Panels

Hi Everyone

This is my first thread, I build rowing boats/skiffs. I'm wanting your thoughts on the best method to made clear carbon panels ( I've attached a picture for your reference) Made up of carbon-core cell foam then carbon on the back layer. At the moment I'm getting pin holes in my layup, which I'm having to spend time filling afterwards.

Do you know of any clear gel coats that would work on this (either Poly or Epoxy) Weight is also a big issue

Their has been threads regarding this in the past which mostly say infusion, which I'm not set up for.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Cheers
John

 

There are no pictures. What does 'carbon-core cell foam then carbon on the back layer' mean?

 

Set your self up for infusion - it wont cost you more than a few hundred dollars.

Then infuse it on a flat table tool - kinda like this;


Once cured it ends up like this;


You can get both sides perfectly shiney and pinhole free if you use a caul plate on the bag side, so the layup is squashed between 2 hard surfaces - such as melamine faced MDF or sheets of metal etc.

The only other way ive done it, is to wet lay it then vac bag it without using any breather medium over the laminate, just peel ply and the vacbag. As the vac starts to pull down, get out the creases out of the bag and then use a squeegee to push the excess resin to the edges of the panel, once it looks good and air bubble free, apply full vac and let it cure. After cure, peel off the peel ply and spray a low viscosity PE resin, thinned with extra wax in styrene, from a spray gun like you would a paint - ends up smooth and shiney also - but this took much practice to get everything right, infusion is actually much easier.

 

Thanks for your reply's, photo's should be attached this time. I use a 220g pw carbon, 130g core cell then 220 again for the vacuum side.

Interesting with infusion, I guess I've always got small amount say 2.5-3.0m2 panels. Would It increase the weight?

 

Photo here

 

Infusion will give you lighter panels... however you will use a little more resin due to the wastage and very light laminate. Once the laminate approaches 1000gsm infusion can actually reduce the total consumption of resin despite wastage thanks to the improved fibre volume fraction.

It depends however on how you choose to infuse and the type of foam or flow media you use.