Hey Guys,

 First of I want to say I love what you guys are doing here.

I know the power of forums and am extied to be apart of talk composites! Ive looked around for other forums like this but theres nothing good out there. Also, all those videos and explanation on the websites enspired me to get started in making my own parts.

Anyhow I have made my part a few times now. First few pieces werent so bad but not perfect, which is my goal. After tackling getting everything to fit  and form to the mold I still keep finding small inholes across the surface of the part...

At this point I am stuck. Could it be the surface of the mold? Seems to keep hapening so I assume I am doing something incorectly.

Any help would be appreciated,

Donnie



If Brute Force Isn''''t working your not using enough...

Hi Donnie, Thanks for the kind words.

Pinholes... everyones worst nightmare! You should be able to get rid of them though, assuming that you are working with a bag that has been tested for leaks using the vacuum drop method, they can be caused caused by a number of factors... release agents and mould surface  isn't normally the issue but using a chemical release agent such as our easylease system can improve the surface flow and improve the situation, however your problem is more likely to be elsewhere. If the pinholes are just in the corners this will be due to the fibre and/or vacuum bagging materials not being adequately 'pressed' into the corners, you must make sure that the materials have enough room to get tightly into the corners, pulling the vacuum slowly and pushing the bag into the corners as you go with help here, you want to avoid it having to stretch. We somtimes use blunt tools with breather wrapped over to drive the bag into the corners.

If the pinholes are all over the surface this will probably be due to too much resin being drawn from the part, quite common on smaller mouldings, I would try closing the vacuum line a few minutes before the resin feed to allow more resin into the part this should help loads. The reason for this is that if there is too much resin drawn from the part the resin will 'wick' into the fibre leaving pinholes on the suface of the part at the nodes (gaps between the strands) this is not an air void, it is acctually a vacuum void!

 

If you are still having issues then a few photos of the problem areas could help me to work out what's going wrong, i'm sure we can get them coming out perfect though!

 
Let me know how you get on.

Paul Statham
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical