Hi all,




My name is Craig and live in Cambridgeshire, Been looking at this forum a few weeks now and seems like a great place to learn as im a newbie to composites.

Really enjoying looking at what everyones doing.

Im trying to build a pair of wheel spats which id eventually like to do in carbon. So far ive made a plug out of mdf and foam and taken a 2 piece mould from it which im quite pleased with except I now wish id made the flanges larger. 

Over the easter break ive had my 1st attempt at doing a vacumm bag layup. my layup consisted of 4 layers of 200g woven glass cloth, pelply then breather cloth then bag. For a 1st go im quite pleased as the part came out of the mould easily but to my un trained eye, it looks like my parts are starved of resin. Also the bag connector has left an imprint in the surface.

Time for the questions,

Am I pulling too much vacumm?, is my bag connector in the wrong place or is this also due to too much vacumm?. From what ive read I guess I might need to invest in a regulator?. I left my pump running over night which I was a little dubious about, is this correct?.

Am I right in thinking that it if try using infusion instead then the pump is turned off after infusion is complete.

Im sorry for all the questions on my first post!!.

Any help and advice is greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Craig    

If you are envelope bagging you need to make sure the back of the mould is smooth and free from sharp edges etc. I go over the back of the mould with the orbital sander to remove any "spikes". Also make sure the edges of the flange are rounded off, I put gaffer tape over the edge to soften it a bit. The smallest sharp edge can puncture the bag when you pull vac. You can also cover the back of the mould with breather cloth, although this can soak up resin and be a pain to remove. If you put some PVA on the back of the mould this will make it easier to knock of any resin that has tracked onto the back of the mould, these lines of resin can puncture the bag when you come to use the mould again.

Warren

Carbon Copies Ltd