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Wet layup chopper gun1/8/2024 ![]() ![]() Laughs aside, one of few skills for which I actually have formal training is high performance composites. We used to call the guys who ogled all the carbon parts 'Porsche faggots' We would even paint many of our e-glass parts black to keep them guys happy ! We set two class track records in two Rolex 24's so our cars were fast. They spray your gelcoat ( it does have a gelcoat finish, yes?)and lay on the laminate.Ĭlick to expand.I worked in auto racing part time for a couple of years working on a pair of Porsches running in (then) IMSA GT1. Then coat with PVA (polyvinyl alcohol) it's a water disolving release agent. If that's the case then machine the foam and put a thin layer of bondo on and sand and polish. I hope you're going to make a bunch of these otherwise the mold building effort will kill you for 1 or 2 pcs. your local fiberglass distributor can give you some option. So use other material and after all of the bondo and sanding then coat it with tooling gelcoat and then polish and apply the mold prep. Laminar is right in that it's a pain to work with, I'd say go with straight polyester resin and E glass with a foam core.Īs for the mold, any polyester based product will disolve styrofoam. kevlar is lower density the standard fiberglass (E glass). If it needs to be light then a foam core between the inner an outer skins increase the cross section without adding a lot of weight. if weight isn't an issue then just use solid glass. If you need the finished piece to be stiff then you need to increase the cross section. But if it's to make a buck, It's hard to beat the look of Italian Chrome. Something most of the racing world has apparently overlooked. This it total BS as properly designed structures usually outweigh material selection in performance. But what really bothers me is in most of the racing world, if it's carbon, it's "high performance". Usually a mold is fiberglass, sand, bondo, sand, primer, sand, primer, sand, primer, sand, and a bunch of mold release wax. Make your mold and finish it with whatever you can to make it as smooth as you need it. As far as epoxy, it's hard to beat the West System 105 and the appropriate West System hardener. I like it better than glass and it's easy see the splinters in you skin. ![]() If your part is just for shape, use glass. Modern sailplanes use a sandwich of Kevlar and Carbon in the forward fuselage area for crash protection. Carbon on either side of Kevlar makes a nice sandwitch as Kevlar is lighter so it acts like a core that is very damage tolerant. You can just use it in small patches to give the flat areas some section. What can be done with it is to laminate it inside of other materials such as glass or carbon. That's probably why it was laying around the shop. Hard to cut, drills with a fuzzy hole, etc. I'd stay away from Kevlar unless you require it's specific properties. What are your parameters? Is this part structural, weight critical, etc. ![]()
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