Originally Posted by
larryrose11
Paul,
Im aware of the flow properties of honeycomb, They work great!!
To be honest, I have not tried this on a hull yet, but in concept. It is a way around the issue of the weakest point of the hull, the seam between upper and lower.
Yes, it seems odd, but workable. Your not far off. it rely's on the upper mold having a big hole in it , as an access point. The hatch will work fine for this job.
Essentially, the upper becomes part of 2 part mold.
You need an inner vacuum bag. the inner one is the shape of the hull, with some extra where the hatch access point is. It needs to be tested first.
It rely on a few products. MTI hoze, and a COMPOFLEX peel ply.
It requires that your upper and lower have locating points in the mold flange that do that alignment for you.
The upper and lower layers are laid out, and use spray adhesive on all of them to afix them to the mold. they are trimmed flush to the edge of the hull on the upper, and about 12 mm past the edge of the hull on the lower.
MTS Hose is at the hatch edge on the upper, and the resin inlet is on the lower at the nose of the hull, and at the keel. lay out the tubing.lay the inner vacuum bag in the mold
Put top and bottom mold together, carefully tucking the extra fiber layers from the lower into the upper, so they overlap, and will seal together. Bolt the upper and lower together. Gum tape is places around the mold flange edge, to make a seal.
the inner vacuum bag is attached to the hatch edge of the upper. Turn on the vacuum, and let the resin flow. It should flow from the front over the entire hull, top and bottom.
Once done and cured, peel the inner bag out, and peel off the Compoflex. It comes of super easy, nothing like normal yanking that you must do with regular peel ply.
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