Wood core for Infusion

General Composites Discussions Composites Talk
#1

Guys,
Thanks for your help and advice on some of my other projects. Sometimes we can use Aerospace technique for every little piece we make.

So, what I am trying to do now is make a floor for a boat. We want to use the Carbon Fiber to laminate the surface to the wood. He is what I was thinking:

Take the wood board and sand both sides with 80 grit sandpaper.

Spray tac two pieces of cabron fiber to the wood. One on each side wrapping the Carbon Fiber around the thickness of the wood and have some partial overlap to the opposite side.

Lay my peel ply on both sides
Lay my flow media on both sides

Route my sprial wrap along both long edges, one for resin one for vacuum.

And infuse both sides of the part at one shot. Do you think this will work?

This would completely seal the wood piece and protect it from any water damage.

#2

I’m not very experienced with large infusions but here are my 2 cents Is your wood curved or flat. If it’s got a curve to it I would imagine that the lowest side would infuse better than the higher side.
However if not I don’t see why it wouldn’t work unless your parts are very large.

#3

I’m wondering how far will the resin penetrate into the wood? It would depend on the type of wood, the way it’s sawn, etc. but this might be a source of inconsistency.

I wonder if a really low density, porous wood could infuse right to the core? Would that defeat the purpose due to the weight it would gain?

Perhaps the wood will need to be sealed prior to infusion…

I also wonder if you’ll want to have resin feed lines in a few places along the length of the board. Ideally, the resin should travel through the spiral tubing, but if the wood is long enough, I could see this being a problem.

Sorry, I’m sure you’re looking for answers, not questions…

#4

The only time I’ve seen balsa cores being used here, they were coated with resin before hand to seal. Because no matter how you do it, you can easily get porosity in your layup, and the wood would get wet sooner or later!
Might also look for a boat building forum.

#5

Your post made me curious so I decided to attempt something similar. I tried infusing 4 layers of fiberglass with a cardboard core ( 2 layers on each side) and it didn’t turn out so great. The bottom layers of fiberglass aren’t wet out in the center, only the edges are. The top layer infused correctly though. I’m wondering how people infuse with cores now. It seems as though only the side next to the vacuum mesh will infuse. Does core specially designed for vacuum infusion solve this problem?

#6

@canyon:

You just answered your question. A core “specially designed for infusion” will provide a thorough infusion because that’s what it was designed to do :slight_smile:

When I’ve bagged parts with wood skins/cores I’ve always sealed the wood with epoxy or with a “sanding sealer” to avoid the wood sucking resin out of the laminate.

I’ve seen small parts where the wood absorbed more resin in some areas and thus left dry patches and wet patches that could be appreciated even after removing the peel ply.

#7

cardboard core???
Either way, it depends on lay up. If you have flow media on top, but nothing on the bottom of the core, then the flow will be fast on top, and slow underneath. SO when the flow on top hits the bottom layers, it will race track, and trap in air pockets. Every time I have used a core and flat panel, I make sure that I make the flow media short enough, that the resin flow on the bottom will catch up to the top by the end of the part.

That or use core with resin channels/holes for infusion :slight_smile:

#8

Haha yea, It’s the only thing decent material I could think of on the fly. I’m working out of my garage on a student budget so I don’t have the cool stuff to work with.
While we are talking about infusions I have a questions on the mesh.
JM of Werksberg products was really kind and gave me some red infusion mesh but I was wondering what others were like. Is green any better/What else do people use?

#9

Maybe people aren’t looking into the “for sale” section here? :slight_smile: I had great core material on there recently.

#10

45 dollars a sheet?! :frowning:
Professional materials require a professional budget!
Hopefully some day when I can work in a real shop I’ll have the chance to work with real materials
For now my garage sized budget means experimenting with garage items!
Thanks for the heads up though TET!

#11

That’s half price! A lot cheaper than making a solid composite panel, and much lighter too.

#12

Even if a BMW was half off I still couldn’t afford it so don’t take it personally! I’m just that poor at the time being.
Someday I’m gonna reach pro status though and then I can mess around with the real stuff.

#13

You can always turn wood or foam into ‘infusion’ foam by drilling holes in it. I’ve done this before, I marked out a inch grid and drilled away for an hour, but the infusion worked perfectly.