I have tried something similar using plaster of paris and found that the
plaster soaked up the epoxy when I tried to lay up carbon fiber inside the
mold. Does Ultracal have better properties that solve that problem, or
do you have to treat the mold with something to seal it?

: Good questions Mick,
: Fist I should have said Ultracal in stead of Hydarcal. Both are very good.

: This is how it works. A wood model is set up in an upright position that you
: want to make metal die from for stamping fenders etc., on a very large and
: extreamly accract granite plate. The model is prepaired as I describe for
: taking an Ultracal/Hemp cast from, and a set of wood parallel rails are
: fastened to the cast and paralleled with the granate plate. This was then
: bolted to a keller machine, I think it was called that was about 20 ft
: high that run a light touch tracer over the plaster surface and machined
: the die shape into the die metal. A man set in a chair and rode this
: machine high up in the air.

: Then using the same location setup of the wood model that we took the plaster
: cast off of, we prepaired the model this time to take a fiberglass cast
: off of the same area and shape. This was used by die grinders that put
: blue chalk on the fiber glass mold we made and toched it to the machined
: die and slowly ground the die to get it exacly right.

: John