvc easily enough after curing ? Or would
I
>> need to first wrap the pipe with sheet plastic or similar ?
>> Thanks !
>
> After the goo sets up, running a source of heat inside the pvc could
> soften it enough to pull out, or even to melt it out. Epoxy wouldn't
> be bothered by the heat required, I suspect.
>
> Alternatively, perhaps a plug of wax wrapped in a seperator would more
> easily be melted out. It's called the "lost wax" process.
>
What about making the core out of Styrofoam plastic, wrapped in release or
heavily waxed, and after the expoxy sets up dissolving the Styrofoam with
gasoline, acetone, MEK or some other solvent that attacks the foam but
won't
hurt the epoxy?
A possible advantage of this approach is that it allows the production of
shaped epoxy parts that are more complex than a simple tube, should that
be
needed.
Epoxy is fairly resistant to gasoline and many other common solvents, but
it
certainly would make sense to "insulate" it from the solvent with the
release sheeting, heavy wax, etc., and then to thoroughly clean it after
the
core is removed.
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