PrestonE
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 04/29/05
Posts: 817
Loc: Houston,Texas
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So, we ran out of Black Screen for Flow material, and bailing wire and the Spiral tubing for the manifold...had to run around town to pick up things...
This afternoon finally got going. Sanded the sealed mold forms.
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A few I enjoy,
and a few more in the works ;<)
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PrestonE
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 04/29/05
Posts: 817
Loc: Houston,Texas
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Wrapped paper around the taper for a pattern to cut, mylar, peel ply, flow material, carbon fiber, ect...
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A few I enjoy,
and a few more in the works ;<)
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PrestonE
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 04/29/05
Posts: 817
Loc: Houston,Texas
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Sprayed the MDF mold with 3M 77 adhesive to hold the first layer of nylon release in place.
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A few I enjoy,
and a few more in the works ;<)
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PrestonE
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 04/29/05
Posts: 817
Loc: Houston,Texas
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Nylon bagging on first, then Black screen Flow Material, then Peel Ply, and finally 2 layers of Carbon Fiber (weighing 27 grams)
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A few I enjoy,
and a few more in the works ;<)
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PrestonE
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 04/29/05
Posts: 817
Loc: Houston,Texas
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More Peel Ply and Flow material and the spiral tubing with a wire wrapped around it to prevent it from collapsing with the vacuum and heat.
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A few I enjoy,
and a few more in the works ;<)
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PrestonE
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 04/29/05
Posts: 817
Loc: Houston,Texas
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And finally a vacuum test...
Not so good, as I wrapped the reinforcing wires around the nylon Tee's and the seal is affected negatively...
Will have to remedy that tomorrow...
This is a whole lot more difficult than sealing against the flat aluminum plate...hopefully, the fix is easy in the morning and we can get to the infusion.
Some days just go better than others, but nothings broken 
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A few I enjoy,
and a few more in the works ;<)
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NeoDinian
Experienced Postmaster
Reged: 10/05/05
Posts: 12068
Loc: Rockford Illinois
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What about drilling a hole into the wood block and doing the vacuum from the inside? You can put some kind of mesh (like screen material perhaps) to cover the hole so the material don't get sucked in...
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Neo... (Jeff)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
10" LX200-GPS/SMT UHTC "Draco"
 Rockford, Il.
NeoDinian's Eye on the Sky!
Coming soon:
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PrestonE
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 04/29/05
Posts: 817
Loc: Houston,Texas
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Hi Jeff, That's not the problem...
Sealing the edges is likely our concern...
We will know more tomorrow...
Thanks for your thoughts...
Best Regards,
Preston
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A few I enjoy,
and a few more in the works ;<)
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PrestonE
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 04/29/05
Posts: 817
Loc: Houston,Texas
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So I started again this morning trying to seal the edges, like yesterday... 
This was going nowhere fast 
Change of tactics...we'll put a larger bag around the whole mold assembly.
Pic of outer seam taped cleanly.
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A few I enjoy,
and a few more in the works ;<)
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PrestonE
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 04/29/05
Posts: 817
Loc: Houston,Texas
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Getting everything straight with just 2 hands is a bit tricky,,,so we need some help 
 This made the job Much Easier
A straight edge and couple of squeese clamps...even better than a 2nd pair of hands, as they do not talk back or move at the wrong time 
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A few I enjoy,
and a few more in the works ;<)
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PrestonE
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 04/29/05
Posts: 817
Loc: Houston,Texas
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Lay the tape down nice and straight. It's smooth when finished and without any wrinkles to cause vacuum leaks.
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A few I enjoy,
and a few more in the works ;<)
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PrestonE
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 04/29/05
Posts: 817
Loc: Houston,Texas
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Finished taped seam, now that is just pretty and So Much Easier than all of the taping around the edge of the Mold.
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A few I enjoy,
and a few more in the works ;<)
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PrestonE
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 04/29/05
Posts: 817
Loc: Houston,Texas
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Well, let's see just how good of an idea this really will be for holding vacuum and conforming to the laminate stack
Sweet  just as good and easy as working with the flat aluminum molding sheet.
We will likely have to modify the curing oven a bit and then infuse tomorrow.
Regards,
Preston
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A few I enjoy,
and a few more in the works ;<)
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PrestonE
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 04/29/05
Posts: 817
Loc: Houston,Texas
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Ok, spraying the 3M contact on the Mold form was not the thing to do...
We will now have to slice the composite off of the mold form...as it will not move currently...
Better to find this out now, than on the Primary Baffle...
I think this is saveable...tomorrow will be telling...
Pics up tomorrow...
Regards,
Preston
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A few I enjoy,
and a few more in the works ;<)
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PrestonE
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 04/29/05
Posts: 817
Loc: Houston,Texas
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Insulation for curing oven around Secondary Baffle Mold ready to infuse with epoxy.
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A few I enjoy,
and a few more in the works ;<)
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PrestonE
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 04/29/05
Posts: 817
Loc: Houston,Texas
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We started the heater and vacuum, wait 10 minutes for everything to heat up, mix epoxy...but wait, what's happening  
This will not work, the tubing even with the steel wire wrapped around it for support is collapsing and will not allow the full vacuum to be effective...
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A few I enjoy,
and a few more in the works ;<)
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PrestonE
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 04/29/05
Posts: 817
Loc: Houston,Texas
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A little pipe insulation around the reinforced tubing will hopefully do the trick...
Infusion took 90 seconds from the time I started sucking the mixed epoxy out of the cup to when I clamped shut the intake tube.
We left the heat and vacuum on for 1 hour 15 minutes. Temperature was 140 F at the floor and 170 F at the top of the oven...which, may explain just why the tubing was deforming...
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A few I enjoy,
and a few more in the works ;<)
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PrestonE
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 04/29/05
Posts: 817
Loc: Houston,Texas
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Mold assembly after having cured. Notice that the tubing on the left or the intake still was diformed by the heat.
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A few I enjoy,
and a few more in the works ;<)
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PrestonE
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 04/29/05
Posts: 817
Loc: Houston,Texas
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And finally, we have removed the bagging material, 2 layers of flow material, and peel ply.
Set up on the Bridgeport with tne 90 degree head and a saw blade to rotate the mold assembly with the rotary table.
This was used as it produced the least amount of carbln fiber dust...note the shop vacuum pickup below the saw blade.
This produced nice square edges that are very clean...
Because we sprayed the mold surface with the 3M contact adhesive, the composite part will not slide off.
We will slit along the axis tomorrow and then seam the slit later...on the long Primary Baffle, I think we will just tape the Nylon bagging material to the Mold. Then it should just slide off when we are finished...
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A few I enjoy,
and a few more in the works ;<)
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Mike I. Jones
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 07/02/06
Posts: 1102
Loc: Fort Worth TX
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Geez I hate for you to have to cut the baffle tube to get it off the mold. Any way to bore out the mold like a deep bowl with a very thin wall, and collapse it from the inside? That would destroy the mold but so what, you're only making one baffle tube, and another mold would be easy to make again.
Mike
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