Hi all,
I've done my 50th XT135 mould this week. It feel like a new batch of surface and backing ply improved my results a little. I also made out a temperature sweetspot for the XT135 that is below room temperature, too warm and it can be such a pain to work with the surface ply. I feel like things might've also improved with Matt's recommendation to not use too much force on the surface ply. I'll do further testing this week to verify that on average (between batches) things indeed really have improved.
To solve my issues with XT135, I've bought an additional vacuum pump and a digital pressure gauge, new connections, hoses ... just for the sake of absolutely knowing 100% that there is nothing wrong on that side of things. I still have a loss of 1mbar per minute in my vacuum line, and I can't seem to find that mini leak; this should not be an issue though as I leave the pump running either way. That mini-leak though got me looking into high-end vacuum connections as it literally drives me crazy that I can't find that leak. I've watched the XT135 instruction video for a gazillionth time and I just cannot figure out what's being done differently. I know that I am still relatively new to the game, and it still might be silly mistakes I am doing. But by now, working with XT135 has even gotten me to question the way I brew my coffee in the morning.
In all seriousness though, by now I've thoroughly revisited and redone my entire chain of steps and I try to be as smart as possible about it, but for now it certainly remains a tough nut to crack.
If things don't improve this week, I will do tests similar to yours, Hanaldo. Could you elaborate on how you did your tests, e.g. force used on the ply, a single piece or multiple pieces, amount of layers, breather placement, ...