Scratch Build Completed! SSR-X: MOTY Nominee

[stonedsurd]

Can't believe I missed this. Good thing the MOTM voting thread popped up today.

Awesome work Cleveland

[peteski]

just seen this so roll on the 14th

[Cleveland216]

Hello! There is a back story here that I must tell. One of FAILURE!! Resin Infusion is not an easy process or for the light-hearted nor does its mistakes come cheap. Before I infused the top cover as recently logged, my first try was infusing the bottom mold. After weeks of preparation and thought, I went thru the set-up of the mold to infuse it.

After all I studied and consulted about, I thought my flow layout was good and that the Carbon Fiber was making contact all the way around the mold. It turns out that the CF was bridging in corners and that the flow layout would not reach the very corners.

Which resulted in a FAILED infusion process.



If you look closely you will see all sorts of lumps and unevenness. As the CF was infusing the resin flow would not reach the corners resulting in fabric that was not impregnated. There was nothing that I could do, infusion once started cannot be corrected if there is an error.

After the CF cured I pulled it out of the mold and found pools of resin in the mold from where the CF was bridging, which was causing the resin to pool due to no-contact there with the mold in that spot.



So I moved on to the Top Mold and was left chiseling and re-sanding the entire bottom mold.

In the end, the first infusion process ended up costing me ~$300.00 in material. I never figured out the exact cost.

Well time to get to the bottom mold again and the infusing the lower cover.

Infusion Lower Cover: Part 1

First thing I did was Wax the entire mold 9 times with Partall Wax #2. This acts as the release agent in the mold.

Secondly, as you see below, after waxing, I applied the double-sided yellow tape that seals the mold for infusion. It seals the nylon vac bag to the mold.







Once again, I went around the entire mold and reinforced the corners with extra pieces. You peel the top off when you go to apply the vac. bag.





First layer of the Carbon Fiber. Before I laid this layer in I did spray over the mold with 3M Super 77 spray adhesive. I was about 3 feet away from the mold when I did the spraying, so to let the mist float down onto the mold. To much spray and the CF wont release.



First layer cut



Second layer after cutting



The third layer again is strips of fiberglass cloth. I found strips to be easier to apply than one whole layer due to the complex geometry. Supposedly, fiberglass cant be laid down as tight as CF can.



Fiberglass layer complete



Flow lines with peel-ply and green flow media laid down. Now to just put in pleats along with the vac. bag and begin the infusion.

That is tomorrow. Stay Tuned.

[motorsportcfd]

Good luck with this one! Hate to see the first pull didn't work well, but glad I am not the only one that doesn't get perfect pulls every time! Hope this one works out!

[ASPHIAX]

Even negative results are results! Finding out what not to do is almost as important as finding what to do. I went for a mold fabrication for the eurisko also, but had to abondon it because the spray release agent i had didnt function (or i applied it to light) its a real trick to do this porperly but it looks you are good one your way! Good luck man !

[Cleveland216]

Quick Update: Here is the first video I took of the infusion of the lower cover



Here is the link:

http://youtu.be/D-w0U74oma4

[peteski]

amazeing work mate

[dream1]

Nice video. Cant see the result

[Mosquito]

Not sure why that's so fun to watch, but it was, and I watched it all

[J3!!3]

Looks realy different from what i have seen lately, realy cool idea. Keep up the good work.

[Cleveland216]

Hello. It has been 24 hours and the lower cover has finally cured now it is time to Rip it out of the mold. Lets Begin!

Here is the first video of the infusion, I will be uploading a second video! Thanks Mosquito!



First thing is to shut the pump off! Than begin tearing away the all the top layers




Take out the infeed hoses



Grab at the nylon bag and just tear away.





Keep tearing away until the vac bag is completely off. The Yellow seal tape also has to come off as well before the part can be demolded.







Next is Rip off the peel ply layer. The peel ply will also rip off the green flow media. You can use a razor blade or knife and make smaller cut lines to rip the peel ply off in sections.

Lower Cover

[wahoomcdaniel]

Very cool. It turned out great.

[motorsportcfd]

Nice to see how much better this one turned out. Looks like a light coat of resin will fix some of those edges right up!

[Mosquito]

looks awesome!

[AnG3L]

A great amount of work brother and a fantastic dedication!!!! Mod on!

[Cleveland216]

Originally Posted by wahoomcdaniel

Very cool. It turned out great.

Thanks!

Originally Posted by motorsportcfd

Nice to see how much better this one turned out. Looks like a light coat of resin will fix some of those edges right up!

Ya, dont know if I am going to do that. I'll try a small spot and see how it turns out. I was just thinking about sanding it down. Let me know how you would do it

Originally Posted by Mosquito

looks awesome!

Thanks bro! Great Thanks to fixing the video link

Originally Posted by AnG3L

A great amount of work brother and a fantastic dedication!!!! Mod on!

Thank you good sir!

[Cleveland216]

Hello.

I did film a second infusion video and I uploaded it today.



The video demonstrates the complexity with doing resin infusion and various infeed lines that had to be used to complete the infusion itself.

Moving on.........

I have one more infusion to do for the frame pieces. I dont know how much area/material I need to make to accommodate all the frame pieces. I'm too lazy to figure it out in SolidWorks. So I took the internal frame apart and traced the pieces onto a piece of cardboard that would be the size of carbon fiber fabric that I would infuse. Neat Trick, I think!







All the pieces were traced twice, except the motherboard frame. Once the third infusion is done, I will get to work on cutting out the internal frame pieces and fabricating the bracketing to hold the covers onto the frame.

[motorsportcfd]

Originally Posted by Cleveland216

Ya, dont know if I am going to do that. I'll try a small spot and see how it turns out. I was just thinking about sanding it down. Let me know how you would do it

I would mix up a little bit of resin and fill in the areas. Since you're resin is about 300cps (mine is 600cps after mixing) I would let it start to kick a little bit (just to make it more viscous), then brush it on those areas. Brush on enough that you have something to sand.

If you just sand those areas you'll kill the weave by directly sanding the carbon. Experience has shown before it's best to fill the area with resin and sand it down. That's exactly what I did with my mouse before clearing it. If you don't fill the areas with resin, any clear coat will seep under the resin into through the molecular structure and make a haze. This has happened to me before and ruined some high end parts.

In short, brush-on some resin, and sand, just like a normal layup.

Hope that helps, let me know if you have any questions!

PS: Saw your question in my thread about polishing, I'm working on pictures for the reply.

[Cleveland216]

Hello. When I first started the build I originally intended to have an Aluminium frame structure for the interior. That changed when I found out that I had enough left over material to make the entire frame out of carbon fiber. Plus I also said what the heck why not. Let SR-X be an all carbon fiber build.

Today, I finally started what I thought was going to be my last infusion. Here is how the process started out once again.



Flat whiteboard from Home Depot. Wax 7 times, thick coats. Applied the yellow seal tape. Than sprayed with 3M Super 77.



The first layer of carbon fiber



two more layers of carbon fiber later and first layer of fiberglass.



I cross-hatched the fiberglass for additional strength and rigidity.



the 6th layer. this would be the fourth layer of carbon fiber



Applied my tubing and vac. bag. I kept the flow pattern simple. One infeed inlet and one outfeed outlet with spiral wrap to help the distribute the flow.





Poured the Resin and just waiting for hardener.



Got a good -30bar on the infusion piece



Started my infusion and it stopped two-thirds of the way. Ugh! It is a bad thing and a good thing.





Bad thing cause if it would have made it to 50" I would have been happy. Now I have to order more resin and do another infusion. Good Thing, because the only material I really lost was resin in the end. The material that didn't get impregnated can still be used. Just more and more work. I still have alot of carbon fiber still left over too.

While we are on the subject of failures and not, here is some more pics of my failed lower cover again.





I should put "I got Owned" on these pictures, lolz.

I did also shoot some video of this infusion so when I upload it, I will link it.

[Cleveland216]

Hello. Time for another weekend update.

During the last 24 hours the carbon fiber piece that was started yesterday has finally cured. Time to de-mold the product.



Ripped off the vac bag and starting peeling back the peel ply and such until finally most of it came off.



Here is the piece turned over. I cut out the loose fabric on the other end.





Looks pretty good. I got infusion of flat pieces down real good now. This piece just has to be cleaned and polished up.



The section of fabric that did not get impregnated. Oh well.





The surprise is that I traced all my pieces and I have enough to make the whole frame. I hope you can all see the traced pieces in these photos. So for now there will be no other infusion.

Now I have to get down to cutting out the frame pieces and re-bolting the frame together, than onto bracketing and making the custom res. for SR-X.