Carbon Fiber Bodywork

After placing the first 2 layers of fiberglass, I set the coremat in place, poured more epoxy on and used my new handy dandy roller

The remiander of the layup went along just like the first one, with one exception. Laying down the last 2 pieces of fiberglass, I was getting air pockets that I could not get out.

It turns out the air pockets were being created by deformations in the fiberglass cloth from being folded, so the cloth wouldn't lay flat, even when saturated. TIP- buy and store your composite fabrics on a roll so it will perform as designed (and expected).

I decided to leave it be. This is the kind of thing the vacuum pump is supposed to eliminate

Learning from my previous experiment, I layed out the sealing tape on the bagging material this time

And I slice a little cross in the center of the bag for the vacuum fitting with a razor blade

The perforated release film goes over the layup like before...

When I set the bagging material, I put pleats lining up with the corners of the coremat. I got 3 sides of the bagging film sealed and realized I hadn't cut out the breather/bleeder cloth, DOH!

Alas, I got it together

I plugged in the pump, hoping to get to the mold before it sucks down, so that I can coach the pleats along the edge of the coremat. The problem is, the pump is too powerful and the 3 seconds it takes to get back to the mold it too long to do anything :dry: Oh well, we'll see what happens. I'm still amazed at the force generated by the vaccum though

To help the epoxy set up and cure, I rigged a benchtop "autoclave" consisting of an electric space heater and a piece of cardboard to redirect the hot air. If I tip the fan facing down, an auto shut off feature engages. Damn safety devices.... :laugh:

I let this set up for 3 hours before I shut off both the vacuum pump and the heater, and let it sit until morning

id suggest changing the oil in the vacuaum pump after each use if you're going to run it continuously for 3 hrs at a time

So, does our protagonist overcome the obstacles in his path and win the hearts of his Kz brethren? Or does the evil composite laminates snuff our village idiot in a fiery ball of epoxy fumes?Stay tuned to find out! :laugh:

I stripped the aluminum plate this morning, still apprehensive about the car wax mold release. While it was certainly more difficult to remove, it still demolded fairly easily AFTER I got a squeege under it


Plummen, it is a continuous oil system. There is a small oil reservoir in the intake side that wicks oil into the pump, it doesn't have a recirculating system like some pump designs, but I wouldn't have known the oil change intervals on a reservoir system, so thanks

The good news is that I eliminated most of the issues I had with the first experiment. I had no visable trapped air pockets inder the coremat, there were no air pockets along the edges of the coremat and the laminate appeared monolithic :woohoo:

Now for the not so good: I don't think it will show up in the pic, but there is micro porosity across the face of the laminate. Like it wasn't properly saturated...hmmmm, like I said before, I need to be more generous with the resin. The excess is just going to be wicked up to the bleeder cloth, so there is no reason to be stingy. I gotta get that through my head :blush:

I AM encouraged by the results though

Just so everyone doesn't think this thread topic is a misnomer, I have been working on the sidecover and mold box. I made the mold boke out of malamine covered particle board, giving the box a smooth, easy to seal surface:

I'll spray the inside of the box with PVA prior to setting the master to make it easier to demold the master. I want the box to last so that I can use it to cast the mold for the right side as well.