I'm not quite sure what the problem is, but after three failed attempts at infusing the second bulkhead I gave up and settled for vacuum bagging. I say I don't know what the problem is, but I really suspect that the shop & resin temp is just too low for a good flow.
The first two times I attempted this resulted in a vacuum leak that I simply could not find. (I suspec t the greenflow media punctured the bag) The third time I had a good seal (used an additional layer of bagging film over the greenflow media to ensure it did not puncture the bag) but the resin flow stalled after 1/3 of the bulkhead was completed. That was pretty frustrating, so I shut off the pump and removed the bag and wetted out fabric pieces before scraping the foam clean and setting things up for vacuum bagging. I'm also nearly out of infusion resin, so the vacuum bagging solution allowed me to use my supply of laminating resin instead. The end result is really VERY good and I was even able to reuse the vacuum bag film and even the sealant tape for the second side.
The second bulkhead is now completed on both sides and has been curing under vacuum for the last 36 hours. I'll pull it off the table tonight so I can work on setting up the last bulkhead for bagging.
In the meantime, I was able to spend some time working on trimming out the aft bulkhead for a good fit. It took four hours to get it where I wanted and then cut in half for gluing into one side. At the moment there is no fillet as I only wanted to glue the bulkhead in place with no excess glue squeezing out of the joint. Once all three bulkhead halves are glued in place and checked again I will glue in the HD pads and then work on the fillets.
After that's done I'll finally be able to start removing the screws holding the SB OUTER float half in place so we can roll it over and slide it into position. Once that's lined up over the SB INNER half, I'll be able to verify bulkhead location matching and get those glued in place before gluing the halves together.
Lots of work ahead, but things seem to be falling into place.
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| Marking float location and also a second set of (outer) marks for peel ply removal |
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| First attempt (failed due to vacuum leak) at bulkhead infusion |
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| In the end I settled for vacuum bagging |
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| Accurate placement of AFT bulkhead for marking and trimming |
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| Good fit - slightly undercut to allow for epoxy gap filling |
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| Marking for initial beam location cutout |
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| Cut out and ready for final cleanup |
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| Aft bulkhead comes in at 1035grams (2.2lbs) |
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| Finally located and glued into place with a thickened epoxy bead |
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