Team Seacats

…check this website. After three attempts I finally got a good coat of PVA down on the mold. I’ve been trying all morning! After wet sanding the plug a couple of nights ago and finishing with 600 grit, I applied three coats of mold release wax – sounded like a good idea since the PVA is supposed to work with wax. I also made an assumption that the PVA would skim coat the 600 grit finish leaving it shiny. None of that worked at all. The PVA beaded up like water on oil. I took the plug outside and washed off the PVA and then back into the shop. I first took acetone and cleaned off the wax on a spot and brushed on some PVA. It looked like it took pretty well and laid down smoothly. I then rubbed down the entire plug twice with acetone cleaning off the wax. I hung the plug up and shot PVA again. This time it was definitely better – but there were still spots that beaded up. After washing off the plug again, I tried rubbing it down three times with MEK this time. PVA on again and it was still beading up in places and I had drips everywhere. I left it for a little while to vent my frustration and when I came back, the areas that did lay down well were really showing the sanding scratches – that wouldn’t do either.

Clearly the plug must be buffed and polished so I figured I would do that and then figure out what to do about the wax…just MAYBE the buffing would clean the plug up the rest of the way (the buffing compound is a 3M product that specifically does NOT have wax in it – but it does use vegetable oil). After spending 30 minutes buffing, I could have quit because the thing looked so good. I tested several spots with the PVA and it laid down perfectly! I washed the plug with soap and water and went back into the shop. I laid down several coats of PVA and it looks like it’s going to be good to go. I’m going to give it an hour to setup and start preparing to lay up the mold.