Carbon Fiber Bodywork

i finally made it through this entire thread. im doing a few little CF pieces of my own. not using gelcoat molds though. im using PETG and thermo forming the molds on a vacuum table. i want to vacuum bag my lay-up and hope to get a vacuum pump today. early in thread you put a clamp on the vacuum line to hold the vacuum instead of keeping the pump on for the duration of the cure. did this work? i would love to not have a pump running for hours on end. everything else has been incredibly helpful. thank you for sharing.

I have yet to be able to get a perfect seal on any bagged layup. Therefore I always run my pump until the resin sets. Normally I'll complete a layup in the evening and allow the pump to run overnight. I have an industrial GAST pump that cost me $50 on Ebay, so I really have no qualms about letting it run continuously, and it hasn't let me down yet

On the molds, you want to make sure they are dimensionably stable. I would think that any material that you can thermo form on a vacuum table may not hold its shape perfectly when being used as a mold. That said, don't be afraid to give it a try. If it workes it would make prototyping considerably faster :woohoo: Mold quality is paramount to a quality finished product. If you're going to paint it, its not as critical, but then why use carbon if you can't see it? :evil:
What are you making?