I'm just waiting for the weather to warm up a bit before heating up the shop enough to work on that.
In the meantime, epoxy post-curing continues.
Wednesday, December 21, 2016
Starboard Float Bulkhead foam cores
The foam cores are ready for fabric now.
I'm just waiting for the weather to warm up a bit before heating up the shop enough to work on that.
In the meantime, epoxy post-curing continues.
I'm just waiting for the weather to warm up a bit before heating up the shop enough to work on that.
In the meantime, epoxy post-curing continues.
Monday, December 19, 2016
Post Curing and Bulkhead templates
The weather has turned unseasonably cold and I've turned down the shop temp quite a bit to save some money on the utility bills. In the meantime, I'm working on post curing the float interior by moving the heating blanket around every eight hours when I can get to it. Unfortunately, some work related issues are keeping me away from home more than usual which is putting a bit of a damper on getting the cure completed.
This weekend I worked on building out two bulkhead templates (Frame #5 & #11)
I started by cutting out infusion flange and leveling off the foam to match the other half in the bulkhead areas. Then I used a piece of cardboard to establish the rough shape before tracing that pattern onto a scrap piece of Luan.
Once that was cut and marked with center line information I used some tape pieces as a super "Low-Tech" solution to establish the final shape that would be traced onto the final template piece. It took quite a while, but the final template is a good fit and can now be used to transfer the shape over to some foam pieces.
This weekend I worked on building out two bulkhead templates (Frame #5 & #11)
I started by cutting out infusion flange and leveling off the foam to match the other half in the bulkhead areas. Then I used a piece of cardboard to establish the rough shape before tracing that pattern onto a scrap piece of Luan.
Once that was cut and marked with center line information I used some tape pieces as a super "Low-Tech" solution to establish the final shape that would be traced onto the final template piece. It took quite a while, but the final template is a good fit and can now be used to transfer the shape over to some foam pieces.
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Starboard Outer float half infused
Well finally...
With everything cleaned up around here and some holiday things taken care of I was able to get over to that second float half and get the infusion started.
Overall, everything went much better than the first half.
I was able to pull a good vacuum despite a leak I couldn't locate.
The infusion strategy worked better than last time as well and was much easier to manage.
The only real problem I had was a stupid decision to use 1/8" (3.175mm) resin lines.
I wanted to ensure the flow was slow enough to do a good job, but this was way too small and choked the flow.
The solution was to replace intake lines in the middle of the infusion to get things moving along. That worked OK except the last intake line got plugged up somehow forcing me to stab an additional connection directly into the bag as a last ditch effort. That kinda messed things up for me and caused some tense moments of panic.
In the end, it looks OK.
I will be contacting the vendor about the seemingly dry areas. I have a feeling my perforated film is not allowing enough resin to pass through quickly enough. I plan to test that theory by doing my next sheet infusion without that film to see what happens.
At the moment, I've got the shop heated up to 74F (24C) for 24 hours to complete the initial cure before applying heat.
I will be prepping for bulkhead creation here soon.
All bulkheads will be made with Carbon skins to save a little weight throughout and help to offset a little bit of my heavy handed parts in other places.
With everything cleaned up around here and some holiday things taken care of I was able to get over to that second float half and get the infusion started.
Overall, everything went much better than the first half.
I was able to pull a good vacuum despite a leak I couldn't locate.
The infusion strategy worked better than last time as well and was much easier to manage.
The only real problem I had was a stupid decision to use 1/8" (3.175mm) resin lines.
I wanted to ensure the flow was slow enough to do a good job, but this was way too small and choked the flow.
The solution was to replace intake lines in the middle of the infusion to get things moving along. That worked OK except the last intake line got plugged up somehow forcing me to stab an additional connection directly into the bag as a last ditch effort. That kinda messed things up for me and caused some tense moments of panic.
In the end, it looks OK.
I will be contacting the vendor about the seemingly dry areas. I have a feeling my perforated film is not allowing enough resin to pass through quickly enough. I plan to test that theory by doing my next sheet infusion without that film to see what happens.
At the moment, I've got the shop heated up to 74F (24C) for 24 hours to complete the initial cure before applying heat.
I will be prepping for bulkhead creation here soon.
All bulkheads will be made with Carbon skins to save a little weight throughout and help to offset a little bit of my heavy handed parts in other places.
 |
| Left over waste resin. Not bad! |
 |
| Peel-Ply is still in place and these glossy areas will turn to a matte finish after the heat is applied. I think what happens is some of the excess resin "melts" into the fabric (?) |
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