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Joe
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Group: Forum Members
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Nice stuff, cant wait to see the finished product. Keep it up 
 A $1000 electronic device will always protect a 10 cents fuse
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JohnH
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Also see the pattern after I cut it though the middle, so that they could mounted onto plate glass for the mould making. John
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JohnH
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Hi I have made a new set of moulds and have tried a couple of times to get a decent part moulded from these. I am having problem with my technique for avoiding "bridging" so I am still experimenting with this, I have tried tacking the dry carbon down with a mixture of meths and resin, which I had some success with, but then went back to loading the cloth in dry, which, now that I know what I am doing wrong is turning out better, but I slipped up on mixing my resin correctly, so the last one did not cure. The last couple of parts I tried, I did not use any infusion mesh (which I struggle with) the bottom part was OK, this had Soric between two layers of carbon and infused OK, the top part did not infuse correctly I only used 3 layers of carbon and this did not draw the resin in. I have been talking to the guys at Carbon Mods who have kept me on track with there knowledge, otherwise I may have given up, I am on holiday for a week then work commitments will take up the majority of my time so it could be a while before I can continue, But I will keep you posted on my progress. See attached pics of the new moulds.
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Paul (Staff)
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Group: Administrators
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Hi John,
Upload limit increased!
Paul Statham
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical
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JohnH
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Hi Wabba
I am bolting the upper and lower parts together using threaded spacers and dome headed screws, this will be seperated by a custom made silcon rubber "H" section which I am having made specially made which will align the parts.
There is also a dome canopy which will carry the GPS unit if required, you can see these parts in a previous post.
I have now made a new bottom mould which has larger flanges, which I am now VERY happy with, next is the top half.
I will post pictures as soon as I have the limit to my uploads increased.
Thanks for the good words.
John
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Wabba
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Group: Forum Members
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Hello John, Looks good. I have been developing a similar idea for the longest time, you work inspires me to begin to materialize it. Question, how is the finished airframe, do you bolt two of these together with separator or is there going to be a dome? I agree that these "3D" shapes look so much bette than the flat 2D shaped bolted together, which is the majority though. Keep us posted!
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JohnH
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Group: Forum Members
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I have decided to make a new set of moulds, with larger flanges and a better edge to the pattern, which i could not achieve using the blanking off method with Corex . I have cut the pattern in half so that this can be fixed to plate glass and then the mould will be cast from there in two sections, this will give me better edges and a parallel joining edge on the finished part. Also I will use two coats of Gelcoat which should give me a thicker layer. I have run out of space on the website for uploading photo's so I cannot show the latest.
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JohnH
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Group: Forum Members
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Hi This is the latest of my attempts. I used one layer of 200 gram 2/2 twill on the bottom plus one layer of 2mm Soric, then another layer of 2/2 twill cloth, this was because I found it impossible to remove the Peel-Ply from the first moulded part, I did not use any peel-ply or infusion mesh on this go and relied on the Soric to pull the resin into the part. This worked OK but has left very small pin holes on the part, I presume this is because not enough resin has been drawn into the part on infusion, (perhaps pull the resin for longer?) On my next attempt I am going to use peel-ply pre treated with a release agent along with infusion mesh and see how this comes out. Another thing that I did on this attempt was to use a "tack spray" to hold the cloth in place whilst working on the lay-up, this was much easier to work on the part, whilst bagging but again leaves a slight residue on the exterior of the part, after taking to the guys at E.C. they confirm that this type of adhesive will do that, they are looking into sourcing a spray that is compatible with epoxy resin (good luck). Using the amount of cloth and Soric has resulted in a bombproof shell and should be plenty rigid enough for any abuse I may give it on the finished item.
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Joe
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Group: Forum Members
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If only my first try at CF would have been like that... Great project, keep us posted.
A $1000 electronic device will always protect a 10 cents fuse
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Rootz
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Great idea, John! I was thinking about doing just this only a couple of days ago - So much cooler than made from CNC cut sheet. Only difference was that I was thinking about making the arm cross-section kinda thick wing shaped, on the basis that this would help with winds. Keep us updated on your progress. I might just be your first customer if you're gonna sell them!  |
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