Using oxygen tubes for resin infusion

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#1

Hi everyone,

So I have been getting into more complex shapes and such, I have a mold for some CF mirrors and winglets that I am trying to prototype, this will be my first resin infusion, so I am wondering if I could use oxygen tubes to substitute from the spiral infusion tubes that they sell? I ask only because I have tons of it because I have a family member that works at medical manufacturing company. Has any one tried this?

What I mean is the oxygen tubes that you use for Canulas that they use for breathing tubes that they hook to your nose when you are at the doctor.

Thank you in advance?

#2

Do you mean using oxygen tubes to bring resin in to the bag from the resin cup? Or do you mean actually replacing the spiral wrap inside the bag? The spiral wrap is coiled, so resin is distributed evenly along the length of the spiral wrap. If I am not mistaken, the oxygen tube you are talking about has no perforations, and resin can only exit from the open end. So it would not work without modification. If you are talking about from resin to bag, then yes you can, however it cannot be too soft or it will collapse under vacuum. You should test under full vacuum first.

#3

It might be a little small for a decent flow. It might work for the vac tube but could take a while to suck down.

#4

I think you are confusing the spiral with the the poly tube. It sounds like you should review the infusion process as I don’t think you understand what the spiral wrap is actually doing.

#5

Thanks you guys for replying, I am talking about both actually. First one bringing resin into the bag and after the wet-out process drawing the resin into a catch pot. I understand I would need to shave off a few holes (perforations) so that it can draw in the resin equally. But it was just a idea that I thought of to save a few bucks by not buying the spiral wrap tube? I can get the oxygen tubes in various inter diameters so that souldnt be a issue.

Thank you!

#6

You can also use hollow braid polypropylene rope instead of the spiral wrap. I’ve used it on the vacuum side and it works quite well. It provides a path for vacuum but slows down race tracking when the resin gets in it as opposed to spiral wrap which allows the resin to flow through unimpeded. I don’t know about using it for resin distribution but I think it would probably slow the flow into the part to much to be of any value.

#7

spiral wrap is really cheap. I would just buy a roll as its cheaper than ruining an infusion to save a couple bucks.