Infusion Plan

the suspence is killing me!throw us a bone.

 

LOL, hurricane break. I got booted out of the space. Happens tomorrow after work, no matter what!

 

the infusion confusion !!

So fun had you all ?? or just you all alone having so much fun and games!!
all you need is a cat to chase a bird over the top of the pastic bag . holes many holes hundreds of holes even . I can just see the sign "cheap boat gift wrapped" but must take dead cat with it !! hehehehe !

 

- Batching out the portions of resin and hardener now.
- Have had the pump running for about an hour to get rid of any moisture, a drop test has the new bag holding much better though it still drops off with time.

Let you all know shortly ... and Thanks for all the help!!!!

 

make sure the temperature of your resin is around 25-27degrees celcius when you open the lines. Viscosity of infusion epoxy doubles with every 8 degrees celcius lower temp. Flow rate halves with double the viscosity etc...

 

Well its a failure I believe ... I ran out of resin, went too quickly. Sucked up a bit of air which in itself was not terrible but apparently had sucked more than my trap could hold and I think I ruined my pump.

Had to shut it off so that was the death blow. I think it would have been ok if I could have left it running, most of the boat infused very well. Damn!!

Now I have to start the scrapping process.

 

I was close, so sad! Now its going to slowly loose vacuum.

 

I think I know what happened. The inlet had too close proximity in one area (where it entered bag) to an outlet. That must have diverted flow straight to pump.

Well it's no longer a vacuum infusion, is it at least equal to hand layup or is it trash?

Thanks for everyones help. If I did it one more time I could make it work but if this is trash, then that is it for me

 

Back to the drawing board !!

WHY CANT YOU PICK UP THE PIECES AND SIMPLY CARRY ON ??
So you didnt have a plan B to fall back on !! theres always got to be a plan B with everything we do . Like i said in the posts a while back it all look so simple its fool proof but theres more to it than meets the eye . so many things can go wrong and did by the sound of it . how did you get resin in the suction line ?? DIDNT YOU HAVE A RESIN TRAP ??why did it get any where near the pump ?? Can you post some pictures !! these could help slve the problem and help some one else . From mistakes we learn !! is it not possible to infuse from where you are and fill the rest ?? why can this not be done .dosent the system not have allowances for stops and starts any where ?? if not why not ?? it makes hand laying look like childs play and so much simpler wouldnt you say !

 

1) Backup Plan - Take what corecell and glass I have left and build a jacuzzi.

2) I expected the inlet line to fill evenly regardless of entry point so I put my inlet into the bag at one end thinking the resin would shoot down the path of least resistance. What happened though was that the boat infused from the inlet point forward.

3) I will see what I can post, was not much time to take pics

4) To infuse from where I stopped? The boat completely infused, except for a little air when the resin ran too low, it would have been perfect ... except that the resin front did not advance like I expected, Instead of middle to sides it went .. middle to sides one end first, that is why too much resin got into the line. ... I can't figure it out ... going to look at the video I shot and see if it shows it.

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Amazingly the boat infused completely but I had to mix extra resin and that is why my trap overfilled. The resin did not kick off early, it was not a problem at all.

I believe the inlets should have been in the middle of the hull, however I don't understand it at this point as I fully expected to see the keel for the full length of the boat, wet out first.

The question now is - What happens? The boat is infused but not under a vacuum. Is it ruined?

Thanks,

Jorge

 

The question now is - What happens? The boat is infused but not under a vacuum. Is it ruined?

If its fully infused and if the resin has all gone hard why would it be ruined ?? as long as the resin is hard from end to end and its completely filled thats what you were infusing for !! If the resin is slightly airated and a few bubbles here and there so what ?

If you had done all you calculations correctly and you had weighed the resin and it had all gone in at that point you should have just clamped the resin line shut and then done a complete visual check and left the pump running !!

Where was the pump on the floor or up high on a bench ??

Even when we are doing simple vac bagging of any cores and when we used to vac glass layers we use a 6 litre pot collectorwith a plastic container inside i always run my suction pipes up high so resin has to climb to get away . the collector is a couple of meters away and sitting on a bench or even tied to a ladder alongside the mold so theres a gradual climb and the pipes from the collector to the pump goes straight to the roof and back down with at least 3 to 4 big coils on the way down to the floor then back up to where the pump is sitting ,usually on a work bench . Its all done as a part of the plan B thing and because it can be seen all the way and everywhere and is mostly at eye level !!!, in 20 years have had an issue ! over kill ?? always !!!
Rip off the plastic and other stuff and get a really good close look at what you actually got !!.

 

The infusion resin will take hours to set up. I will check it tomorrow, not tonight but the laminate is no longer compressed so I assume my fiber to resin ration is not going to be very good. All that resin that should be in the infusion media, peel ply and perf layer is probably just going to drain into the glass. Beyond that I have no idea what else could happen.

I took on the project because I wanted to learn infusion, it was a long shot. Mistakes are okay when you get another whack at it but expensive when it's do or die.

I could probably infuse 6 standup paddle boards with the rest of my materials. Maybe make some of my money back. Of course I can't just use this space indefinitely so if the hull is shot, I wont be doing any more infusions for awhile.

 

Look on the bright side you could have one nice looking boat as well just a little heavyer then you wanted but lighter than doing hand layup !!
Learning never comes cheap and never stops !! You did video while it was all happening ?? play play and replay and all will come crystal clear eventually .

Just remember Enthusiasum is the biggest killer of dreams !! but without dreams we are nothing and go no where !!

 

oh dear jorge... i knew the boat would infuse that end first, but i thought you said you could isolate the vaclines at multiple points along the edge therefore making it a non issue? if that was the case, why didnt you isolate that end first and keep things going?

But yes, i always use thru bag fittings so i can place the inlets whereever i want, always in the middle of the widest point/ longest pull, and the vac lines at furtherest point from the inlets. In most cases, i never have to isolate a vac line, as i plan the strategy so as the part fills evenly by design, not because i manipulate the vacuum points to get it to go where i need it to. - This is the knowledge that only comes with experience... the more infusions you do, the better your ability to design strategies becomes as you start to get a feel for where the resin will go and where the potential problems might be.

 

I pulled this from earlier in the thread, its in bold