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Hanaldo - 3/5/2021 2:38:53 AM

Yeh unfortunately what Jeffrey is saying won't really work for you, because you are wanting to get your bladder in place and squeezing the excess resin out while it is still wet, you can't wait for the resin to firm up as he is saying. Unfortunately there is no real trick here that will help, wet carbon just isn't going to trim easily or neatly. As you have discovered, sharp shears make it a bit easier, but even the best shears will make a bit of a mess of it. You certainly can't trim it as neatly as you could a pre-preg or a b-staged resin.

You kind of have to choose what your priority is, do you want to get the excess resin out or do you want to have a neat seam. If the neat seam is more important, you could do similar to what Jeffrey is suggesting and let the resin firm up a bit, trim the edges with a razor, then before the epoxy cures too far you bolt your moulds together with an overlap and apply pressure via the bladder. If you get the timing right, the resin should still be liquid enough to squeeze out a bit of excess, but obviously not as much as if you had applied pressure straight away. You may also find this causes issues with trapping voids, as air won't escape as easily through the thicker resin.

Alternatively, a 'wet-preg' may be a more suitable process for you, as it allows you to trim the material much more accurately than you could when it is dry, and then you can handle it almost like a proper pre-preg. This way you may be able to trim the material accurately enough to just have to position it into your mould, and not have any excess to trim off., and you can still get the consolidation on while the resin is quite wet.