SPACELINER CONVERTIBLE (A Non-Invasive Sex Reassignment)

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Things are progressing nicely!
The first halves are finished and the temporary dams are removed. There is definitely no need to worry about extra bracing, you can see how thick the glass is.

After a few fresh coats of wax the gel coat is on the second half of both molds.:happy:
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All of the glass is laid for the molds!:rockout:

On Monday there will be holes drilled through the 'divider' and bolts added to hold the front and rear parts together. Then after some final trimming, it will be the moment of truth to see if it all comes apart without any problems.:eek:

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Fiberglass
 
It's a little hard to describe in words how this will work, but I cut an aluminum plate to bolt to each mold that will give me a finished edge and a trim guide when the tanks are being made. The cut-out shape is 1/4" smaller (all of the way around) than the actual tank profile.

This will make more sense later when I get to that point.:39:
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We have separation!!!

Everything came apart without any problems! The plug did however suffer some damage, but that's to be expected.

Here's a picture before any clean-up. The tan looking spots are where the primer stuck and was pulled off of the plug. It's not a problem and will get cleaned up and polished by tomorrow.

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Here are the two halves. You can see how the Easter eggs fit together for perfect alignment when joined together.
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Almost there!
 
Every day I amazed of the skills other RRBers show here. That is so cool!
 
I'll try anything that's available to me!

So far I haven't spent any 'out of pocket' money on tooling this mold. Any of the work that I've farmed out has been from bartering my work. Of course that is work that could have been billed, but it doesn't feel like spending money.;)

So, unless I can sell some of these and generate some money to put back into it, this is it. (At least for now).:D
 
Nice work! I do have some questions but I think I will wait till you get further along. Your future progress will probably answer all my questions.
 
Well, I got behind again this past week, but made some progress this weekend.

The last part of the mold is the aluminum plates for the inside edge. I added 1/2" plywood on top for strength. The opening is between 1/8" and 1/4" smaller than the tank profile so that the glass will stay inside the mold. After the parts are made, the plate will unbolt and be removed. The idea is to have a finished edge where the parts come together. This is going to make laying up the glass more difficult, but if it works, it will save a lot of work later on fitting the tank halves together.

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