Infusion meeting with Advisors

Infusion is marine industry standard, recommend infusion because it is more forgiving (MSVII did infusion).

Not perfect vacuum (keep the pump running feed resin throughout).

Wet layups (heavier parts but are more forgiving also surface finish not as great – but it is great for joining). Not good for larger parts, layup can take hours. Can do wet lay without vacuum but highly recommended to attempt the vacuum, it is better. No wet lay with core material.

Wet layup vacuum (no catch-pot, just vacuum down). Practice first on small parts. If you do infusion get some glass sheet and layup on glass (practice how to do the inlet, outlet, vacuum, etc.). Composites testing are a good place to practice.

Fabric, release material, resin membrane, then tubes, amount of vacuum bag not stretching but will not hold vacuum (bad pump need better ones). Do a vacuum drop test (wait 30min if it drops a bit not good fix it). Put pump on every couple of hours. Foam has micro cracks (Duratek on ply wood with tooling finish and you can see cracks). Foam sealed to the phalange (had no issues). Phalange to surface bag (no envelope, do a surface bag). Did any of the foam molds crack under vacuum (would not spend time on foam). Strongly suggests mdf stuff (Bryan CNC stuff). Foam molds had problems (do not go down that route).

MDF inch thick 3-4 inch (buy thicker ones). Everything you do, you should test. Test everything and do everything right. Bryan and Grant will be great resources.

Do not skip over testing (small and then work up).

Primary way to join panels is wet layups.

Bulkhead is a good candidate for wet layups.

Proper tooling coat (thick to get a good quality surface finish).

Panels with no core: smart directional 0, 45, 45, 0 (would rather see 0, 0, 45, 45), Benefits resin cost and weight, taking foam and filling it will resin (if you can shed the foam entirely it will be better).

Make sure to have lots of inlets.

Primer needs paint sprayer.

Above 1000 is the sheen almost (sanded up to 2000, 3000, 4200). Wet sanding, will not need a finishing coat. At least up to 2000 with wet sanding. 500 at a time (wet sanding with the Pneumatic sander). Wet sanding is easy and fast gives a really nice surface finish. Every hour on the mold is worth hours on your mold.

Do the vacuum drop test (do not cut corners).

When pulling vacuum do you need a gauge (nice $40-50 gauge). Test the resin tap for the leak and test all the tubing for leaks. Digital gauge (easier to read and may be more accurate). Resin was way more. Fill resin traps (should be filling traps) will be a thing. Working time of resin (2 hour work, 6 hour initial cure, 24 hour cure, leave for 48hours).

Layups were the best part (pulling resin, cutting fabric is annoying). Doesn’t set outlet near an inlet, how long will the resin be able to travel 12-16inches max. Don’t be afraid to add more inlets and outlets. Outlets in the center and inlets out on the phalange. Resin buckets (4 separate fill lines). Outlets are equidistant from inlets.

Resin pull is the easiest. Use both wax (really polish the wax in there) and mold release (PVA, purple stuff from mold release from composites Canada even coats).

Small incision in the carbon so that it can bend around.

Buy a multi-tool (DO NOT USE A DREMMEL). Treat like normal part of the mold, and then just cut it out.

Wet lays ( for repairing stuff). Carbon fiber is not air tight will not work.

Bulkhead to part will need to be wet layups.

Degas resin? (nah, but working time for resin was too short (it takes too long 1hour, 4 hour 6 hour cure time to do, do not use a drill- use a stick, pour controlled to avoid degassing).