radiant hoses vs full surface mold heat

[allan white]

I have been attempting to build vacuum infused single canoes but have been having problems small bubbles in my final hulls. I have been using MAS infusion epoxy. To date, I have assembled the boats and added a insulated wood top to the mold and heated the space above the mold to 120 degrees F. I have an ultra sonic leak detector and I dont think my assembly is leaking. Maybe it is?

I have been toying with the idea adding a outer FG enclosure ( 2" bigger than the outside diameter of the mold) to my existing mold to be able to create a hot water system that would use water piped from my water heater to quickly and evenly heat my mold to 150 degrees F. I was planning on bulding this out of 4-6 layers of 10 oz.FG. I'm hoping this would aide in the infusion and eliminate the bubble?

An alternate idea would be to heat the outside of the existing mold with a pipe system similar in nature to a residential radiant floor system. A downside of this would be the heat would be less even than the "full encloser" idea. I was thinking the pipe system might be 4" oc over the entire mold.

Has anyone had any experience with similar situations? Any help would be very appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Allan

[wet feet]

This may not be relevant to your particular application but have you tried vacuum de-gassing the resin after mixing?You can do this by using something like a paint spraying pressure pot and standing the container of mixed resin in the middle and applying vacuum via the connector.Obviously,un-used connectors will need to be blanked off.After a couple of minutes,you are likely to find a layer of froth on top of the resin where the air that was stirred in while mixing has been drawn.Given the amount of work in the modifications you describe,it might be worth experimenting with a cupful of resin-good luck.

[allan white]

Wet Feet,

Thanks for the suggestion. I have a pressure pot and I will try it for sure.

Thanks Allan