Brake cooling duct fabrication question

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Brake cooling duct fabrication question

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AlpineCoupe	A AlpineCoupe posted 6 Years Ago HOT Topic Details
A Group: Forum Members Posts: 45, Visits: 2.1K	Hello all, Im new to the forum and new to making composite parts. I have made a couple of splitter vents for a race car of mine and now am working on brake cooling ducts for the front air dam. My question is how to lay up the carbon fiber to ensure a reasonable release from the mold. It currently looks like this: I was thinking I could lay it up (after sanding and smoothing of course), as is, vacuum bag it, and essentially make it as one piece. But as I read a couple of other posts on this forum I started to second guess myself. Any suggestions from the collective? Thanks in advance!
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MarkMK	MarkMK posted 6 Years Ago HOT Post Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 338, Visits: 2K	Looks great and no doubt you'll have learned a lot from the experience that'll stand you in good stead when making more As mentioned previously, if you're building-up a mould from scratch, rather than looking to create one from your existing part in the usual way, it'd likely be best to give it a fibre-glass skin on top of any foam base. This should, hopefully, help everything hold together better when de-moulding. That said, de-moulding from a new mould can require some force, so weaknesses such as a relatively 'soft' surface coat or layers of filler underneath can be prone to breakage, even if quite thinly coated on a firm grp base . If you're looking to make a few more, then it might be worth creating a traditional gel coat/grp or epoxy mould, which should prove a lot more reliable.
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AlpineCoupe	A AlpineCoupe posted 6 Years Ago HOT Post Details
A Group: Forum Members Posts: 45, Visits: 2.1K	+x MarkMK - 11/28/2019 8:46:03 AM Looks great and no doubt you'll have learned a lot from the experience that'll stand you in good stead when making more As mentioned previously, if you're building-up a mould from scratch, rather than looking to create one from your existing part in the usual way, it'd likely be best to give it a fibre-glass skin on top of any foam base. This should, hopefully, help everything hold together better when de-moulding. That said, de-moulding from a new mould can require some force, so weaknesses such as a relatively 'soft' surface coat or layers of filler underneath can be prone to breakage, even if quite thinly coated on a firm grp base . If you're looking to make a few more, then it might be worth creating a traditional gel coat/grp or epoxy mould, which should prove a lot more reliable. Yeah, I should have done the fiberglass as mentioned earlier in the thread. No doubt that will be part of the plan on the next one. I think I hesitated to make the mold in a traditional way (gel coat, fiberglass) because I wasnt sure how it would work to have just a hollow mold. As I type this I'm realizing there is no reason why it wouldnt work. Maybe that will be my next try!
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AlpineCoupe	A AlpineCoupe posted 5 Years Ago HOT Post Details
A Group: Forum Members Posts: 45, Visits: 2.1K	+x AlpineCoupe - 11/28/2019 9:19:39 PM +x MarkMK - 11/28/2019 8:46:03 AM Looks great and no doubt you'll have learned a lot from the experience that'll stand you in good stead when making more As mentioned previously, if you're building-up a mould from scratch, rather than looking to create one from your existing part in the usual way, it'd likely be best to give it a fibre-glass skin on top of any foam base. This should, hopefully, help everything hold together better when de-moulding. That said, de-moulding from a new mould can require some force, so weaknesses such as a relatively 'soft' surface coat or layers of filler underneath can be prone to breakage, even if quite thinly coated on a firm grp base . If you're looking to make a few more, then it might be worth creating a traditional gel coat/grp or epoxy mould, which should prove a lot more reliable. Yeah, I should have done the fiberglass as mentioned earlier in the thread. No doubt that will be part of the plan on the next one. I think I hesitated to make the mold in a traditional way (gel coat, fiberglass) because I wasnt sure how it would work to have just a hollow mold. As I type this I'm realizing there is no reason why it wouldnt work. Maybe that will be my next try! Just bumping this back up because I made another mold of the part, this time using the more traditional gel coat and fiber glass approach. Hope to get some carbon fiber laid up on it this week. Edited 5 Years Ago by AlpineCoupe
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