03-01-14, 07:17 PM
ha,
Well after an hour or so getting the mould glass smooth (pain in the ar*e around the screw hole posts etc) with 1200 grit paper and then G3 polishing compound I did my first lay up in years!
Regular fibre glassing using chop strand mat (basically if you have any fibre glass products its done using CSM) is relatively straight forward, your interested in maintaining consistent thickness and no air bubbles or bridging. Thats not really rocket science - although looking at some products on the market it is.... :eek
Using CF is a little different as you need (well not need but if you don't then its sort of defeating the point aesthetically ) to keep the weave pattern nice and even and reduce the number of cuts. That little extra detail makes a world of difference really.
So, I pulled my first part out and its not bad. I got it done with a single piece of uncut CF. As usual when revisiting old things you generally remember how you used to do it just after you have commited the part
So just as I started to get the position of the CF set I remembered how it is done properly But to do it that way when I remembered would have meant wasting the CF as it was now partially stuck to the gel coat and pulling it off would distort and fray the strands. I continued anyway in the interests of triggering more recollections.
So here it is:
![[Image: 11734535985_d39da46a16_z.jpg]](http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3740/11734535985_d39da46a16_z.jpg)
As you can see its far from useable, even if I filled&polished the bridge holes it would look a bit off due to some hazing and pattern distortion.
You will also notice that the CF pattern is not the regular 2x2 twill that is common today, this is plain weave that was much more common back in the day and is simply some left over bits. Plain is harder to manipulate into curves etc so it is good practice. I will be doing parts in the 2x2 twill as I need to order more cloth anyway. Personally I prefer the carbon/kevlar combo weave that used to be used on GP bikes in the late 80's early 90's and some of the early WSB Ducatis and Muzzy kwakers, that is the usual CF pattern but with flashes of yellow thread in it, looked proper trick.
So yeah, not perfect by any means but its coming back and the next part should be desirable/usable. Its pretty light and durable as it is. I am pleased with the mould, the part popped out easily enough, I was expecting a bit of a struggle with an unseasoned mould especially as some of the bolt posts are tight in. The best part was that it had no pinholes, the surfaces that are not hazed or dry are in fact very nice.
I could have kept this to myself but I wanted to show a bit of progress rather than "hey here is a perfect part"...
Well after an hour or so getting the mould glass smooth (pain in the ar*e around the screw hole posts etc) with 1200 grit paper and then G3 polishing compound I did my first lay up in years!
Regular fibre glassing using chop strand mat (basically if you have any fibre glass products its done using CSM) is relatively straight forward, your interested in maintaining consistent thickness and no air bubbles or bridging. Thats not really rocket science - although looking at some products on the market it is.... :eek
Using CF is a little different as you need (well not need but if you don't then its sort of defeating the point aesthetically ) to keep the weave pattern nice and even and reduce the number of cuts. That little extra detail makes a world of difference really.
So, I pulled my first part out and its not bad. I got it done with a single piece of uncut CF. As usual when revisiting old things you generally remember how you used to do it just after you have commited the part
So just as I started to get the position of the CF set I remembered how it is done properly But to do it that way when I remembered would have meant wasting the CF as it was now partially stuck to the gel coat and pulling it off would distort and fray the strands. I continued anyway in the interests of triggering more recollections.So here it is:
As you can see its far from useable, even if I filled&polished the bridge holes it would look a bit off due to some hazing and pattern distortion.
You will also notice that the CF pattern is not the regular 2x2 twill that is common today, this is plain weave that was much more common back in the day and is simply some left over bits. Plain is harder to manipulate into curves etc so it is good practice. I will be doing parts in the 2x2 twill as I need to order more cloth anyway. Personally I prefer the carbon/kevlar combo weave that used to be used on GP bikes in the late 80's early 90's and some of the early WSB Ducatis and Muzzy kwakers, that is the usual CF pattern but with flashes of yellow thread in it, looked proper trick.
So yeah, not perfect by any means but its coming back and the next part should be desirable/usable. Its pretty light and durable as it is. I am pleased with the mould, the part popped out easily enough, I was expecting a bit of a struggle with an unseasoned mould especially as some of the bolt posts are tight in. The best part was that it had no pinholes, the surfaces that are not hazed or dry are in fact very nice.
I could have kept this to myself
but I wanted to show a bit of progress rather than "hey here is a perfect part"...
Intentionally left blank