hi m8,just wondered if you have had chance to sit down over the past few months and think about how you worked around all your problems starting from the wierd bubbles post.
you seem so energetic with your work,whenever someone suggests a fix 10 minutes later you have ordered the kit 
basically you went from problems with vac bagging,changing to infusion and finally getting the results with infusion.
what were the main learning points you have picked up from all this? thinking back now,if you applied all you have learned back to that origanol vac bagging do you think you could now make the bagging work?
cheers
why thank you. well to be honest if I had the chance to bag versus infuse I would still infuse. I have gotten around getting a certain licensee now that I am closed molding and love the unlimited setup time. I have found places that I can order my infusion supplies for rather cheap and it only cost me about $400 to buy everything in bulk I needed for infusion.
I have really learned that if you have a problem don’t keep tring the same thing hoping it works. I used over 20 yards of carbon tring figure my problems plus probally 5 gallons of resin and a gallon of gelcoat. Plus not to mention all the bagging supplies and everything. I am very lucky that my father supports me in my business venture and funds anything I need knowing I already have sales waiting and can be paid back. I really don’t know if I can make the bagging work because I quit experimenting with it. I think infusing is easier then bagging. My main problem was the super 77 and that was causing 95% of all my infusion problems. My problem was time. I was so hurried in the bagging I would not seal it right or I did not have time to get all the bridges out. Since I have been using the tackyness of the gel coat to hold that carbon down I can get leaks in my bag knowing that they will never hit the carbon surface. I still try and control all the leaks but they still happen sometimes and I just fix it and not worry. If i was doing and all carbon laminate then I would have to be more precise. I have learned to spray the gel coat thicker too because of the pressure you will easily get print through. I have also learned to slow down, most of my main mistakes were because I was in too much of a hurry.
pretty much sounds like where im at now then,i really cant give up as im so close and i people crying out for the things ive said i will make,i can make £2000 in my first month if i can get these parts 100% first time and then the world is my oyster so to speak…
im begining to think my vac bagging film may not be 100% air tight,i get it from a factory i am working at where we shrink wrap canned food,it looks identicle to me to vac bag film,it costs me nothing and i can get like 100 miles of it if i need lol but i cant keep my bags vac tight,i read last week i need to get it so it will loose only 1" of vac over 5 mins with no vaccum,im not even going to try and make anything else until i can do that with a sponge in a mold.
i will try some pucka vac film from a suplier now i have the proper bag tape and fittings.
i also have some very easy totally flat plates people want me to do,i have made a mold for it basically to give me a cut line,i bagged 2 of them and they were the worst parts ive done yet! this was with west eopxy instead of the poly i had been using,im now goona try a hand lay up with poly and no vacuum,if i can get these to work at least then i can sell em for ÂŁ40,a few of them and i can get all the infusion supplies i will ever need lol.
i keep looking at some old test pieces i did maybe 8 months ago and my parts have got nothing but worse lol 
I was in the same boat, I have not infused with epoxy yet. I did the dumbest thing of all. I pre-sold like 10 parts thinking I could make them because I can make anything out of fiberglass. 2 months later and 10 pissed off customers I finally got it right and luckly I stayed in contact with them all and sent them their stuff but that was a bad experience. Are you just geting air in your bag? take pictures of your bagging process and we can critique it and hopelly find the problem, what sealant tape are you using? I was using some thin black tape at first now I am using airtechs thick yellow tape and have a lot better leak protection.
im using the black stuff from airtech,i just bought 10 rolls lol
https://www.airtechonline.com/Airtechstore/datasheets/data004.htm
i will take some pics for sure and post them,ive got 5 days off after 2morow so will try and sort something
i dont think im getting air in the bag,but it doesnt hold vacuum when i disconect the hose,im using the proper airtech connectors.the main problem im having now seems to be that the laminate is lifting away from the gelcoat after i switch the vacuum off leaving a tiny bubble on every single corner of every filament,seen on the last page of this thread- http://www.icancomposites.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=442&start=75 ,i think i am now getting this different problem since switching to epoxy as it takes so long to cure,it would need the pump running for hours where as with poly it cures so much quicker.i really need to switch to infusion though so i have the time to lay it all up perfectly and get perfect results every time,i cant be doing with having a 99% perfect part with a 1 annoying bubble ruining the whole thing.
if i was doing this full time as a job with my own premises then im sure i would have got it cracked by now but im trying to get it going whilst doing a demanding ful time job with shifts
what kinda connectors are you using??? I used the airtech connectors in bagging and those things leaked like hell!! I am just using the tees now and no connectors with no leaks now. oh now I read it, yeah that was a big problem in my laminate was the airtech connectors
:shock: you are saying these are no good?? they seem pretty good to me,i tested em with my stethascope lol and couldnt hear any leaks?
The bottom one is from Bondline…or a copy of theirs…
bondline and airtech have identical connectors and that is what I was using, maybe I don’t know how to use them right but they all leaked and I would put sealant tape around seam by the rubber gromit and the sealent tape would suck into to seal it so that proved to me they were leaking. I order 12 sets of them and the adapters and now they are just collecting dust, well fiberglass dust :). I just branch off the tee to my rein trap. So if you know anyone that wants adapters I will sell them
How much?
I amglad that you were able to learn from so many of our posts. I wasn’t as fortunate as you. I scrapped much more than that in resin and cloth before we got success. I was in a different position than you however. I had y distributor and airtech out to help me out. (I think they learned more from me than me from them). This was about 2 years ago before any successful attempts.
but the big question is,is it worth all the effort?!?!?!!? ie do you guys make a decent living from making parts??
all you need is one good account and then they all seem to fallow, I talked with EMI about it and he said it took him 4 months to land his first account but with that as experience and a happy client that he could use as a reference he said he had to fight them off with a stick after that. He says there is a database somewhere that has people sourcing out parts for companies to make that he uses when landing new accounts but he wont tell how to get it.
He may have been lucky or it could have been his father’s influence and customer base.
It took me much longer to get established, and I was already in this line of work for 35 years.
I suggest you start off in your garage and be damned certain that you are ready to take that leap out into mortgage or leasing costs as well as increased insurances and employees and taxes…etc etc etc.
I currently have 6 employees and have been in business 3 years for myself.
I had 2 contracts ready when I moved into a bldg. It is not easy, and in our current economy, it is even more difficult.
Good luck to anyone that wants to do it.