Ok, Garland,

BTDT.....

If you are going to do this, do not wrap anything around the pipe,
without some other plan. The wrapping will ball up when you try to pull
the two apart. I have not tried the PeterHK plan, but I'm not sure how
well the 6' strips will pull out. I even tried a teflon family sheeting
in one try and it was still tough. That one had a stainless mandrel
because the mandrel would later be the rudder shank.

Cut the mandrel pipe too long so you can hold it. Make the layup too
long and fabricate some feature at the end to allow good purchase.

Shrinkage is epoxy specific, talk you the manufacturer about both that
and the best mold release.

This is not going to be easy. If you can create a mandrel that can be
unloaded, that will be a great advantage. I have never figured out how
to do this without a surface artifact that leaves an internal
longitudinal ridge in the layup.

Good Luck Guy

Matt Colie


Garland Gray II 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 !