Talk Composites - The Forum for Advanced Composites

Getting Set Up. Help Pls.

http://www.talkcomposites.com/Topic31648.aspx

By robenergy - 1/15/2019 12:04:45 AM

Hey,

Thanks for popping in and having a look at the post.

So my first ever resin infusion project has almost got to the stage where I'm ready to do the lay up! And yes, for a first project I may have gone off in the deep end!! It's certainly taken longer to complete and had more headaches than what I was expecting!!lol

I've put together a couple of crude drawings of my molds, if somebody could have a look at the attached pictures and let me know how best to lay this up, in particular, if you could point out where best to put the spiral tube and infusion/vacuum points, and suggest what size spiral tube/infusion connectors to use for the base (pic 1), would be great.

And if you could point out where best to put my spiral tube and infusion/vacuum points on the main tub (pic 2), that would be great too. I just hope I haven't limited myself too much!?

Pic 1


Picture 1 is of the mold for the base. Material and consumables will be applied to the inside of it so that the outside of the base is against the mold. And it will probably be used upside down? I just hope my flanges are wide enough to put the tape for the bag and infusion valve!?

Pic 2


Picture 2 is of the mold for the main tub of my bath. Material and consumables will be applied to the outside of it so that the inside of the tub is against the mold and everything will be pulled down around it.

I did ask somebody else and they suggested I have my infusion point at the plug/drain hole with the spiral tube reaching out half a meter either side of it. But wouldn't this approach get in the way of the vacuum bag pulling down materials over the plug hole properly? My original idea was to have an infusion point on one corner and a vacuum point on the other corner?

Also, I have these  2 plastic infusion connectors to fit 1/2" spiral tube to be used on the mold for the tub, what I'm not so sure about is, the black one doesn't have any channels molded into it for the spiral tube, do I screw in 4 screws to act as spacers and create a half inch gap underneath that way for the spiral tube, or do I find a milling machine??


I hope all this makes sense.

Thanks for your time!

Rob
By MarkMK - 1/21/2019 8:53:59 AM

If you're planning to use, say, a single 200g surface layer combined with a heavier fabric like a 600/650g, it's most likely that any print-through will be limited to the the resin inlet fitting as the narrower type of resin spiral akin to what EC sell probably won't print through. So, you could indeed try running the spiral across the centre length of the tub mould.

In that scenario, it might be worth installing two vacuum ports, at the centre points either side, but be aware that the resin will likely reach these before wetting out the end sections ensure that resin breaks are used here to slow things down here and allow time for the ends to wet-out. Make sure that you have a narrow strip of mesh running all the way around the edge of your flange to allow any de-gassed air to reach the vacuum lines as things infuse. 

As the plug hole section will be raised, you'd again need to ensure that the bag was sufficiently large to pull down in this area without bridging and creating resin-rich corners around the inlet that will, most likely, be prone to breaking off, especially on a new mould where things will likely be a bit more tough to de-mould cleanly

I'd likely look to cover the plug hole section with small sections of fabric, with relief cuts made in  the main fabric section to slip over the hole. Done neatly, any join lines should be barely visible

If going down the route of placing both inlet and outlet on the flange, though, I'd still avoid picking the corner to corner route, as this looks to be the furthest and could takes ages to wet out fully and make controlling the flow more problematic. Pay attention to pot life and temperature of your resin/mould in all instances as it will impact greatly on the speed at which things infuse.