Hey Guys,

 First of I want to say I love what you guys are doing here.

I know the power of forums and am extied to be apart of talk composites! Ive looked around for other forums like this but theres nothing good out there. Also, all those videos and explanation on the websites enspired me to get started in making my own parts.

Anyhow I have made my part a few times now. First few pieces werent so bad but not perfect, which is my goal. After tackling getting everything to fit  and form to the mold I still keep finding small inholes across the surface of the part...

At this point I am stuck. Could it be the surface of the mold? Seems to keep hapening so I assume I am doing something incorectly.

Any help would be appreciated,

Donnie



If Brute Force Isn''''t working your not using enough...

Ok, I have had a good week and solved a lot of problems.

I already posted in the other thread how I finally get perfectly sealed bags now and what the problem was.

I now have made 3 pin hole free parts in a row. Before these, I never have gotten a  perfect part.

This is only my opinion, so here goes.

I believe the problem is viscosity. The infusion resin does say it is 300cps but I never thought about the actual temperature I was working under.

So this is what I did. I have a 5 ft wide oven that I built. (Its easy to make) and I then put my vacuum bagged mold and catch pot in the oven at 100F.

While the pump was running at full vac connected to the mold I then prepare my resin. I heat it to 90F and then mix in the hardener and degassed it in a chamber that I built. (it is also simple to build)

Once degassed I open the oven and infuse. It goes very quickly because the resin is like water.

Once the resin is coming out of the mold and into the catch pot I clamp off the vacuum line but leave the resin line open for about 15 seconds. Then I clamp it off and let the mold cook at 100F overnight. (Vacuum pump turned off) Bing !my first absolutely pin hole free perfect part.

As I though it was a fluke I did it 4 times and each time I got perfect parts!

So here is my take on whats happening. Imagine infusing resin as thick as molassis, do you really think it will wet out every fiber even if you get some coming out the vacuum line. Even though I heated the resin, I believe that because the mold was heated it would not allow the resin to cool down as it made its way through the carbon, so helping the resin along. Letting the resin continue into the mold after the vacuum line is clamped off seems to equalize the pressure in the bag so that no vacuum voids can build up between the weaves.

Thanks to Matt for showing us on the hood scoop video, the trick of clamping off the vacuum completely after the infusion.

Fred