I wasn’t too sure were to post this thread? So I put it in here.
For quite sometime I have wanted to learn how to make composite parts but wasn’t too sure where to start? You read so many different theories’, techniques, peoples points of views etc that it can be quite confusing.
Through a UK website I found a composite college course in Oxford that fitted my needs but it never run due to lack of numbers:mad: Last month I found out that the teacher who ran the course has decided to set-up his own consultancy company and runs composite courses at the weekends.
So I enrolled on his 2 day wet lay up course and these are my views.
Day 1 consisted off learning about composites, resins, fabric, molds, release agents, what happens if things go wrong and what to do in these situations etc. The second part of day 1 was a practical were we made a fibreglass mold from pattern, which looked like a radio controlled car body shell.
He showed us how to apply a release agent (wax), how to mix & apply gel coat, mix the resin, various techniques techniques on applying the cloth and how to use all the various tools etc.
Day 2 consisted off releasing the mold from the pattern and preparing the mold so that we can make a fibreglass part. We learnt how to clean the mold, apply a release agent (pva semi permanent), how to mix & apply gel coat, mix the resin, different techniques on laying the cloth in the mold and how to use all the various tools etc. While this part was curing we made a carbon fibre part from a different pattern, this was very interesting! We used a 3rd type of release agent, learnt about cutting carbon, how to lay it up and how to apply the resin While the carbon fibre part was drying we released & trimmed the glass fibre part from the mold that we made and by the time this was completed it was time to release and trim the carbon part.
It was a very intense 2 days but I did learn a lot! I can now make mold, a glass fibre part, a carbon fibre part and I know what tools, release agents, resins & materials to buy.
If you live in the UK and you would like to do a short course on composite materials I would check out Dark Matter Composites!
http://www.darkmattercomposites.co.uk/
Cheers
JMC
P.S. Is there a section for posting peoples reviews of composite courses?
