I'm going to paint it to match my car in montego blue, its going to get pretty hot with a color that dark. I have seen reports of carbon parts getting up to 170F in the sun. 220F TG ought to be enough with DEI foil bottom but more headroom is better. my header is getting ceramic coated as well so that will cut down on radiant heat.

 

Most heat cure epoxies need to be pressed at 180F+ to reach full strength. I don't think heat would be an issue for any of those.
There's a little boat company in florida, Raka, that carries some resin that I've used with great success in snowsports. It's a room temp cure, but with heat it develops into a better material.

Entropy resins also carries a bunch of options in their supersap line that will cure at room temp.

 

Per the Easy Composites Page:

Vacuum resin infusion is a sophisticated technique for manufacturing high performance, void free composites even on large or complicated moulds. The process is ideally suited to the manufacture of carbon fibre composites and is widely used by professional manufacturers for the production of carbon fibre body panels such as bonnets and by marine manufacturers for the production of boat hulls. In resin infusion, reinforcement is laid into the mould ‘dry’, i.e. without any resin, and then enclosed in a specially configured stack of bagging materials (such as peel ply, infusion mesh and bagging film) before being subjected to vacuum pressure using a composites vacuum pump. Once all the air has been removed from the bag and the reinforcement has been fully compressed under this pressure, liquid epoxy resin (mixed with hardener) is introduced to the reinforcement through a pipe which then infuses through the reinforcement under the vacuum pressure. Once the resin has fully infused through the reinforcement, the supply of resin is cut off (using a pipe clamp) and the resin is left to cure, still under vacuum pressure.

Advantages of resin infusion

Resin infusion, when done correctly, can produce parts of incredible strength and quality of appearance. The combination of vacuum pressure along with carefully placed vacuum consumables (such as peel-ply and infusion mesh) mean that the finished composite will have absorbed resin at the optimum resin-to-reinforcement ratio, avoiding resin-rich composites or variations in performance inevitable with traditional wet-lay manufacture. The resin infusion process also eliminates some of the problems that can blight wet-lay composites, such as air voids (caused where the reinforcement has bridged around tight corners) and tiny air bubbles caused by air trapped within the laminate. The quality of epoxy ‘infusion resins’ means that resin infused parts can be made with strength to weight ratios that can rival parts made using pre-impregnated (pre-preg) reinforcement systems




Most well thought out VIP setups will run about 30%-40% resin content. On the hood mould I'm making is going to be a VIP setup and I will do a UV epoxy in the skinning layer. When I was making another trunk I would rather work with 10.9 oz instead of using 2 layers of 5.7 oz, do to the 5.7 likes to unravel easily. The hood has to built strong its going to with stand 120-160 mph, so at 100 mph there is 140lbs of uplift on the hood and at 150 mph 210 lbs. If you have no problem standing on it, then it should be built strong enough.

I built a oven at work 8'x8'16' and used 2 propane room heaters. The heaters move the hot air long the back wall in a counter clock rotation around the room. The air exits near the bottom since heat rises. The room was contructed with plywood wall, 2x4 framing and 1" foam insulation board.

If its a small oven like for a hood, a heat gun could be used with a thermal coupling under the center of the mould.

BTW the hood measures 52"x 49"

 

Here is a new video I made

 

The textreme definitely sucks up a lot of resin. Since it has a binder, how well does the textreme conform? Part of what I like about 5.9oz twill is that it is so lose and will conform to complicated compound curves easily since the fibers are free to slide around.

Also, where are you buying it and do they make a triaxial spread tow as well?

For a break test setup, what about a shop press + corner balance scale?

 

The Textreme sucks up 20% less resin, but what I think happen was that the Textreme is so light that the absorption in the foam was a big part of that percentage. 10.9 contorts to curves just about the same as 5.7, but Textreme acts about like a piece of paper.

I am buying it from Composite Envisions

I looked at going to breakage, but I will do that in a later video

 

Part 2
Plus my hood project where it will be going step by step, so please Subscribe for more info

 

It is hard to draw conclusions about strength to weight without testing both pieces to failure. Maybe instead do a test comparing a twill weave to a textreme part where the number of plies is adjusted to reach a similar weight?

 

I found this interesting for people who what to make their own splitter. I doubt its strong enough to stand on but would be good to add another layer

Project ASS2000: Custom Splitter Build Part 2 | Speed Academy

 

Thanks for the link. I will have a read when I get time and comment.