I’m having trouble getting the thickness I need for a jetski hood I am making. I was limited to using 6oz plain weave glass. I’ve run some test patches and even with 8 layers I’m barely over 1mm thick. I’m looking to get about 3mm. Could I try using a layer of 2mm coremat to get the thickness I need? Anyone have experience with coremat? Thanks.
Coremat works OK for wet layups that won’t be bagged. Provides good increase in stiffness, although with a fair amount of resin consumption.
Why are you only using 6oz glass? That would be ok for a couple of layers, but would take a long time to layup a part of decent thickness. Get some 7.5 or 10oz fabric.
Lay down 2 6oz plies and 2 10oz plies and let cure. Lay core mat then 2 10oz and 2 6oz. Alternate plies from 0/90* and ±45*, mirroring the layup each side of the core obviously.
I use the Lantor Xi, it’s good stuff, I can’t really say much more than has already been said or is on their site:
http://www.lantor.nl/index.php/id_structuur/10598/coremat.html
Just slap it on and away you go. The main problem you have is getting a finish on the reverse side.
Thanks guys.
TET…I am bagging this so I guess coremat will not work. The reason I’m using 6oz is my supplier only had an 18oz twill which I thought might be difficult to conform to my mold. Maybe I should try it??? What elso can be used to build up thickness quickly when bagging?
Here’s my mold again for reference. I think you’ve seen it before TET.
I think I found what I’m looking for…Divinymat.
http://www.fibreglast.com/showproducts-category-Sandwich%20Core-157.html
Divinycell is good stuff.
If you have success infusing with it, please post your results here.
I’ve had no problem using it in my infusions, but I always do them in two steps. The shell first. Then the core and second layup on top of the shell. Works well, but time consuming.
Do you enjoy spending twice as long to make something? 
Ha ha! Definitely not, but it works. Havent tried the infusable version of divinycell yet.
Why coremat isn’t good for bagging? I mean I tried it and it worked great, the part came out nice, thick and rigid. On the other hand when I tried wet lay up due to the height difference between coremat(2mm) and the rest of the laminate many bubbles appeared and it endeed lifting the lamination from the surface.
Coremat works just fine, Especially when bagged. The vacuum helps “ring out” excess resin.
It compresses the coremat, soaks it with resin, and defeats the purpose!
What would you suggest to be a better substitute for coremat then?
A honeycomb or thin foam core would be ideal.
Is it ok practice to use foam-core for mold building? Would it stiffen the mold and add ridgidity to it?