Fiberglass supply has everything youll need. And for a competitive price I might add.
Splitting nickels is redundant at your point in this venture. You WILL ruin and waste enough stuff to really piss you off. Just get what you can afford and start learning.
If you want small amounts of stuff, I have everything you could need in bulk in my shop. Id be willing to sell you small amount of it.
Infusion resin
Peel ply
Bagging film
flow media
spiral wrap
blah blah blah
Peel ply generally produces a lighter part, and will give you a textured finish depending on whether you use a male or female mold.
Release film lets less resin escape from the vacuumed lay up. It gives you a higher gloss finish. And it allows for more uniform vacuum (because the breather will not become as saturated with resin as quick as if you use peel ply). Using peel ply alone will sometimes block off vacuum to the rest of the lay up if the breather becomes too saturated. You can verify this by placing a vacuum guage on your mold while under vacuum.
If you use peel ply alone…it really depends on the number of layers (because more layers = more excess resin), how much breather you use (because it can only absorb so much excess resin), and the gel time of the resin.
There are ways to prevent this. Bleeder/breather layers, non-porous seperater layers, and resin drawing layers under vacuum, but, not on the mold or lay up itself. All that is several pages worth of writing.
Thomas’ rebuilt pumps form joewoodworker.com are pretty stout. I have one, it works great.
I can say avoid fiberglast.com on certain products …not that they sell cheap, or, poor quality stuff. But Im not sure they are aware of the competition out there, or, their prices.
An example would be Airtechs through bag connectors. They charge TWICE the amount that Airtech itself sells them for on its website!?! UScomposites also sells a very nice copy for the same price (as airtech). Thats one example. There are several others just like it.
Release film lets less resin escape from the vacuumed lay up. It gives you a higher gloss finish. And it allows for more uniform vacuum (because the breather will not become as saturated with resin as quick as if you use peel ply). Using peel ply alone will sometimes block off vacuum to the rest of the lay up if the breather becomes too saturated. You can verify this by placing a vacuum guage on your mold while under vacuum.
so instead of peel-ply (unless i want a light weight piece)
i should use release film with some breather behind it
how long do i leave the piece in the vacuum bag under suction?
till the resin is hard?
