bleed and feed

Discussion in 'Fiberglass and Composite Boat Building' started by Tungsten, Dec 19, 2013.

  1. Tungsten
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    Tungsten Senior Member

    Over the holidays I'm gonna try an infusion test to get my feet wet.I have everything(I hope) that I need but I have a question.I have some enka channel that I'm not quite sure how to rig up.
    I was thinking spiral wrapped in peelply for vacuum and the enka for the feed,do I just pipe in a tube to the end of the enka? Could I use it for the vacuum side also?Do I need to seal the tubing into the enka or does it just sit in there?

    Happy Holidays
     
  2. Tungsten
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    Tungsten Senior Member

    All I can come up with is to cut a slit into the middle and insert a T connector,maybe a short piece of spiral on each end so the scrim doesn't crush under vac and block the flow.
    I'll post a photo later.
     
  3. Jim Caldwell
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    Jim Caldwell Senior Member

  4. Tungsten
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    Tungsten Senior Member

    Thanks Jim,
    I had a chance to do a small test,I found the small piece of Enka to be too fast or allow too much resin at too fast of pace.
    I'll try just a small chunk of spiral next with a smaller inlet hose.

    Tungsten........Wasteing resin 200 grams at a time.
     
  5. groper
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    groper Senior Member

    First thing I figured out, was to use less expensive consumables for infusion... You will go broke using stuff like Enka channel etc....

    Infusion works by way of permeability. The more permeable the fabric, media, core material ie whatever is under the bag, the faster and further the resin will flow. Areas of same permeability will flow at the same rate. You can use literally hundreds of things as flow media, same goes for vac lines and resin feed lines etc - most of it bought cheap from places like Home Depot...

    Get yourself some airtech RIC's or resin infusion connectors. They only cost a few dollars each, i usually get buy with only 4 of them on a large panel infusion. They make through bag hose connections simple.
     
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  6. Tungsten
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    Tungsten Senior Member

    Ya the Enka is just too thick,wastes too much resin.
    I'm finding the green airteck mesh is also too fast,I'm experiencing the resin front moves across the mesh quite quickly then the glass wets out behind.My guess is my resin is just not thin enough to wet out the glass that fast.I have a long open time so I need some sort of mesh to slow things down.I don't know maybe there is no way to slow it down(with mesh) other then thinner resin.

    I think my best chance is to slow down how much resin I feed in.

    Nothing but time on my hands now.....where's that beer!
     
  7. groper
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    groper Senior Member

    Use 30% shade cloth as a flow media... works great, not too fast not too slow
     
  8. Jim Caldwell
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    Jim Caldwell Senior Member

    I sometimes use vinyl window screen 90, 45 90 45 degrees, each layer is about .010 thick or .40 thick total the same as my red of fast infusion mesh but flows at about 2/3 the rate with stretch film.
     
  9. Tungsten
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    Tungsten Senior Member

    Shade cloth is pretty hard to find here with winter set in full force.
    I was going to ask about window screen,Thx Jim I guess a few layers of it is needed.I also see they have pet screen,a little thicker with wider spacings.
     
  10. Jim Caldwell
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    Jim Caldwell Senior Member

    You can also adjust the flow rate by varying the amount of layers of screen.
     
  11. groper
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    groper Senior Member

    Can use all sorts of stuff... Most types of mesh, netting etc will work as they create little pathways by holding the bag up off the job a tiny amount.... Experiment with what ever you can source cheap and readily available.

    Otherwise, be done with it and usd infusion grid scored core material, or stuff like soric etc which also increases permeability, allows resin to flow, and then becomes a permanent part of the laminate after cure....
     
  12. Tungsten
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    Tungsten Senior Member

    Tried some screen 3 layers,worked just fine a little on the slow side maybe.

    Looking at the Airtech 75 green mesh its diamond shaped areas are made with one layer at 45 on top of the other to create the shapes.

    Trying to wrap my head around how the resin flows through?Is it the size of diamonds or the way its made with one layer on top of the other.Screen material is flat with what looks like squares punched out to leave a pattern.
    Hope this makes sense.
     
  13. groper
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    groper Senior Member

    I posted this ealier, maybe you missed it?

    OR, you could swallow the blue pill and find out how deep the rabbit hole really goes by reading the following paper - choice is yours Neo :p

    View attachment Infusion theisis.pdf
     
  14. Tungsten
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    Tungsten Senior Member

    Ok ya I got it,i missed your post #11

    Next question,is there a way to infuse both sides of a core at once without drilling holes?Or even with holes do you still use a flow media on the mould side?This would be on a flat mould.

    Thanks
     

  15. groper
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    groper Senior Member

    You really should read the above paper neo...

    There are many ways to solve most problems, infusion can be done in many differrent ways. What method you choose will depend on what your doing with it, what your comfortable with, and what materials and equipment you have.

    You can infuse both sides at once via perforations only, OR flow media both sides with no perforations... The foam core manufacturers will supply the foam any which way you want it - I'd recommend the infusion grid scored foam, this way you don't need flow media at all...
     
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