Talk Composites - The Forum for Advanced Composites

Heat for resin and mould

http://www.talkcomposites.com/Topic16838.aspx

By Superleggera - 5/3/2015 1:18:18 PM

I have been trying to heat my workshop so that the resin and hardener is at the right temperature. Keeping the room temperature at 20deg was costing me £300/month last winter in electricity so I had to come up with a plan B. Here's where I'm at now;-

I bought a sheet of 25mm thick Celotex insulation from Wickes and made a two layer box with lid. I bought a 300mm tubular grenhouse heater with thermostat and mounted it in the box. The box is plugged into an Orvibo S20 WiFi socket. I can set the heater to come on 3 hours before I get to work and my resin/hardener is at 25deg whenever I need it.

I mix the resin in a 1 litre jug that I tie-wraped into a 2 litre jug. Fill the large jug with hot water and then weight, mix and degas resin in small jug.

I place bubble wrap on my bench to the rough profile of the mould, put an electric blanket on the bouble wrap and the mould on the blanket. Whilst I place the reinforcement and bagging stack the mould heats up nicely. The blanket and vacuum pump are on a S20 socket so that I can set them to go off on timer after several hours.

I now have my workshop at a nice temperature to work in and my resin is stored, mixed and infused at the correct temperature. The box cost £35.00 and the remote switches are £20.00 each (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/171558338519?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT) and work a treat. The elevated temperature does make the resin inviscid so I use a 4mm feed line with a clamp to control the resin flow.

For infusion, resin at 25deg gives far more consistant results. Has Fred or anyone else got any experiences to share about the control of infusion temperatures and the effect on part quality?
By ChrisR - 5/7/2015 10:30:20 AM

from about 2min 22s https://youtu.be/132XkT1Z8hQ it jumps around a bit but quite interesting.

Also 21min 50s https://youtu.be/GOAjSJaBggU?t=21m50s

Note the box on the wall with the lamp and cloth too, best to keep the cloth free from moisture too, I couldn't find it but on one of the episodes they take you round the rack etc and explain each part...