Its a pain in the ass shape is what it is. I have used rolled up pennies in the slots in the sides to keep it from bridging, silicone insert, the whole 9 yards. funny thing is i have less bridging with PE then i do with Epoxy
A suggestion to try if the mold cannot be reduced of sharp 90’s.
Pre-cut some carbon circles or squares to fit the round bolt hole ares of the coil cover. Lay them in AFTER you lay in the main larger piece of cloth.
They will blend in nicely if your careful to align the weave as to how the larger piece will orientate.
Do all of this AFTER you spray in a clear gel coat. You should assist the deepest corners with tack spray.
Infuse slowly by reducing the flow line.
This will also fail if your still leaking at all. Test your bag properly before infusing always. If it losing vacuum…it will be ruined.
It would also help if you placed your 1st layer of material so that it was at 45dg to the 90 deg sharp corners, as the dry material will sit better without trying to flatten itself out and lift away from the inner part of the corner.
Also…are you curing at room temperature?
Yeah its curing under vacuum at room temps. well around 85 degrees. now this is the lay up.
tooling gel mold
releasing wax
PVA
3 layer of 2x2 5.7 carbon
epoxy resin
I have experamented with the silicon incert and with out and still get bridging
peel ply
breather
and vac bag @ 25-26 inches of merc
I am not using perf bleeder could that be one of my causes? I have made about 15 parts and cant get a single one right.
Any one got any suggestions??? Im thinking that Gel coating the face of the mold might help, really where it counts in those 90 degree corners. Im out of Ideas ha ha ha
how many corners do you go trough with the same piece of cloth?
I do have similar problems at times… it is lack of technique I guess… I use polyester for much of my work. These small parts have steep sides and are stepped too. The radii can trap air or I can get bridging on the sharp corners and it is just practice that has helped me… I do gel coat the moulds too but that is for cosmetic purposes although I do find with some moulds having a slight tack to the gel coat helps when I put the surface layer down dry and carefully work it into the mould as it will hold it down avoiding bridging. I also bag the parts and spend almost as much time working the bag as I do laying up the part…
Got a question. Did you use a peel ply? If so, how did you lay the peel ply down? One piece? Or as several peices?? I had found one piece peel ply increases the risk of bridging as it sticks to the side of the mould. It bridges and the carbon does not get pushed down so easily or at all. but using several pieces lets the overlaped areas slide over each other and you get less bridging.