My first attempt turned out to be a good learning experience. I couldn’t believe how thin the part came out after. The vacuum really sucks the glass down. Anyway I’ve got a couple questions I hope I can get answered.
When I first cracked the resin line the vinyl ester resin I was using shot up and seemed to flow out reall good for the first 60 seconds then progress slowed almost to a stop. I actually had to open the bag and slip in some spiral wrap to get the resin to flow out. I used one layer of the white cotton like flow media with the resin tubes between the peel ply and the flow media. What can I do to get it to flow better next time. Should I use a couple layers of flow media?
The other thing is that I had some funny things happen with the gelcoat which I think was due to only letting the gelcoat set up for about 3 hours before. How long should the gelcoat be left to set up. I’ve read about people leaving it for a very long time. Is this alright to do even when using a waxed gelcoat?
Thanks guys.
as for the speed of the resin, it will always shoot up until it hits the fabric. So you have the resin tube covered with distro media? otherwise, it has to permeate through the fibers before it hits the flow media, which is not the point. Make sure you have it covering all of the resin tube. Practice will tell you how long any part will take to infuse. Unless you have all the data plugged into LIMS, you don’t know how long it will take.
You do not need breather cloth at all. Just lay up the part, peel ply, and then flow medium. The breather will just suck up resin when it’s flowing into the part…no point. if you WANT you can add some JUST around the inlet and vent spiral tubes to prevent the bag from getting cut on the spiral edges (yes, will happen. We wrap ours in peelply).
Did you use any mesh flow medium, or JUST the breather cloth(airweave, cottony stuff, etc)?
Just the breather cloth. Maybe I’ll try some of that mesh.
there are many different special fiberglass that is woveen for use in infusion, they are designed to flow better and infuse faster than using a infusion mesh. Are you using chopped mat? If so chopped mat flows the worse because of its random chopped fibers orientation and the binder thats in the fiberglass
Yes…I was using chopped mat. I’m going to try 8.9 oz. S glass next time.
Breather nor Chopped mat should be used for infusion!
Use a loose weave or NCF, and a good flow media.
What’s a good flow media?
You can be pretty creative, or buy it, Airtech/Enka makes it.