Cycles Noir

[crumpton]

unequal distribution of breather means unequal distribution of clamping force. vacuum cant be fully realized where the bag can pinch off on a part or itself. from my perspective the entire laminate being cured should be covered in breather and should have a clear path of breather to both vacuum source as well as vacuum gauge(which is preferably opposite to the part of the source)

test it. make a bag and put 3 ports in. one for source and 2 for gauges. spread them out about 2'. route breather from the source to one gauge. see what you get. on a good day it might be close to equal but it is not repeatable.

[CyclesNoir]

Nick,

Do you normally draw vacuum from only a single point in the bag?


Rick

[crumpton]

all corners, all ply's cooked in one shot in a single bagging with a single port for vacuum and a single gauge port opposite of the vacuum port. all joints are covered in breather with strips running to both vacuum port and the gauge. you can kinda see it in this old worn out shot. notice my broken sight? i am having a hell of a time finding a new gauge with glass sight.

but we should really take this discussion to the framebuilding subforum.

[CyclesNoir]

Nick,

I'll meet you on the other side - would love to see more pix and hear more about how you do.

In closing, let me just point out that we use different materials, methods and processes. If I were doing pre-preg w/ an oven, I'd probably want to do all joints at once and use a single vacuum outlet just to keep things a bit simpler for moving to/from the oven. Instead, I do a joint at a time with multiple vacuum outlets, which give me good even compression.

I'm not trying to compare my work to yours. You've earned your reputation - the old-fashioned way, and my reputation has yet to be earned. But I don't want any readers to be put off by the fact that our methods/processes are different. Some folks build with lugs and silver, others do fillets w/ bronze, both end up with good results if done properly.

[crumpton]

nope, not at all. no one should be put off. you are doing good work. keep it up.

fwiw, when i was doing wet layup i did individual joints as well. i couldn't imagine getting all 4 corners wet and into a bag and have it all come out right.

[CyclesNoir]

I'm baaaaack......

Well soon anyway.

I'm sure that I've missed a lot, and need to get up to speed on the various forums. Plus I have a few weeks left before I'm free of my portable IV.

Late fall I developed a herniated disk, which is pretty normal at my age. Doesn't seem likely to have long-term repercussions. But once I got past that I developed a staph infection. Not fun, but at least I've had good medical treatment available. Like most of us, I can't begin to understand the cost side of hospitals: $39K for seven days of room, food, occasional nurse visits, and an IV pole. That's something like $5,800/day. I think I could go downtown and stay at the 4 Seasons, eat well, pay for 7X24 private nurses, and rent the IV pole, for half that amount. Maybe, though, it helps us to work hard to get better fast.

Anyhow, as start to make progress in the shop again, I'll post info/pictures.

Cheers to all,

Rick

[Freddy]

Rick, I have a couple of discs you can have cheap.
One in my neck and one down in my lower back.
At my age I think when it gets too bad, I will hire one of these lovely young nurses here and forget the horsepistol.

Give me a call soon, 520-364-1334

[Jayme]

Welcome back Rick. Looking forward to seeing more of your work.

Jayme

[CyclesNoir]

Jayme,

Hope to have something to show soon. Kept tuned!


Fredidy,

Yup, will be in touch soon. Hope all is well.

Cheers,

RG

[plug]

Welcome back and hope you get some quality time in the shop and on the road. There are those of us out here following!