| I worked in an aerospace engineering company and have worked with a lot of composites. My roommate is a mechanical engineer and his focus is on composites. I know I could make a carbon hood that is significantly lighter than stock while retaining stock operation, but I haven't because it is so much work. Tooling:
Your mold has to be strong, very strong. I have seen vac bags snap molds in half. You will also spend hours polishing the mold. My roommate bought a porter-cable buffer for his projects. Wetlay vs Prepreg
I have done both, and I actually prefer a kind of hybrid. Prepreg is a pain to get into corners and likes to pull back after being laid. Wetlay is equally as hard because you usually end up pushing the weave all over. What we (roommate and I) have started doing is laying a sheet of plastic over a flat surface (we made a melamine topped table) and wetting out the fiber on that, then flipping it over into the mold. Most common wet-lay resins are room temp-curing, and most pre-preg has to be oven cured. You have to take cure temp into consideration when planning your mold as well. (survivability and thermal expansion) Naturally you can custom order pre-preg with almost any resin that you want, but custom = $$$. Overall, do your research thoroughly before starting. It's easy to get in over your head.
-Dan
BlackholeZ VTC Solenoid Caps and Installation Procedure "Capitalization is the difference between helping your Uncle Jack off a horse, and
helping your uncle jack off a horse."
"'she' also likes to swap since I think I am going to need to give her to woody
again." - Dvlhntr
"full alphabetic boost mode" -
ChristopherTheOne
"Two oil eating, angry, spinning triangles of death." - turtleboy on rotary engines |
