Infusion - Without The Hype

[Fram]

Originally Posted by CatBuilder

Herman, only trouble is the inside must be laminated first. There is no way to laminate the outside until the inside is done with these molds.

Then read Herman's advice as inside hand laminated, outside either by hand or infused, or am I now too much thinking out of the box.

[CatBuilder]

Originally Posted by Fram

Then read Herman's advice as inside hand laminated, outside either by hand or infused, or am I now too much thinking out of the box.

No, you are right on.

That is exactly how I have done some of the hull halves.

The point of this thread, however, is to point out to people just starting out, that resin infusion is not cold fusion. It's just another way to wet out glass. Good sometimes, not so good at other times.

[Herman]

That is why most people use male frame moulds. Outside first. When laminating the outside you can pull hard on the fabric, and it will sit tight around the hull. Pulling on the fiber on the inside will always pull it loose, not tight, so that is where infusion jumps in. (among other reasons)

[Fram]

Originally Posted by Herman

That is why most people use male frame moulds. Outside first. When laminating the outside you can pull hard on the fabric, and it will sit tight around the hull. Pulling on the fiber on the inside will always pull it loose, not tight, so that is where infusion jumps in. (among other reasons)

Yes, in monohull world. Multihulls are often build in female frames. One of the reasons is that the multihull is much smaller and thus more cramped to get the foam hull done. There are some pros and cons for male vs female but for me the very appealing advantage was building the hull and deck at the same time without a joint between deck and hull. The "joint" between the two halves over keel and deck is quite straitforward and easy to do. In the finished hull you cannot speak about a joint anymore as it became a solid part of the laminate and hull.

[AndrewK]

Originally Posted by CatBuilder

The point of this thread, however, is to point out to people just starting out, that resin infusion is not cold fusion. It's just another way to wet out glass. Good sometimes, not so good at other times.

Exactly, to get good results with infusion it is all about getting the little details right. Nothing difficult but takes longer and costs more, this is the reason I did not recommend infusion to you as time and cost were your main priorities.

No I did not thermoform, but I only used 16 & 20mm foam in my hulls, only the flat bridgedeck is 25mm. I do not recommend thermoforming with batten molds only for solid surface molds. The reason being that it takes longer and is not as fair.

[CatBuilder]

Ah, that sounds nice. I have to use Henny's method, since that's all you can do while you are thermoforming.

There are a lot of choices to be made building a boat. I made the best once I could.

[Herman]

On male vs female moulds:

I have seen a lot of multihulls built over male moulds, and split left-right. (and even one that made no split at all, for the main hull. But I felt that was cumbersome.)

For the joint it does not really matter.

And I have even seen a guy making a single hull boat split left-right over male moulds, deck included. Unfortunately he did not take the advantage of making the deck-hull transition in a radius.