4K views!

I just happened to check my stats today and see:

How exciting, 4000 views from all over the globe on a project that hasn't really started yet!

Neat!

As for us, we're still on track paying off outstanding debts and getting better positioned for a land/building purchase in a couple years. Meanwhile, I keep doing what I assume other builders must do... sit around and scrape the web for knowledge and advise from other builders.

Lately though, I've been looking at different steel buildings available for purchase in kit form. Something like this is what I'm looking at right now. That particular model has straight sides and is available up to 40' (12m) wide. The length can be as long as required and it can be erected in less than a week with a few helping hands. As a side bonus, there are no interior support beams are required, so it's no problem to remove the entire end wall to remove the boat if required.

Econospan

The Pioneer Steel Econospan building has a peaked roof, straight sided, and a clear span design, Our Econospan buildings have a uniform roof slope of 18 degrees. Pioneer Steel offers the most width options, as well as the largest width of any steel building company in the industry for this building type.

Want to know more? Click here.

Sticky Stuff Epoxy Dispenser Arrived

As promised, a brand new epoxy dispenser arrived on the doorstep today.

This is destined to be the "laminating" pump.
The one loaded with the epoxy blend used for general layups, filleting & etc.

I plan on getting another one (maybe a Model B - larger capacity) for Infusions.
That one will have the static mixing block installed.

 

Graduation Week - Epoxy Dispenser on the way

My daughter graduated High School (HomeSchool) this weekend.
We spent most of last week working on decorations. It was fun and quite a milestone in her life.
Three down, three to go!
She's been a real treat all these years, a big joker, mostly always happy and laughing about something.

This is certainly not the end for her, but rather the first step in the rest of her life.

Now we need to see about getting all the glitter removed from the carpets!

I did manage to score a brand new "Sticky Stuff Model A" epoxy dispenser off eBay from a nice guy down south. He had purchased it to build a composite aircraft but life events happened and those plans got over-written for the time being... It was never used, still in factory packaging.

It should be here tomorrow.

The hardener I'm using has a CPS value of 20, which is very thin and may require a replacement intake valve for "low viscosity" fluids. Michael Engineering says it will cost about $35 if necessary.
I plan on using this pump for regular laminating epoxy and picking up another pump with the mixing head/static mixer option for use as the Resin Infusion supply.

Still so much equipment, tools & supplies to purchase before I can get started - but things are falling into place and more importantly - the Visa is staying paid off!

Successful Infusions!

This past weekend I had my first success at Resin Infusion!

I made two test panels this time around. Both were connected to the same vacuum line via a "T" fitting.

The smaller piece is a 26 layer solid glass panel for the UFS bearing plate. It should have been 12mm thick, but it came up a bit thin. So, the actual pieces will need another layer or two to bring it up to the correct thickness. The plumbing for this piece also included a reverse pull tube to remove excess resin. I waited for a complete infusion and after pinching off the supply line I opened up the reverse line. Resin quickly moved out of the part bringing along a lot of air bubbles and foam. I watched the piece for about forty seconds before noticing the top of it starting to look dry. At that point, I pinched off the reverse tube and waited for the epoxy within the part to redistribute itself.
Twenty minutes later, the part looked the same and the foaming in the reverse pull tubes had settled down to clear epoxy again. The piece looked like it needed just a little bit of resin reintroduced, but I had already removed the resin supply and cut the intake tube. So I took a small piece of packing tape and a sewing needle to puncture the reverse pull tube. As soon as the tip of the pin made it through the tubing the resin was quickly pushed back toward the part. I used the packing tape to reseal the hose and stop the flow. An easy resolution and a good test. In one of the pictures below, you can see it being held up blocking the sun. There are no visible air bubbles. Unfortunately, I did not weigh the piece before the infusion.

The bulkhead panel was a test to see how well the resin would flow through the punched holes through to the  other side. I installed Resin Distribution media on the top side only to see how gravity and vacuum would distribute to the bottom.This worked OK - except I can see some bubbles in the drilled holes.
The bottom was a bit drier than the top. I believe it will be better to skip the drilling and simply run distribution media along the top and bottom to make the panels.

First successful Infusions

Bulkhead and solid glass laminate test panels

11mm of solid glass - no visible bubbles

Test Panel Properties

 Some workflow items still need to be sorted out - most importantly is a better resin supply system. Dipping Resin out of a metal container is not efficient and leads to a big mess. I'm looking for a couple "Sticky Stuff" dispensers to take care of that part. The next small issue is to work out some inexpensive way of reliably holding the resin pickup tube into the bottom of the resin supply container. The PE hose wants to curl up and resume the shape it had on the roll. I will try heating it up while holding it straight to make it relax. The pickup tube idea is scratched for now simply due to unnecessary connections in the system. Anything you can do to eliminate a connection is good practice!

Last thing for this post is resin breaks, whoever came up with that is genius! The resin will always find the shortest path the vacuum, usually race-tracking somewhere along the part, even if it is a solid piece of glass. That is until it hits the resin break. At that point, the flow will stop and is then forced to fill out the rest of the part. It does however require some patience and faith...

I've noticed you can tell how far along the infusion actually is by observing the resin breaks. When they are saturated, your piece is also saturated. But do take that with a grain of salt as my experience level is extremely limited!

Weekend failures

Another disappointing weekend on the books for Infusion testing.

I tried to duplicate the original layer test and attempted to make a "V" shape with the Resin Distribution media to force it through the thick layers of fabric before taking a shortcut. This seemed to work, but I cut the distribution media too far away from the vacuum port and the infusion stalled after an hour (moving only 7cm past the tip of the distribution media).

"V"-shaped distribution media, cut too short

Once the infusion stalled, I just stopped it and removed all the materials into the garbage.
No sense in letting it hang around and take up space.
The next infusion was a perforated piece of foam (no pictures) to simulate a double-sided bulkhead infusion.
Things were going well until I clamped down too hard on the resin inlet line trying to throttle the flow and cut the tubing. Then I tried putting on another clamp which weighed down the inlet port causing it to pop out of the tacky tape seal. That was because I was using the smaller diameter PE line instead of 1/2".
Then to finish off the disaster, I tried replacing the line with a 1/2" tubing and ended up ripping the bag.

A "not so funny" comedy of errors - so I just sat there with a stupid look on my face and decided it was time to clean up for the day.

The next day, I decided no more lay-ups and infusions in the same day!
Layups will be on one day - Infusions will be the next.
It's just too much for me at this stage, plus there is a whole different set of tools and supplies required for each operation. Leading to clutter and chaos.

Changing gears, I spent the next day working on the beam mold fabric layup.
Still some more layers to do yet.

Two-Piece Patterns for Beam Recess

 

Some Carbon layers

More Carbon Uni

Still some more glass to layup

I also built a valve assembly to regulate the resin flow.

I realize you can purchase disposable valves, but those prices can add up and I'm curious to see if a "real" valve can be cleaned out and reused since the resin is relatively thin and will nearly drain out completely.

I'm thinking a vinegar bath with some Q-Tips will do the trick..?

Another problem I ran into was inadequate Resin supply mixture. The spreadsheet I developed to calculate the required amount needs some modification to add more for the disposable layers. An easy fix, but maybe not even required in the long run? I've found an epoxy distribution machine that has the option to add an inline static mixing block. The static mixers are expensive, but the idea of simply pumping out what is needed/as needed along with less air trapped into the mix and a continuous fresh supply being fed into the part might well end up off-setting those other costs.

Next weekend (depending on supplies remaining) I'll try another layer stack and  bulkhead infusion test.

First Infusion - Success, Failure & Lessons Learned

First ever infusion yesterday!
Overall, I think it was a success despite a failed part. The goal of this first test was to get a feel for working with all these components and get an accurate thickness plate for compressed 18oz fabric.

I cut a 75x10mm piece of 18oz 0/90 and then added an additional 18 layers of fabric on top of it in a stair-stepped fashion. Over that went the Peel-Ply and then the Perforated film. After that, the Resin Distribution Media and finally the Vacuum bag. The work was laid up on a piece of waxed glass.

Fabric Cut and laid up

Perforated Film over Peel Ply

Vacuum pulled

Drop Test

I pulled the vacuum down to 50mbar to do the drop test. I was losing vacuum pretty quickly and quickly found the problem to be the tapped barb fittings located on the PVC vacuum canister I built earlier. A seal of tacky tape around the base of the fittings solved that problem and that was it for the leaks found. So far, so good!

After this, I pulled the Vacuum down to 15mbar for the infusion and proceeded to open up the Resin supply. I was surprised at the speed of the resin front through the part and failed to slow it down adequately, so I'll have to work on a better solution for that.

Total Infusion time was about 3.5minutes.

It looked perfect from the top and I was as happy as could be!
However, the next day I flipped the part and saw the failure:

Large un-infused area

Un-Infused area

I sat around for a while looking at the part, feeling pretty down about the whole thing when I saw my error. As it turns out, I had installed the Resin Distribution Media past the side edges of the part. I believe what happened is the resin infused through the fabric until the thickness became so great that it simply became easier to flow through the Distribution Media on the sides of the part rather than pushing through 19 layers of glass. If I had seen this, it is possible the problem might have resolved itself by letting the resin continue to run instead of cutting it off when it hit the resin break.? Also, if you look closely there are several resin starved areas throughout the part. I believe this is due to the resin speed being too fast.

I have another few tests planned, but I need to get some decent scissors before trying again!

As for all the materials and equipment used, I think they performed flawlessly - from the pump to the leak detection to the tacky tape, fabrics, resin & vacuum bag. This failure was purely operator error and inexperience.

I did get the thickness measurements I was after and now I have a cool memento to hang on the wall!

We'll see how it goes next time...

What to do when Epoxy is curing?

Arrange samples received for a photo shoot, that's what!

AirTech sent me a great sample supply.
I was so happy when I heard the delivery truck pull up!!

• GreenFlow 75   (Resin Distribution Media)  (3 yards)
• Yellow Tacky Tape   (3 Rolls)
• EconoPly E   (Peel Ply)   (1 yard)
• EconoLease   (Silicon Treated Peel Ply for release)   (1 yard)
• EconoWeave   (Bleeder/Breather)   (1 yard)
• Ipplon   (Bagging film)   (54"x10')
• Securelon Big-Blue L100   (Bagging Film)   (1 yard)
• WL3700 Perforated Film   (60"x10')

I should have enough materials to do at least three infusions. They also sent a HUGE catalog with all their product offerings! The packaging was first rate (like everything else I've received so far) and arrived within a week.

Customer Service was great!
I worked with:
     Jason Laughlin, Account Manager
     jlaughlin@airtechintl.com
     (714) 899-8100 (work)

=====================================

My Epoxy order got messed up, I called Endurance again to get a status and was told they had to check with the lab on when it would be ready. I didn't receive a call back, so I'll be checking with them again on Monday. No huge rush though, since I'm still working on the Beam model.

Speaking of which, progress photo's below.
Before installing the foam pieces, I coated the outsides with two layers of epoxy to better ensure an airtight seal. I think that'll work, but time will tell.

Angled foam inserts on sides of Beam Recess Mold

Then I added a foam section at the rear to serve as an infusion flange.

 

 


Now I'm just working on the Epoxy fillets. I definitely learned that I will need at least a Tyvek apron and some sleeves. Not to mention a longer stick to smooth out the fillets. It's actually going quite well, but I can see the potential for a really big mess if things got carried away. The crazy thing with epoxy is that one tiny little smudge on your skin quickly transfers to everything else it touches as an even larger sticky spot... like some sort of multiplying affect! It doesn't seem possible, yet it happens - must be magic.

Vacuum Canisters & Flow Control

I built a few Vacuum Canisters that still need to be leak checked.
Since they are sealed at both ends (disposable), I weighed and marked the Empty and Full weights as reference.

The larger one will go between the part and the VacMobile while the small one(s) will be inserted into the reverse pull line.

The Reverse Pull line is referred to as the "Supplementary Vacuum Line" in the VacMobile Diagram:

I also found these small pinch clamps over at Amazon.com

They won't completely pinch off the resin intake line, but they will do a great job at throttling the flow.

Epoxy Distributor

I did locate an Epoxy Distributor a while back but failed to mention it earlier:


Endurance Technologies, Inc.
275 Bridge Point Dr.
South Saint Paul, MN  55075
Phone: (800) 755-8568
FAX: (651) 451-9728

www.epoxi.com

See PDF (near bottom) for more information.

The specs listed are the best I've come across so far, but I do wish the Gel Time was a bit longer.
Different formulations are available, but the strength numbers start dropping pretty fast when you lengthen the cure time. The company is eight hours away, so if I ever order a large amount I could probably save some money by picking it up myself..? They will sell direct to the end user and they do offer a custom formulation service if you need something special.

I'm looking at the 2110/9218 System for Infusions:

And the 4227A-9226B Hand Lay-Up Laminating System for fillets, fill coat & etc.

I haven't ordered a small batch to test with yet.

Fabric Samples from V2 Composites

I've been doing a lot of research to find a company to provide the fabric materials for the build.

Yesterday, I received a very generous sample pack from V2 composites. 

One yard each:

• 12oz (45/45)
• 12oz (0/90)
• 18oz (0/90)
• 18oz Kevlar (0/90)
• 18oz Kevlar/Glass (0/90)
• 9oz Carbon Uni (V-Web construction)

They all looked very good with a nice smooth finish and very even stitching.

18oz Bi-Directional (0/90)

18oz Double-Bias (45/45)

9oz Carbon Uni (0)

The Carbon Uni is interesting as it is available in two formats; the traditional stitched tow and the "V-web" layout shown above where the fibers are sandwiched between and lightly glued to a very thin veil webbing. The "V-web" is advertised as being easier to handle, but I'll probably be going with the traditional stitched fabric for the boat.

What really interested me about V2 Composites is the welded stitch construction of their fabrics. Some other samples I received tended to fall apart very easily after being cut and handled due to the slippery glass fiber bundles. The pictures above show some samples after being cut with a lousy pair of scissors, shaken out, inspected and passed around for all to see. They held together really well. I tried cutting a 50x50mm piece of Kevlar, but my scissors were not up to the job and just butchered the material. However, what was left over still mostly held together - which was very impressive! 

Excerpt from V2 News page:

 “We closely examined our markets, searching for specific areas of product weakness. One of the recurring concerns for customers of composite reinforcements has been the instability of the stitch matrix that holds the reinforcement fibers in place. Existing warp/weft knit stitching technology was just not adequate for holding the fabric matrix together when cut into complex shapes.”

Horne explains, “During fabric/resin lay-up, when a stitch line is disturbed or fractured by a roller or brush, the stitch yarn can become caught and may very easily run out of the fabric.” This problem is similarly observed in woven fabrics, which tend to fall apart at the edges when cut into complex shapes. Horne continues, “The problem has been frequently reported and is very annoying to customers. You can imagine laminate workers trying to cut these yarns or strings (as they are called) with resin-gummed scissors. It’s a harrowing chore.”

The industry’s move towards computerized cutting tables, in order to save time and maximize pattern lay-ups, is accelerating the demand for fabrics that cut more cleanly, and which hold their edge without tangling up around the cutting head.

V2 is addressing this problem with its unique V-Lock™ non-run stitch technology. According to Horne, the V-Lock process welds the ascending stitches together on the loop side of the fabric only. The stitch medium remains polyester (as opposed to low-melt vinyl ester sheathing, etc.), therefore eliminating contamination or off-gassing during the lamination/cross-linking process.

V-Lock technology also makes it possible for fabrics to be bonded using a looser stitch. According to Horne, “Over-tension in stitching can restrict resin flow through and along the reinforcement fibers, forcing fibers to lay flatter in a lower profile and thereby increasing fiber volume fraction.”

Kevin Horne, president and CEO of V2 Composites, Inc. reports, “These high-performance reinforcement fabrics don’t unravel. The added value for customers is significant in terms of reduced waste and improved longevity of their pre-cut dry reinforcement materials.”

The V-Lock system is proprietary and involves precise thermal coupling management technology. According to Horne, the process takes place as the fabric is manufactured so that no secondary handling is required.

Horne concludes, “V-Lock technology is taking composite reinforcement fabrics to a higher level of performance. That’s good news for an industry that is aggressively pursuing value-added solutions for infrastructure, construction, heavy-duty transportation, sports and recreation, aerospace, automotive, marine, and other commercial applications.”

V2 was very responsive to email and telephone inquiries, they were efficient at sending out samples and best of all they will do direct sales! I received price quotes, but chose not to publish here. I worked with:

   Dave Maas

   Business Development
   Office: 704.806.1539
   dmaas@V2composites.com

Now for a supplier of foam...

Leak Down Check Complete

After spending some more time working with the pump and doing the obligatory "boiling water" routine for the kids, it was time to get serious and see how tight the machine really was. I did a thirty minute pump down, took note of the final reading and shut the valves off and then turned off the motor. At first, I checked the gauge every hour and was relieved to see the pressure holding steady. Twenty four hours later I was happy to see an absolute pressure rise of only 1-2mbars (the gauge was bouncing between the two).

That is a GREAT number and removes a huge variable for a successful reason infusion!

Documentation from VacMobiles shows a pressure rise of 3mbar in 10 minutes is acceptable for small, or critical parts and large parts call for 3mbar/minute maximum.

...now if I just had something to infuse...

Loose Gland

I was taking a closer look at the bottom side of the lid when I noticed one of the gland fittings was slightly loose. A little tweak with the wrench was good for another 5mbars! :-)

VacMobile Arrived!

How Awesome! What kind of world do we live in today where an item can be purchased by a common person from someone else on the other side of the planet and have it show up on their doorstep just shy of 65 hours later! (Even going through customs)

VacMobiles and FedEX - what a great combination!

As for the VacMobile Modular 2S... what can I say. Expensive, but worth it!
Very high quality components. Thick steel hardware, Solid aluminum lid, great connectors and fantastic packaging.

I did have a small problem with the air intake filter assembly and gland nut falling off during shipping. I guess the unit fell over at some point? Evidently, the O-ring packing fell out of the gland nut assembly resulting in a leak at that point. Once I figured that out, I put a new O-ring in there from the spare parts kit and it easily and quickly pulled down to 18mbar (Spec for pump is 20mbar).

In one of the pictures above, you will see a couple tubing loops made for testing. They were set up in no time and allowed me the opportunity to put a pin prick into one of the hoses to check out the VPE Ultrasonic Leak Detector. The leak was easily found and a piece of tape "fixed" the problem.

Next up is more tools, parts & planning...