I need some help, I just recieved my first order of prepreg and after playing with it for the last couple days I am horribly disappointed. I have been working with other prepregs from another supplier and I have had pretty good success with conventional prepreg that is meant to be cured in an autoclave even though I have been using it in an out of autoclave process. So far the first 5 things I have tried to make with easy preg have all been complete failures. I am super frustrated because I spent a lot of money to buy a couple yards of the material and have it sent to the US and at this point I am feeling like it all needs to be thrown in the trashcan because it seems completely useless. I will describe the setup that I am using and maybe someone can tell me what I might be doing wrong. I will also attach some pictures of the problems I am having. I have tried metal molds, composite molds with a gelcoat surface, cnc machined solid teflon molds, and tonight even a sheet of glass to see if I could get a good surface finish and so far all have failed miserably. For my mold release I am using a chemical release called Freekote 700nc which has performed beautifully with the other prepregs I have used. I am vacuum bagging with a flexible bagging material called stretchlon 200 and with a solid release film and a breather cloth. I have used cure schedules all over the map from 180 deg F for ten hours up to 275 deg F for less than an hour and all have yielded similar results The max amount of vac I am able to achieve here is about 26.5inches of mercury and that has proven to be acceptable for the other prepreg I have used but I am wondering if it is not enough for the easy preg because I have read a couple of places that a near perfect vac level above 29 inches is necessary. I leave the vac pump running throughout the process every time. To top it all off I am not at all happy with how the cured fiber looks and find it to be some of the most boring carbon fiber I have ever seen anywhere. There seems to be such a lack of contrast of the alternating fibers that it almost doesn't even look like carbon fiber at all, I would hope that if I could get my surface finish issues resolved the appearance might also improve but I am skeptical that it will ever look as good as any of the other various fabrics I have worked with. For me the selling point of this prepreg was that it was great for making cosmetic parts and I am disappointed to say the least. I appreciate any input that I can get and really hope that I am doing something wrong and that I can learn to love this easy preg! Thanks for your help.
The first two pictures show a piece that I cured on glass, It consists of one surfacing layers and two backing layers bagged up as I have described above. The last two pictures show some parts I have made with another brand of prepreg shown with the same piece molded on glass. The skull and the outlet cover do have automotive clear coat on them and although I realize that it may not seem like a fair comparison I can tell you that the clear coat does not hide any flaws, but if anything tends to magnify them.