West System Epoxy for infusion?

Hello,

I have done some mold & plug making as well as some wet lay up work.I am now looking to begin my venture into resin infusion for carbon fiber. I have been having quite the time finding sources for infusion epoxy resin in small amounts (one gallon). I have some extra west systems epoxy laying around and I got to wondering if it would be possible to heat the epoxy and use it to infuse? I am looking to infuse small slightly curved parts about 7 inches wide by 36 inches long. The parts I am looking to make are going to be cosmetic as well as structural. I am planning to use 3 layers of 2x2 and a show layer of 5hs carbon, totaling 4 layers in one infusion. Do you think this is possible or have sources for me to buy quality infusion epoxy resin? If you know of supplier of VE or PE that is as tough as epoxy and easier to source I am all ears. Now from what I have read, people say that VE and PE start to boil around 23 inches of hg. With the loss of extra pressure due to the lower vacuum and the “weaker” resin, would this yield a considerable weaker part? Or is this a case of numbers where people say it is weaker but is relative to scale that makes the “weakness” infinitesimal?

Thank you for reading,
Rob

Never had the VE or PE boil at 23 Hg, or even 29 Hg.

West system is a relatively thick resin, aimed for wood and a bit of hand laminating. Not infusion.

ProSet has infusion epoxy in 1 gallon packages and up. www.prosetepoxy.com

And it’s made by the same company, so it’s similar to use.

YUP! go with the proset i called west and they almost laughed at me when i told them we were infusing with it. The ProSet infusion stuff has a nice low viscosity, is much stronger, and has a way higher Tg.

I can’t believe how hard our website is to find. With apologies, try http://www.avtcomposites.com/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=PT2712

PTM & W is some good stuff especially the PT2712 a lot of big aero companies use it; their are plenty of parts in space and about to go to space that are made with this and other PTM&W resins. I’ve had good luck with it and PT5714 tooling resin.