Well, we got a 5gal bucket of Aquacore before I left ARA, so I got to play with it a bit.
1: It’s wet sand. needless to say, it isn’t easy to work with wet sand. You basiclly scoop it out into a mastermold, and compact it.
Which, isn’t that easy.
2: I did a simple dome part from a coffee mug I had laying around. When you push it down, the sides squirt up. Fun.
I applied a full 29" vacuum to the top part of the aquacore, and when I tried to take it out, it STILL almost crumbled.
3: You have to dry it in an oven, open. Else if I left it in the mug to dry, ONLY the top would have dried!!! I tried a more complex shape as well (vacuum cleaner attachment), and the middle was still wet after 3 hours at 250f. I ended up making a 2 piece mold out of the attachment (much to my boss’s displeasure)
4: the stuff gets EVERYWHERE. like I said…wet sand.
5: made some solid molds out of the core, and it’s very very granular, so don’t expect a perfect surface…I believe they make another product for that, along with a sealer. See below!!
6: First layer is always a pain, since the prepreg doesn’t stick well to a dry sandy surface…like mold foam. Oi.
7: it is VERY fragile when dry!!! You rub it with your finger, and it will abrade down. Which means, it is EASY to machine with anything. Finger, sandpaper, pen, etc.
8: If you don’t use a surface coat and sealer, resin will obviously creep into the aquacore…it is VERY VERY porous.
9: it washes out easily as they say. Put it in some water, and it just disolves out, like wet sand.
10: closed molds, like a pressure vessel, ain’t easy to wash out through a 1/4" NPT nipple…that took about 3 hours to wash out.
11: as in #8, it means that when doing a 3 layer pressure vessle, the CF part will be porous, I now have a carbon fiber plant waterer…or a leaky pressure canister. yeah.
12: Aquacore is porous, the resin will seep into the core when curing, whiiiiich means, the inside will be a layer of aquacore and resin!!! Which means more weight, and a rough surface inside.
can’t think of anything else right now.
Yeah, the stuff is great for complex parts if you can machine and seal it! The things I experimented on (dome shape, vacuum attachment, and pressure canister shape) didn’t go as well as expected. I had to deal with drying issues, leaving a layer of sandy aquacore on the inside of the part, and fragile aquacore parts.
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