Custom Extended Swim Platform

It doesn't look sealed. Is that just a progress picture?

How many feeds? Do you need to have vac to the top portion?

Lots of questions. I am going to try some infusion, but just for fun.

 

Yes, as indicated in the post, a progress picture. I still need to do the runners. The one runner shown in the picture is the first of eight (8) runners. I attached it to some peel ply so I can remove it cleanly after the infusion, but now realize that I need to have some flow media between the runner and the peel ply.

Next time at it will be Thursday PM (April 25th). I hope to finish the runners and then do the bagging material. Probably will do the infusion the next day.

 

It is looking good. Still wondering if you need to pull vac from above.

A big job. Wishing you the best. Dan

 

Happy Easter !!!

I plan on pulling vacuum from the 'forward' edge of the platform (closest edge in the picture). I think that some peel ply and breather cloth above the flow media along with CSM below the flow media in the center of the forward edge should pull the resin toward a central location.

Here is a diagram of what I am thinking for the runner setup . . .


The resin will be fed into the mold from 4 input locations and along the perimeter of the rear half of the mold. Then, into the inner sections of the mold via the 8 secondary runners. Hopefully, having longer runners toward the outer edges of the mold and shorter runners towards the middle will bring resin from the rear and outsides of the mold towards the front and center where there will be a vacuum line.

Any comments on this setup are welcome (please ).

 

I can't offer help; it would be unprofessional. Hope others can. The only place that makes my uneducated brain worry is the lower edges of the raised sections. For some reason, they make me nervous like a caveman and thunder.

 

No worries . . . I did not know that cavemen were nervous about thunder.

One of the main differences between this infusion and the previous infusion (making the platform mold) is that I fed the resin into the center areas of the piece and out to the perimeter. this infusion is different in that I plan on feeding resin across the piece. My main reason for doing the resin in this way is because of the rubrail backing pieces around the rear perimeter that I have embedded in the DBM1708 cloth. I would like those areas to get the first & most resin saturation, since they have the most cloth to saturate. My testing has shown the best saturation is closest to the runners, which certainly makes sense.

I think a main concern of any resin runner setup is if it will wet-out in a manner that will avoid trapping any air pockets/dry spots. Hopefully the direction of flow and the number of secondary runners will achieve that in this case. I have found that an elevated resin pot provides good resin flow into the runner system. However, I keep a resin roller in hand in case the resin flow needs a little bit of persuasion.

 

Oh, how silly of me. So long as you don't damage the bag, a bit of mechanical help is good. You just need to avoid bridging the bag. Of course, this still doesn't help on the bottom of a two sided infusion, but doing one side at a time alleviates that worry.

Thanks for the reply!

 

I am using the Stretchelon 800 bagging material, which seems to be pretty durable. It is able to stretch to the shape of the mold, so you need fewer pleats and thus less wrinkles. The material seems to be pretty tough, so I think the occasional use of a resin roller should be OK. ( I hope )

 

After a bit of un-scientific analysis, I think that there may be some dry spots on the upper portion of the mold between the 2 raised areas, if the resin flows far enough laterally at the step-down portion before the upper portion has filled in. So, I am thinking about a couple of extra short runners on the upper portion of the mold.

No real way to tell for sure, but in guesstimating by the distance of resin travel from the resin runners and associated time delay as the runners fill, it looks like the step-down portion could possibly fill in before the upper surface has filled.

Another thought I had was to tilt the mold at enough of an angle so that the 'fill side' is lower than the vacuum side.

 

Quick question . . .

I have seen some YouTube stuff where spray adhesive is used to attach cloth, peel ply, or flow media to odd shapes of molds. In seeing this, I assume the styrene in the resin quickly dissolves the adhesive. Is that true? Is using spray adhesive a common/recommended practice?

I'm not sure what becomes of the adhesive residue

Comments or input ? (Thanks )

 

The good stuff does dissolve in the the resin, but it’s not uncommon to use 3M super 77 which doesn’t.

If used sparingly the non dissolving products can be OK, apply too much and they can cause problems.

 

@ondarvr - Do you mean "Great Stuff" which is an expanding foam?

I was referring to more like the 3M Super 77 spray, which I have used in re-upholstering. I might just avoid using it, or if I do use it sparingly as you suggested.

 

Composites One carries a couple of styrene soluble tackifiers for holding the glass in place. It’s not as sticky as the Super 77, but it doesn’t compromise the laminate if too much is applied

 

Update . . .

I did the infusion. I had trouble with the Stretchelon material. . . I didn't cut it correctly and ended up not having enough. So, It was conventional bagging with pleats. the infusion started out OK . . .





After a while, I noticed a problem in that the bagging material developed a tear near one of the inlet fittings . So, I had to do a bit of patchwork on the fly.

Here is the final infusion. The resin did not make it out to the extremes of the pylons , so I ran a separate infusion into those areas. Not sure how that will work out. . . time will tell.



Here is the mold/platform after removing the bagging material and cleaning up a few wrinkles.



The next day I worked on the larger flat area to add more laminations. I added a layer of thickened resin and some CSM, some Woven Roving in the stress areas on the pylons, then a DBM1708 layer. Now setting up for the core material, then a few more layers of DBM1708.

 

Big job. Hope things turn out.