Carbon Infusion of silmar surboard resin with a in mold coat of clear poly gel coat. Print through...


Carbon Infusion of silmar surboard resin with a in mold coat of clear poly gel coat. Print through...
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osbsurn383
osbsurn383
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Hey first post here.

Been doing lots of reading and test trying to find a good way to infuse carbon fiber with surfboard resin.

I have a waxed piece of glass where i spray clear uv marine gel coat and let cure in a heated box till barely tacky.
Then lay one layer carbon and 2 layers of fiberglass cloth. Then peel-ply and then mesh.
My bag on this one could have been better and a slow leak and left the vac on longer than i would like cause the lay up to be a bit dry.



Had nice bubble free and pinhole free infusion though.
You can see if you look at the highlight the texture print through  of the carbon or glass behind it.



Tried a second test with half gel coated and half not.
This time i wrapped the vacuum spiral hose side in the 3 layers of peel ply to act as a flow restriction to keep the part more resin rich this time.
Worked perfectly in that regard.

No Gel coat side i can physically see the carbon print through with almost bare fibers.
Gel coat side is better with  no complete print through but i guess from the cure/shrinkage of the surfboard it prints through on the gel?
Sorry no picture here.

Not sure if my term usage is correct has far as print through is concerned please correct me if so.

I was looking at possibly changing to epoxy to see if i get better results.
Was hoping to stay with these products since it is a good bit cheaper.

I am looking at possibly using Duratec® Sunshield Clear Topcoat  as my in mold gel coat with either surfboard or epoxy.

Id love to be able to get some gc50 as my in mold gel coat but i dont believe that is sold in the us yet?
Edited 9 Years Ago by osbsurn383
Hanaldo
Hanaldo
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Yeh polyester and vinyl ester resins will always have a good amount of print. Only real way to solve it is to leave it in the mould for a good week to allow it to cure as much as possible, and then clear coat after the part has fully cured. Epoxy is much much better. 

Duratec Sunshield is a great product, I love it. It will work with polyester, vinyl ester and epoxy, so no issues with whatever resin you use. 
osbsurn383
osbsurn383
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Ok thanks.

I think part of my problem was that the clear gel i purchased locally was old.
I noticed that the 3 test pieces all where soft enough to push your thumbnail into and leave a dent.

I tried using the surfboard resin like it was gel coat on a new test sample that im going to demold tonight.
I left it in a heat box all last night to cure.

Hopefully that was part of my problem.

I wasn't able to test the sun-shield yet since it wont be here till today.
osbsurn383
osbsurn383
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http://imgur.com/dDmRoQC
For a bigger pic.

Here is the sample with starting from the left:
Gel surfboard sprayed on glass, then no resin, then gel coat sprayed on glass.
After curing the whole thing was infused with surfboard resin.

The surfboard sprayed section turned out perfectly flat with no bubbles.
The middle was surprisingly good with just barely visible fiber exposed since it had no resin sprayed on the glass.
Then the gel coat was the same good infusion but has print through, a bit hard to see in the pic i need to change my light angle.

But looks like i will be going with surfboard sprayed and then infusion with surfboard resin.

Going to pull an actual part this weekend so we shall see if it turns out good.
Edited 9 Years Ago by osbsurn383
osbsurn383
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Ok so my last attempt on my lip mold failed.

I attempted to use perforated release film in the layup and i believe that caused it not to flow into the laminate stack.

Here is a picture of the mold setup.
This is before bagging. I was going to used the flanges to bag the part but that shape makes it to difficult and i put the entire mold into a bag.
The laminate stack is 
carbon 1 layers
fiberglass 6 ounce 3 layers
Perforated release film
peelply
green flow mesh
some breather across the mesh to keep the sharp edges from puncturing the bag.
I had spiral tubing 1'4" id the length of the part for resin feed.
It was layed touching the edge of the fiberglass stack and under all other layers.

Not sure if thats the proper way to place it. It was working in my test sample.
The vacuum ran the length on the oppsoite side wrapped in peelply.

The mold has a second part that i attach and vacuum the entire thing.
I usualy just hand lay it since you barley see it is just need that seam line good.







You can see in the last pic where the fiberglass is dry.

The part probably would have turned out decent if i had not tried to use perforated release film. The film did make it incredible easy to pull off the part.
There are few other things i need to address on laying the carbon in as it didn't conform to some of the tighter corners.

Any input on how im going about introducing resin to the part would be very helpful.

I should probably take a few more pictures to illustrate of the mold works.
I might should infuse each separate and then possibly seam together.

Hanaldo
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Couple of things here:

1. Lose the breather. You don't need it, the mesh won't puncture your bag if you're using decent bag. The breather will just waste resin. If you're really worried about it, cover the mesh edges with peel ply or flash tape. 

2. The feed spiral goes on top of the flow mesh. I suspect that this may have been your issue. 

I always use perforated release film in my infusions and it isn't a problem providing you get the right perforation spacing (which yours appears to be). So I doubt that's what went wrong. 
osbsurn383
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Ok thanks.

I am going by the shop tonight to take more picture of the mold setup to illustrate better what im doing so i can improve on my setup technique.

I think i had a flaw in my logic trying to understand how resin flow worked and that it is suppose to flow across the green mesh and then flows through the peel ply or perforated film into the carbon layers below correct?
Edited 9 Years Ago by osbsurn383
nc42
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also the perforated film goes on top of the peelply not underneath it
GO

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