Hey guys
I did my first clear carbon layup the other day and it came out ok. I had alot of very small bubbles mainly at the intersections(warp/warth?)or crossover points of the twill?
Im vacume bagging the part
I think i needed to spend more time rolling out my first twill?
Maby ues a bristle roller ive been using a metal roller?
-Im using Duratec clear letting it go tacky enough so that it dosnt come off on my finger should i be wating longer for it to completly dry?
This may be a good place to ask if you are using the warp face or the fill face(weft face) against the tool?
I have found that the surface quality is better with the warp face against the tool and you dont get the weave pitting.
The warp face is the side of the fabric that has the majority of the fibers running in the warp direction. On plain weave 2x2 fabric it is hard to tell, but it is usually the side of the fabric that is toward the core of the roll.
I didn’t think there was a difference on twill and plain weaves, since the fibers are evenly split. Not saying you’re wrong; I’m just a little confused.
I think we’ve all had this problem at some point. What resin are you using?
If you brush a layer of resin on the Duratec (no bubbles) and then lay the first ply down, that should reduce the voids that occur there. It makes it less likely for air to get trapped since the ply is wetting out from the bottom.
I’m not sure if letting the Duratec cure first would help or not.
its difficult to get a nice finish out of mold when vacuum bagging a part. Generally that is the reason people do infusion or prepreg for a better surface pit free finish. If you do not want to do infusion or prepreg then you can try clear gelcoating the surface however the finish is not as good as infusion or prepreg in my opinion
Actually, the finish can be just as good or better with open layup because the fabric is not being pressed hard into the surface coat. This is why surface quality can be a such a problem with infusion.
I agree, best surface is one that has no vacuum pressure distorting it. some parts it can very difficult because of its geometry to open layup without getting voids that would later have to be fixed. every method has its up side and down side.