Lila's Board - Dropcat 33/12S4P 30Q/2xMaytech6355/Stormcore/Boardnamic bits

Is there any draft on the edges, or are they vertical… :grimacing:

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A small amount just to make release easier.

It’s hard to see from the pic but each layer is the same so when they got bent over the deck shape it created a small angle which I increased a bit with some sanding.

Nice work! Have you done much fibreglass stuff before? Like @rosco said, bit more draft and some heavier rounds on the corners would probably make it easier, but hopefully its not an issue. Keen to see how it turns out!

This is my first shot at fibreglass. Worst case scenario I can add draft and rounding and seal it again. I shot three coats of PVA but I am not totally thrilled with the way it came out.

I am going to lay up the mold soon and see how it comes out.

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PVA sucks. Lots of wax is good enough in my experience

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followed this dudes speel on PVA Spray application, and it turned out pretty well when I gave it a go a while back. Might be worth a try

Dilute, super high airflow, minimal spray mist, thin coat

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Yeah so far I am not a fan and I have 10 coats of wax.

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Nice build, it looked really wide till I realised it’s only a 33" long deck.

images (98)

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Thanks for this! Great thread.

PVA and gelcoat. Not thrilled with the PVA. I’m glad the finished part is getting a coat of truck bed liner.

3 laminates of 1.5 oz chopped strand

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Some lessons learned here.

The mold did not release easily. As @ glyphiks foresaw there was not enough rounding on the corners and probably not enough fairing.

This caused two issues. The Gelcoat didn’t bond very well to the laminate and it stuck in the corners. As you can see the gelcoat is damaged. Some of the plastic wood I used as fairing compound I used stuck as well but it basically wipes off.

I am going to use some proper fairing compound to put a fillet in the bottom edge of the mold to round out the corners and then touch everything up with gelcoat and a light sand.

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Update.

I repaired the mold the way I described above and did a test today.

Enclosure released easily with no issues.

However, it’s way too thin. I used 3 layers of 4 oz cloth and it’s very insubstantial. I trimmed it with kitchen scissors.

But. It’s a perfect fit. I am going to lay in a layer or two of the 1.5 oz chopped strand mat I used for the mold and see if that stiffens things up.

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Reinforced it with two layers of 1.5 oz chopped strand mat. Solid now. If I was gonna do it again I’d do 6oz cloth backed by two layers of 1.5 oz chopped.

Paints still wet and it has some rough spots where I repaired the mold but I learned a ton and it will be very functional.

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Test fit of motors and mounts. Everything lines up :slight_smile:

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Yikes, that’s not a lot of ground clearance. Maybe you can buy some hex standoffs and do what i did:

Do you mean deck/motor clearance? If so they don’t touch even at full lean. I think the pic makes it look worse than it is.

If you mean motor/ground it’s definitely a smooth pavement board. I am considering 105 Cloudwheels or TB 110’s.

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I was thinking ground clearance, but wow, that does look better than I thought :smiley:

Just needs belts, battery and ESC :slight_smile:

Mounted the enclosure with ez loks which may have been counterfeit. As soon as they met any resistance the tops basically exploded. I was using the ez lok tool that came with the kit. Looking at the ruined ez loks revealed a brass plating over some kind of white metal. They are impossible to remove so I just filed them off and used them anyway. Lesson learned about trusting stuff from the Zon.

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I might be able to help :yum: