why do you wrap inlet spiral tube in peel ply? is this better distribution or to protect bag? doesnt inlet tube on stack create hump - you are cutting this off right?
Yes. All those things! The peel ply just keeps the bag from getting sucked into the spiral wrap and either blocking it or popping. The inlet tube leaves a small dent, but one way to fix this is to put a big enough bag pleat over it that once the feed is complete you can pull the spiral wrap (trailing the peel ply) up into the pleat so it doesn't leave a mark. Coated peel ply works best for removal - or a strip of that super slick teflon peel ply just under the feed lines.
Do you think this would make a quality backing plate/solid core replacement in a PE hand layup vs G10? Say a solid glass core section under a windlass or stanchion.
Sure, especially if you need a really big or odd-shaped piece when G10 gets less cost effective and practical. Also look into Coosa / Penske / Airex PXc high density core. Also aluminum backing plates and just dropping core out of the laminate in that area - though you'll probably want to thicken up the 'glass too. Infusion maximizes fiber content, but a hand-laid plate would be ok too and maybe cheaper - certainly easier.
Which did you prefer generally overall using, epoxy or vinyl ester? Do you find that the vinyl ester is as strong and lightweight as a middle-of-the-road epoxy equivalent? Also why did you run 300mbar? Thanks and great videos
I like epoxy because I've got much more experience with it - but VE is sometimes easier to deal with. Hard to tell the difference between epoxy and VE infused parts unless you consider color or smell - epoxy is probably tougher in general but high quality VE is excellent - and gelcoat is easy. Shrink can be a hassle though and skin coats are heavy. Here I kept the vacuum up to minimize the risk of resin components (styrene, MEKP, moisture other volatile stuff) boiling off and making bubbles. This is a pretty common thing with PE and VE - you don't need all the pressure differential (you still need a leak-free system) with low viscosity resin and as vacuum approaches complete (0 mbar, 29.9 inHg, etc) all kinds of vapor pressure/gas bad behavior stuff happens at even room temperature. Common to pull full vacuum for a bit on larger parts and back it off during the infusion itself and clamp off at a lower vacuum level.
So when you're infusing you don't need to alternate chop strand and weave for vinyl ester resin? That would be a big no-no for hand layup , shear strength between layers and all that
Not really - many vinyl ester infusions are done without chopped strand mat because the resin mechanical performance is much better than polyester. It is more in the epoxy direction. Mat helps with hand layup even with VE because it makes the process more forgiving. Sometimes in infusion, mat is used to help block print or against core. Depends on the opinion of the builder!
