How To Do Perfect Vacuum Resin Infusion of a Carbon Fibre (Fiber) Part - Basic Tutorial 

Ten years ago!!! That is top shelf dedication. This video is still so relevant in 2021... Well done! 🇦🇺🤜🏼🤛🏼🍀🍀🍀😎🤓

Yes, definately. Lots of our customers do this and they say it improves their results. Strangely we've never needed to do this and we always get bubble-free perfect results but so many of them do it that there must be something in it. The catch-pot itself is generally what people use as a degassing chamber. You could degass several smaller batches in there if you had a lot of resin to do.

This is the best tutorial I have seen on this process! Very detailed step by step. Thanks !

Wow, I’m 10 years late to this video and the knowledge is still invaluable. Having issues making a mold for a car door

Very thorough explanation , thanks for this mate !

I was impressed as to the quality of the video we should all be so thorough. Thank you

This is the best video I have seen about Infusion. Thank you for sharing

Always top-notch How-To videos. Thank you.

Now I see why carbon fiber is so pricey! What a process, wow! This is an excellent video and very well explained. Thank you for the demo and your dedication to producing beautiful carbon fiber products. You are a master craftsman!

This is so amazing I am gonna buy this kit and watch this video 100 times.

You need a split-mould and then, like Johnx says, you need something creating positive pressure on the inside, consoldating the fibre and resin to the outside of the tube. Once it's cured you would separate the two halves of the mould to get the part out and extract the bladder/expanding core from the inside of the tube. Composite tubes, particularly where the outside is the 'A' side are pretty complicated.

@raining0724 : The mould used in this video is made of epoxy tooling gelcoat (the bright green finish that you see) and then backed up (reinforced) with epoxy mould making putty. Both of these materials are included in our Mould Making Starter Kit or can be purchased separately. The import thing (if you're going to use a chemical release like we do in this video) is to ensure that the mould's surface is made of epoxy, otherwise an epoxy part may stick in the mould.

Thank you for the information and a decent video.

Fantastic instruction, you make so clear and easy to take on board. Excellent

Yes, you can do this. You might actually still find that peel ply would be fine as rather than using a perforated film which you could then paint with a 2k paint and flat to get your smooth surface. It only takes a single coat of paint to fill the texture of a peel-ply into a smooth finish. The other film to consider would be a breadwrap which is much more perforated than a P3 perforated film and so would be less restricting on resin flow.

Haha! Yes, they are good shears! They're made specially for us by William Whiteley of Sheffield. The blade angle is specifically for carbon fibre and then our touch was to have the serration put on the upper blade not the lower blade so that they slide through carbon without snagging it accidentally. PTFE coating keeps them sharper longer too. You'll find them on the Easy Composites website.

love the sound of those scissors!

@vr6k3 : 'Post Curing' at elevated temperature is an excellent way to improve the mechanical properties and the Tg/HDT (glass transition temp/heat distortion temp) of a carbon part. The recommended post-cure cycle depends on the resin. With our infusion resin the recommended post-cure is 8hrs at 60*C which gives a HDT of 90*C. You can post-cure in the mould (even still vacced down) or demould first. If you demould first you'll need to ramp the temp up very slowly to avoid distortion.

@xzu : We tend to trim all our parts with a Dremel using a Perma-Grit tungsten carbide wheel - they're amazing and last forever. Never trim using anything with 'teeth', always a gritted edge instead; teeth will chip the composite around the cut line. Once trimmed we use a Perma-Grit block to smooth the edge and then finish with different grits of abrasive paper (up to about 800). To finish either the part is lacquered or we just wax it and leave it at that.

Excellent tutorial, looking forward to more videos!

a video on how to make the mold would be interesting. getting it smooth must be important and the right surface material

Wow, now I understand why carbon fiber parts are so expensive. Great tutorial thanks.

@DanFrederiksen : If you're starting with a CAD model the first thing would be to have the pattern CNC routed from tooling block (probably a high density polyurethane block) by a CNC company. It's not that expensive and they can work straight from Solidworks files. You would then hand finish and seal the pattern before setting up any flanges/barriers, coating it in release agent and then covering it in an epoxy tooling gelcoat and reinforcing the back with resin and glass or mould making putty.

Funny thing is that I'm watching videos on how to do the infusian and only now I realised that I was working in company where we were doing exactly that but without resin itself. We were preparing the release film spiral lines etc for other department to lay it in gigantic molds. Parts were like 5m by 30m big. Thanks for great video.

You say "actually" a whole lot in this tutorial. To be precise, 41 times. Just amused me :) Great process! Some sites charge for their videos like this. Thanks for posting!

Amazing result!

very helpful; thanks for sharing!

Hi Don, I'll certainly bare this in mind. I'm not sure that making composite wheels is really a project for general enthusiasts, there's some very real precision required. Certainly assembling multi-component parts is something that we've started covering more with our recent tutorials (the bonnet/hood making guide for example) and we'll have more soon. Stay tuned!

@ariffoys : Apart from at the end of the process where we clamp off both lines it's essential to conduct the infusion under total vacuum. If you had a leak (even one you later patched up with tape) then this could well have an impact on the resin ratio and surface finish of the finished part. From what you describe (and given the thickness of your reinforcement) it sounds like you needed to leave the vacuum running longer and draw more resin out of the part before clamping off.

I would say that is the best looking carbon fiber part i seen made on youtube. The materials used here look like good quality,like the actual carbon fiber looked perfect compared to others. Anyhow great videos. I hope my parts come out half as nice as this.

Yes you can do that and it will not have any negative impact on the infusion.

marvelous... I'm building a race-car fuel tank out of carbon fiber tomorrow and I never manufactured anything like that before!

The only way to use the resin infusion process to create a double-A sided part (smooth finish both sides) would be to use a matched mould (so a front mould and a back mould) and then use an internal flow medium that the resin could flow through. The one we use most often is Lantor Soric (you'll see it used in our bonnet making video series), this means you don't need mesh for the resin to infuse through the part and so you can have a closed mould (like with RTM) allowing for a double A side.

great job chief... thanks for sharing... very pro job... good tools, good materials, good mold...

Amazing! How about a tutorial on making a part sized oven. what I would like to build is multi part, how about bonding of structural parts to carbon and non carbon parts. One project Th think many of us would enjoy is that of making bicycle wheels, Aluminium rim hoops, aluminium hubs, etc. Thank you again! wow

Thank you very much for your video, it helps me a lot with my learning! Cheers!

@apelabs1 : Thank you. We've got lots more 'in the making' including pattern making, split moulding, advanced resin infusion (where the mould is a larger or more awkward shape or when you want to co-infuse a core material like infusion grade Nidaplast or closed cell PVC foam) and, rather excitingly, a how to do your own pre-preg/dry carbon fibre parts (yes, it's perfectly do-able).

Yes, they definately are. If you visit our forum; talkcomposites you'll find people making quad rotor bodies, dynamic soarers and all sorts of other RC planes where they're using resin infusion to make incredibly strong and light laminates.

Nice work guys, both the video and the finished part.

Thanks for sharing, very helpful to me...

that looks fantastic...

@gaucholon It's a 2/2 twill, 200g, 3k fibre we use here. 2/2 twill drapes nicely so it drops into the compound shape of this part easily, 200g 3k is nice and light so again it's easy to conform it to the mould.

@dytch2220 : Yes, you could certianly use resin infusion to make structual parts. Furthermore, parts made using resin infusion could be made to have structual properties equal to those of parts made from pre-preg carbon. The actual part made in this video weighs in at 60% fiber, 40% resin. Many of the pre-pregs we use are 60/40 so the fiber content (giving strength to the composite) is the same. There's no room to explain all the pros and cons of the processes but get in touch for further info.

2:37.... Tip... Lay the carbon so each layer has the weave direction different with each layer. This will result in a much stronger carbon part. Two layers of stagger sheets will be stronger and lighter than the four layers seen in this video. All that said....guy knows what he's talking about and Bob's your uncle

I really liked this video.

Hi, We use Perma-Grit tools which are tungsten carbide tools (like tile cutting tools). They're fantastic and last forever (you'll find a good range of them on our website). You would to the initial cut with a permagrit wheel in a dremmel and then finish the edge using a permagrit sanding block (or just some coarse abrasive paper wrapped round a block) before finishing the edge smooth by using finer grits of abrasive paper. A black wax crayon does a nice job of sealing and polishing a cut edge.

@DanFrederiksen: Well, the first problem is that even with careful 'wet layup' your resin ratio will vary from part to part, reducing the consistency. Without any vacuum consoldation and great care you're likely to achieve something like 55-60% resin by weight using traditional wet-lay. Less careful laminating will be 60%+ plus resin (by weight) which is a very different laminate in terms of performance.

Really cool. Congrats!!!

Fantastic, awesome, and other superlatives!

Perfect job!

Thank you for this great tutorial!

This is what i do for a living. Cool to see how other people do this process

You can still use a moulding process and resin infusion if needs be. It would be very fiddly to do on small tubes. Large diameter tubes could be done around either a mandrel or a split moulding.

Hi! Thank you so much this video, it helps a lot how make it easy. But can you give me an idea of how much is the ideal weight of sound box of cello?

That is why if you do it yourself you can save a lot of money and using a tutorial like ours, its not hard to understand the process and even a complete newbie with a bit of practice will start making nice parts.

Thanks, I was wondering the same thing.

Flange, trim round the flange😂. Great video, i'm off to your site to buy the gear, thanks.

@Zyworski : You can degass but we've never found it neccesary. If you do, you need to be very careful that the resin does not exotherm in the pot whilst degassing causing it to gel prematurely. You need to be infusing 10 mins after mixing at the latest. The RICs (resin infusion connectors) are connected to the tube inside the bag, ours are designed for a 9mm OD tube to be pushed into them. Since the connector is *inside* the bag though, it doesn't have to be an airtight seal.

well i'm convinced ! I think i'm starting a new hobby here ! Thanks guys!

Great explanation

@zliminator : Because the infusion is done under a full vacuum any 'air pockets' caused by the fibre 'bridging' wouldn't actually be 'air' pockets, they would literally be *empty* (no air or anything in them). Then, when the resin is allowed to flow into the part it will automatically want to fill these empty places with resin (because the resin is a path to ambient air pressure so it's effectively pressurised). The most likely thing, if you have 'voids' is that these will fill with resin.

Thank you so much!

Wow. I thought it might be complicated. Looks like something I could do in the basement at home!

@RiMartinsRi : For the purposes of most composites 'room tempertaure' is assumed to be 20 degrees C. You'll find that pot-life and cure times are generally quoted for 20C or 25C, lower temperatures will slow down the cure (and elongate the pot-life) a lot, much below 15C and you're in danger of many epoxies not curing properly at all. For general composites the lower the humidy it the better. Only condensation cure silicones and some 1-part adhesives need humidy to cure.

Absolutely fantastic and wonderfully informative video

Well done! Will use this video in class in Delft. Congratulations.

@easycompositestv : Thanks for the fast response. My concern has more to do with humidity once the fibreglass is very hygroscopic. I know that regarding to room humidity the lower the better, but what is the range of acceptable and not harmfull values ​​in a composites shop? 0% to 50% is acceptable? What is the upper limit? Will it be 60%, 70% or 80% or any other value in between?

@DanFrederiksen : Well, yes and no! - Generally we would have the pattern machined by CNC. We would then wipe a special 'mould sealer' over the pattern, build up a few layers, and then apply the release agent, then gel coat, then reinforcement to that. In the part you see in this video the gelcoat is the green surface you see on the mould, underneith that (which you can't see) is a mould making putty.... then you're ready to do the infusion!

@easycompositestv Good to know and its quite a nice thing for a single person operation to be able to make carbon fiber parts like that. But does the optimum resin amount and post curing not depend a lot on what kind of cloth and resin used?

We will certainly note your suggestions for future videos. We are hoping to film some more videos over the coming months to showcase some new products as well as more advanced processes.

@RiMartinsRi : Yes, definately. We'll make a video to show how it's done but basically you need to perforate the foam core (approx 15mm centres, 3mm holes) all the way across its surface. The resin will then make its way along the top skin (guided by the infusion mesh) and then drop down through the holes to wet out the bottom skin. We make a very large table (with a 30mm core) in this way and it infuses perfectly. You can get core material that is ready-perforated for infusion.

Really great video! Thank you so much!

@apelabs1 : When using an epoxy gel and polyester to reinforce the mould (not a conventional system but it does work) I would recommend 'double gelling' with the epoxy (just a few hours between the two layers) then letting that FULLY cure before reinforcing with polyester resin and CSM. No need to a polyester gel. As for the pre-pregs we'll suggest a 75 degree curing pre-preg, vacuum only (no autoclave). A vac pump and a decent but simple 'hot box' oven is all that's needed.

Great and useful video. Perfect for beginners to understand

Great videos. Filmography. Pro.

Thanks for the video, and your passion Thanks again

I watched this even though I'm never likely to do it. So satisfying. Wish you did a couple of litre bag to attach to my vacuum cleaner so I could get a better pressure on my shoe outsole carbon layup haha

Thank you very much !

Excelent video and tutorial. Is it possible to do vacuum resin infusion on a sandwish foam core part?

very well done, huge!

You can degas the resin if you wish, but letting it stand for a few minutes gets rid of most of the large bubbles. Most of the rest are drawn out by the vacuum pump during infusion. The Aimed for ratio is 60:40 fibre/resin. If you leave the vacuum pump on continuously then you can suck out too much resin ruining the surface finish.

Yes, dead-right. It's 200gsm 2/2 twill 3k fibre. It's pretty much the most common weave and weight of carbon fibre. If you're having any trouble sourcing it then please get in touch with us, we stock thousands of metres and offer next-day delivery.

In addition to pulling a vacuum on the resin to get the air out before infusing the part, I've seen guys make a mixer that uses a rotating magnet under the resin container and a metal bar inside the resin so you don't introduce air into the resin by hand mixing.

@matthieutje65 : Peel ply on the inside and outside will certainly give you a none glossy finish but it will be reasonably textured by the peel-ply. If that's what you're after then it's fine, if you just want a smooth, none-glossy finish then you might want to just use a scoth-pad on the finished part to rub the gloss away. I'm not sure what the optimium resin uptake is on flax but I think it's around 50% by weight to weigh the reinforcement and plan for the same weight in resin.

Thank you so much 😊

@easycompositestv Thanks for the response! But I have another question, where could I get molds? Would they most likely have to be custom made or is there a place I could go to and purchase them? Or is there a place that would have both molds already made but, if needed, can be custom made as well?

Nice, keep sharing my friend

@SquirrelFromGradLife : You're unlikely to find a resin-to-fibre ratio lower than 40% resin; pre-preg is generally around 40-42.5%, infusion will always yeild around the 40% mark. Much lower resin ratios would actually jeopardise the structual performance of the composite because there is actually an optimum amount of resin, not just 'less is better'. Regarding post-curing, you can post-cure our infusion resin to improve the mechanicals but it wouldn't change the process for the infusion itself.

Thank you so much for the video. Very helpful... in fact the only one I could find that clearly explained the whole vacuum resin infusion process! I do have a question though... why not clamp the line that is connected to the resin and let the vacuum pump pull out ALL of the excess resin into the catch pot?

BEST TUTORIAL EVER COMPLIMENTS FROM ITALY :)

One more question, once you have done the infusion, after clamping both ends, do you leave the vacum pump on? I've been been trying to make few panels however they've got a lot of voids. It would be really helpful if you can tell me how to minimise voids. Thank you very much.

Is the easy lease stuff the only thing required before laying carbon onto the mold? In the car bonnet tutorials, you mentioned how spraying the mold with a special gel coat that cures between 3-4 horus was required before the infusion.

@gaucholon Yes, in a way. The most important thing is that this mould has a high gloss finish. If it doesn't

Can you make a video that shows how to make a mold for the vacuum infusion process

Total quality. Thanks. :)

A few questions: 1) Would it help to degas the resin actively (via vacuum) in order to achieve a better result (air bubbles, etc.)? 2) If you cut the resin outflow as shown, what resin-fiber ratio do you achieve? 3) When closing vaccum hose as soon as a mix of resin and air is getting in, where resides the residual air inside and why does it not harm the product/laminate via bubbles? 4) Would leaving the vaccum hose open (pump on) after cutting resin inflow achieve a better resin-fiber ratio?

Great video. I'd love to hear your thoughts on Venturi vacuum generators vs pumps.

Yes, before we draw the resin through.

@SquirrelFromGradLife : The post curing will certainly depend on the resin system. The resin we recommend can be used without a post-cure or, for improved TG and mechanicals an 8hr cure at 60C (which is pretty easy to undertake) is the only post-cure it needs. Optimal resin to fibre ratio isn't really determined by the fibre or resin, it's basically somewhere pretty close to 40% resin / 60% fibre when you're working with carbon fibre.

You can slow the resin flow using a line clamp on the resin feed. Alternatives are additional resin feed ports and or creative use of the infusion spiral and mesh to ensure the resin gets where you need it.