first Infusion

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#81

Now its time to bring the resin in. I open the ball valve and the resin starts flowing. Not one air bubble comes through. It reaches the end in about 4 or 5 minutes.
It was perfect !!
Its in the oven and I have this great feeling of accomplishment.
Now I just have to pull it off seven more times.

The people on this forum just spent a week or two and through e mails were able to get this 50 year old fart to get this right. Thats really impressive. My hat goes off to all that helped but especially Riff, Hojo,Herman, and Canyon.
I hope we stayed on point enough that when the next guy comes along you guys can just direct them to this thread.
Thanks again , Terry

#82

Well done. All we need now is for me to make a good part lol :D:D

#83

I have to pull it off 7 more times to get the four parts I need.By then I should have it down. At least on this mold.
I cant imagine doing a boat.
Terry

#84

you did a good job, should come out good aslong as you got your fibers in ther corners. Cheers

#85

About your degassing: It seems that your pump is not up to the job. Degassing should take perhaps 5 minutes or so, and all foam should be gone by then.

I usually do not care about mixing in air when mixing resin. So the resin goes completely hazy at times. (OK, I try to avoid it, but you know…)

When a (deep) vacuum is applied on the resin, it will aggressively generate foam, which will collapse at a certain point. Now let the resin sit for another 2 minutes or so, to get rid of the remainder of air. Then it is finished. Open the valve to get the vacuum pot to athmospheric again (carefully and slowly, to avoid resin being blown out of the bucket) and then you should be good to go.

Anyhow, you have reached succes! Congratulations.

#86

I was wondering about the degassing thing. Also I would think using an epoxy that is 450cps probably doesnt help either.
I just made another part and this time I skipped the degas thing.Instead I just carefully poured down the side of the bucket and stirred carefully. This seemed to work fine.

The end product doesn’t seem quite as strong as I was hoping.I put two layer of 3K twill. 2 layers of 3k plain and 4 layers of like a 1k uni in each layup. I don’t think there was much benefit to the thin uni I used. But once the two halves are glued together and foamed , I guess that will make the part a whole lot stronger.
Are there any suggestions on a good strong, dense,two part foam to pour into these fins for a core?
Thanks Herman,
Terry

#87

This thread is actually very informative for infusion, you hit almost every snag along the way so people can read through that. On top of that though you included great pictures. I’m glad you got the results you needed. And thank you all for helping a new member!

#88

On 2K pourable foam: There are quite some alternatives, mostly PU foam based, or even epoxy foam. (ranging from 170 kg/m3 to 600 kg/m3, or at least, that is what I am getting)

I have no idea of what is available in your area. Which density are you targeting for?

#89

WOOHOOOOOOO!!!
1: Ball valve on your resin line? Doesn’t it get clogged? You can just use a pinching vicegrip pliers (not the cut teeth one, but the jaw is just rounded pinch points)
2: what’s up with that spiral on the sides of the mold again? i noticed you had cut-outs there, but never really questioned it. Seems pointless?
3: Now Carbon fiber time!

#90

TBone - you must have been talking with Chris from Michigan Fiberglass Supply.

I was down there a couple weeks ago, and he was also trying to push Resin Infusion on me for my project. Eventually I will try it, but not for my first final part that will cost a few grand in raw materials alone.

Chris likes to Infuse his parts from the center. The point of the channel that you don’t know why you made per his recommendation is for the spiral tubing/vacuum source.

I asked him why he does not connect the channels at the corners and stated so resin doesn’t immediately flood the whole ring once the resin gets to that point.

-Andrew

#91

Actually, I think we have met. I think you were sneaking out and having smokes in my truck While we were waiting to see the Kite board get infused . Then instead the guy doing the project ran off. Does this sound familiar? I could be mistaken.

Actually Chris said the channels were just to add air volume.

I didn’t have a clue about how to do this until I started talking to Chris. He is very helpful and a nice guy.

The way I laid out my infusion was his suggestion initially.

I’m on my 5th part now. Everything’s going pretty good now.

I have been wondering how the kite board turned out?
Terry

#92

haha no that wasn’t me - i wanted to make it down there for the kite board infusion project but didn’t know when it was taking place. Chris said he was going to give me a call but never did… I ended up spacing and forgetting about it.

I want to make it down when he infuses the boat using that boat mold he has sitting there.

#93

Hi Riff,
I’m just putting spiral tubing in the channels to make sure they don’t suck the bag in and poke a hole in the bag, just a little extra support.
I put a ball valve on one layup. Ive scratched that now.
Things are going pretty good now, I’ve been making a part or two a day now for a couple days. Should have all the parts infused by this weekend.
Terry

#94

Things are going well on these parts. I have two more to make and then I can start triming them up and get them attached together.

Once the two halves of the part are sanded and fitted there should be an area of about a quarter inch where the parts will matt together.

I want to use as good a product for adhesive that I can. Also I would like some heat resistance built into the product.

In the past I have used Aeropoxy ES6209 adhesive which seems to well.

Also I have used a product from Resin services called ECA paste. This is a very thick adhesive for bonding and patching. It seems like it has a small amount of carbon chop in it.

Or would it be a good idea to just sandwich a wetted out strip of fiberglass or carbon between the two halves.This way I can stick with the higher temp.laminating epoxy I have been using.
Any suggestions or recommendations?
Thanks , Terry

#95

What you ideally want is a slightly more flexible glue, so peel strength goes way up.

I guess a nice wet layer of carbon, perhaps some silica added into the resin will work, but you could also get away with a simple bead of methacrylate glue (Plexus MA422 I would recommend) or even caulk (MS Polymer type)

#96

I like plexus ma410 as a glue for bonding. Its available in white (actually its a pale milky cream colour) or black which is hard to see if used with carbon. Actually you dont know its there if you clean it up well. Stands reasonably high temps for this type of glue and can gap fill upto 5mm (3/16").

#97

I did a few minutes of research on Plexus products. Sounds good to me. I found a web site called the Glue Guru that sells it.Seems like Ive seen it locally somewhere before.I do know that I can get Sem, 3m , or Duramix products locally though. I think Ill be patient and order what you guys are recommending.

The booster stage of this rocket will have 4 airframes sitting along side each other to make up more of a square shaped airframe that holds 4 motors. (Ill put a picture up).In the center there will be enough room to put a 2" tube in between them as a backing plate for something to attach to. I’m hoping this Plexus product will be the right product to attach these also. I guess the plan would be to attach with the plexus product and then do a fillet with an epoxy product.
Thanks guys,
Terry

#98

You probably mistyped and are referring to MA310. this is a 1:1 ratio glue, which is available in 50ml cartridges (the neccesary glue gun is not so expensive) and in 400 ml cartridges (with more expensive gun).

I believe you guys in the USA are lucky, and also have it available in a 250ml cartridge, which fits a normal 1 component standard glue gun, available everywhere. (in Europe these cartridges are not available unfortunately)

#99

I might be lol im not back in my shop till weds so i will check its number then. You may well be right! maybe i was getting my numbers confused with 3m dp410 which is a good structural epoxy that i use sometimes, much more expensive than the plexus and takes several hours to cure unlike the plexus which is done in about half hour.

#100

Not quite sure what was going through my head when i wrote this! the plexus glue that i use is ma310 and the 3m is dp490.