Tim Ballinger Posted February 26, 2020 Share Posted February 26, 2020 I squirrelled away a copy of Mike Freeman’s plans for making a mould for a carbon fibre undercarriage from an RCM&E autumn special and thought it was time to give it a go. Plans for the rig in case anyone missed them ..... I scaled the height down to suit the oodalally I’m building and came up with this... Most economic carbon fibre I could find was a 4 inch plain weave tape. Stuck some 3 mm thick drought excluder to lengths of acetate to provide a thickness guide as per Mikes instructions and had a dry run. The white blobs on the rig were to make sure I got the orientation correct when I layed up. (The legs taper and have rake back so you need to get it right.) All good with the dry run . Mixed up the slow cure epoxy and did it for real. Did not seem quite as good a fit and fudged it a bit by adding a piece of packing to one side . Now is the time to note that my white blobs on the outer mould are missing ! Sadly it was many hours before I noticed. Explains the poor fit. Too late to swap it round so had to leave it and wait to see what came out. As it was well packed with 10 layers of cloth plus extra at the top and bottom bends I hooped that all would still be ok. Surprisingly when it all popped out it looks ok. Need to leave to fully cure now before setting to with the permagrit. I am hopeful I will not have to repeat but we shall see when it is finally rasped down to size. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Ballinger Posted February 27, 2020 Author Share Posted February 27, 2020 Fully cured and sanded down to size. Certainly tough stuff, thank heavens for a permagrit block. I am pretty pleased if decidedly annoyed at my foul up with assembling the mould the wrong way round. The edges are not as perfect as I would have liked as a result of the unequal compression but the result is certainly strong and has some spring. I have enough materiel to make another and aim for something closer to perfection but I shall rest with what I have for this model and give it another go on the next. Thanks to Mike Freeman for the inspiration and it was definitely satisfying to make something I didn’t think I could. At the same time it makes you appreciate the skill that goes into professionally made products and perhaps I now consider them better value for money than I did before. Tim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mightypeesh Posted February 27, 2020 Share Posted February 27, 2020 Thanks for the post, top job! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ace Posted February 27, 2020 Share Posted February 27, 2020 Thanks Tim, appreciate the effort in sharing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Fry Posted February 27, 2020 Share Posted February 27, 2020 Cheers Tim, good post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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