getting it all together.

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getting it all together.

Author	Message
carbonBullet	carbonBullet posted 12 Years Ago HOT Topic Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 6, Visits: 60	I've been gathering stuff now. And finally I'm ready to just do this. I've got my plug ready. Got my resin, glass and picked up some graphite powder for surface coat. I really didn't think about this till now but I've got no way to measure my resin. Would a paint mix cup such as one from harbor freight work? How much graphite to resin should be used? My resin is wb400 with LH101 hardner from resin services. Thos project is really small in size. It's a knife handle. The mold will be a 2piece as there is no way to bag in between I will make the 2 sides and bond them together using the molds. I have access to a vacuum pump but I don't have any real vacuum bag material. I'm gonna attempt to use a space saver bag. I'm running a test to see if the vacuum last overnight. As I remember it held well in it's intended purpose. I've got some polyester batting for breather, I'm planning on plastic wrap for release film. I guess I'm just looking for some confirmation that yeah everything sounds ok, not the best but good enough for a garage one time deal. Thanks.
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ajb100	ajb100 posted 12 Years Ago HOT Post Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 346, Visits: 4.4K	Tbh, I use plastic cups from morrisons as mixing cups, they're inexpensive and throw away after use. For something that size, you'll probably need a set of jewellery scales which to hundreds of a gram, although you can't go too far wrong with polyester
	Reply Like 3
carbonBullet	carbonBullet posted 12 Years Ago HOT Post Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 6, Visits: 60	I'm not using polyester resin. It's epoxy. So it really needs to be close as I can get it. What about the powder. How much you think?
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carbonBullet	carbonBullet posted 12 Years Ago HOT Post Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 6, Visits: 60	I found a decent digital scale at harbor freight. so my measure issue is cleared. I have also found the vacuum storage bag not to be ideal, it does hold but not real good, so it's not a nice vacuum. I have some aluminum tape so I may attempt to cut one in half and seal it with tape, possibly making a better seal. I also picked up a space heater to work in my garage.
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wojtepanik	wojtepanik posted 12 Years Ago HOT Post Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 102, Visits: 582	Hi, If you want to cut the coasts you can always use thick garbage bag, and seal it with some bathroom silicone and zip ties. but this way sucks. Invest 30 £ more and get proper vacuum stuff. Trust me you can ruin your part if for ex. Your bag will not be stretchy enough it could be torn apart by the vacuum. You don't have to use perforated film or breather cloth, cheap peel ply and toilet paper will do the job. I would never replace bagging film and bagging tape with some cheap s***, all your work depends on that. if you are creative you can make your bag reusable as you prepare special seal for that ,that's how I do with most of my bags. Bye Wojtek from Poland ~~~Everytime I hear sound of demoulding part I have eargasm~~~
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carbonfibreworks	carbonfibreworks posted 12 Years Ago HOT Post Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 292, Visits: 4.5K	If cash is tight remember to stock up on McDonald's wooden coffee stirring sticks Chris www.carbonfibreworks.co.uk
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carbonBullet	carbonBullet posted 12 Years Ago HOT Post Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 6, Visits: 60	I know, I should not skimp on bagging. But money and mostly lack of time is killing me. I can't buy any 'real' bagging materials local, I've got only this weekend for this project and I'm out of money for now. So it's all or nothing.... can someone tell me about how much graphite powder to resin should be used. The graphite I picked up from a tractor supply store a whole large can of it was only 6$....nice find if you ask me...
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carbonfibreworks	carbonfibreworks posted 12 Years Ago HOT Post Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 292, Visits: 4.5K	EC state 10% by weight ( EC product ) so i would use this as a starting point. Regards Chris www.carbonfibrewoks.co.uk
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carbonBullet	carbonBullet posted 12 Years Ago HOT Post Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 6, Visits: 60	Thank you Chris.
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carbonBullet	carbonBullet posted 12 Years Ago HOT Post Details
Group: Forum Members Posts: 6, Visits: 60	Well. First half of mold is finished. I ended up with 1gram graphite to 5 grams resin. Probably a little high but worked for me. Big issue is my plug broke on removal. So repair jas to be done. I have one little chip on and egde. It was from not cleaning the surface coat out of the edge there. Mental note: do not use those space bag things, total junk. The actual plastic leaked. I used a wonderful white trash bag, and electrical tape. Freaking awesome. One othe mental note, you must poke holes in your release film, in my case plastic wrap. That's ultimately what broke my plug resin bleed on the opposite side.
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