I made a wet out machine which consists of three stainless steel sections of curtain rod set into a cradle made by welding some polypropylene cutting boards together. this is then screwed in place inside a timber open box which is anchored to the work bench. An icecream container with resin sits underneath. The lower ss section is at the bottom of the cradle sitting in the resin and the upper two are tensioned rollers. The polypropylene makes a good bearing surface by simply boring it out. The tow bales are on rollers well away from the wet out machine and the tow comes over the edge of the box down into the icecream container, round the lower ss section, up through the rollers and onto the work. I have a section of black polypipe over the edges of the box to keep it smooth. The rollers both squeeze out extra resin and make sure the resin is well impregnated It is rough as guts but it wet out the tow beautifully, three strands at a time. It was just my tryout model to practice my plastic welding and find out what worked so I didn't take much care but it works so nicely that I don't see a need to make a prettier one.
As for wetting out cloth, I used a squeegee on the diagonal slowly and firmly with a few passes looking closely for bubbles. I don't know if there are better ways other than infusion.
regards,
Robert
--- In harryproa@yahoogrou
>
> Hi,
>
> Thanks for the link! I was just using the ebay link because I didn't know
> where else to get it and I thought it would provide a good reference for
> feedback. It worked! Apparently Rob has been using 50K and I haven't ever
> seen anything above 12K, which has been remarked on as "difficult to wet
> out", so I am looking forward to hearing how Rob solved that problem.
>
> I am not actually building Elementarry; I was using that as an example
> because I was thinking about bulding beams for the plywood proa I started
> last fall, instead of the galvanized fence posts I was going to use. I do
> plan on hiring Rob for plans once I figure out what I want.
>
> I know I can also get carbon cloth from noahsboatbuilding.
> $2/sq ft (not sure how much that is per pound). The reason I assumed that it
> would not bend is that my impression was that carbon is much stiffer than
> fiberglass. I thought that was the point of carbon.
>
> - Gardner
>
> On Mon, Mar 8, 2010 at 7:35 AM, George Kuck <chesapeake410@
>
> >
> >
> > Hello Gardner
> >
> > Why do you assume that it can't bend like fiberglass ? You should not
> > assume but make test of section you plan to build. I would expect it would
> > bend just like fiberglass but possibly slightly stiffer.
> >
> > The price on the E bay carbon tow is way too high !
> >
> > Take a look at ;
> > http://www.solarcom
> >
> > It is only $18 /lb. The E-bay is $68 for 1.6 lb.($42./lb)
> >
> > It may be easier to work with if you used Uni carbon tow and carbon cloth
> > but if you are building elementary just purchase plans and go with what Rob
> > recommends. That is what you are paying him for, his experience!
> >
> > As I recall I only paid around $15/lb.for some I purchased a your or two
> > ago.though a purchase that Rob organized directly from Zoltek when they
> > wore a sponsor of his Solitary and he had plans to race it that never
> > materialized.
> >
> > Happy sailing,
> > George Kuck
> > Chestertown, Md.
> >
> > --- On *Sat, 3/6/10, Gardner Pomper <gardner@...
> >
> >
> > From: Gardner Pomper <gardner@...
> > Subject: [harryproa] Carbon tow?
> > To: harryproa@yahoogrou
> > Date: Saturday, March 6, 2010, 9:06 PM
> >
> >
> >
> > Hi,
> >
> > Can you post again what sort of thing I should be looking for in carbon
> > fiber tow? Is there a simple term that I need to be looking for? Right now I
> > am just thinking about the crossbeams for a elementarry type proa. I was
> > going to try the folding method that rob is using on Solitarry, but I figure
> > that we probably can't use carbon cloth, because it won't bend. I was
> > planning on 17oz fiberglass cloth, with carbon tow running lengthwise.
> >
> > Anyway, I found this on ebay, and it had some specs, so I thought someone
> > could tell me if this is the type/weight of tow that I should be looking
> > for:
> > ebay carbon tow<http://cgi.ebay.
> >
> > - Gardner
> >
> >
> >
> >
>