Having just blown up/melted another hair drier today, I was wondering what people are using to provide a bit of heat when working with pre pregs?
We tend to short out the hair driers as they suck little bits of carbon into them. We have also had a number of irons short out too. I have heard of people using heat guns but I would think they get too hot to use without setting off the resin.
Any help or suggestions would be great.
Never have used heat while working with prepreg. Prob’ should with some of my unidirectional. I have only heard of people using heat guns.
If you have that much carbon dust/fibers in the air, I think you have a MUCH larger problem. Health issues. I would suggest getting some hepa dust filter units, and venting it to another location. I think McMaster has a few different ones. We use them in our testing lab and cutting room.
If you don’t want to that route, maybe some airweave in the air-inlet of the heat gun/hair drier. That might filter out some of the nasties.
Not sure how you short out irons though 
Maybe find irons/hot air units that have a continue duty rating? Maybe they just can’t take the amount of time they are being used?
Why are you using hair dryers? Is this a beauty salon/composite shop?
Use a proper heat gun limited to 150*F. Keep it moving and don’t get too close to the materials.
He’s doing prepreg fingernails 
LMAO… i’m not making fun of him though. Hey everyone has an idea about this and that, that’s good to be thinking of ways to do things. Just some things will work, and others won’t. Some ideas will save you time or money ( heat gun).
I do tend to buy a lot of supplies from the local craft shop, eg pinking shears, acetone proof shears, dressmaker chalk and tapes, so I do wonder about it sometimes.
It might just be a NZ thing as I know the local spar manufacturers and others use hair driers. We are using hair driers as they are a lot cheaper ($20) than heat guns ($80) and heat to about 40deg max as they are designed not to burn peoples heads, thus a muppet can’t over heat the pre preg. We sometimes use out of spec pre preg which needs a little heating to help it stick, as well as getting the first layer to stick to a mould released mould.
We are improving the air filtration on our clean room as air testing has found that there is a lot of VOCs in the air. This should help with some of the fibres in the air. I also agree with the duty rating issue as most are designed to be on for only a hour max not 8. I was wondering what people used and it would appear nothing, so mystery solved.
great website
Hello everyone, I am new here.
If you have that much carbon dust/fibers in the air, I think you have a MUCH larger problem. Health issues.
besides the health issues, how about the bonding? you need a dust free environment when working with prepregs! don’t even touch it with your bare hands, the oils on it could prevent proper bonding.
when you have that sorted out, you van use your hair dryers again. as long as the aren’t getting too hot you should be fine
I’m gonna have to get a couple heat guns and try out some pre-preg!
Can pre-preg be refrigerated at 34-37F degrees and be ok? How long will it be good for stored at that temp range?
They are only using the heat guns/hairdryers to aid in molding and sticking the prepreg, not for curing. You will still need a decent oven for proper curing.
you can make small ovens with heatguns, as long as you can control the teperature. prepregs have a out life. Should be on the datasheet. I worked with SP(gurit) prepregs wich had an outlife of 28 days I believe. Rolls take some time to get on a decent workable temperature, so get them out the evening before you get to work with it(wich thus takes half a day of the out life)
ive always used a hairdryer, and i suppose if the guys at southern spars use them, and the build ac boat masts then its probably good enough for 99% of applications.