Composites

Assemble a 3D mold, and lay up a fiber composite part in it

I left this assignment until very late in the day. Originally I wanted to make a skateboard with sheets of bamboo as we have resident Fab Skate expert Luciano Betoldi at the lab. However, after I designed some outlines (my favourite being the one inspired by Mario's "Bullet Bill") I got carried away with other projects and I got found the opportunity to do it. That being said I definitely plan on making my board soon and will post images as and when it happens.

Last time I was in Brussells, naturally I came back with lots of fragile bottles of Belgian beer and the lovely people at OKNO gave me some packing material they had made from plastic bottles. I really liked the way it looked so kept hold of it for a few months thinking it might be useful one day. That day has come!

I mixed the epoxy with the hardener in a 2:1 ratio. I just did it by eye and stirred it for about a minute to make sure that it was correctly activated. After doing this I ordered my materials like so and placed them inside the vacuum bag -

  1. Mould
  2. Cling Film (Cerran Wrap)
  3. Recycled Fibre - with the bottom side covered in resin
  4. Cling Film
  5. Thick, soft fleecy material

  • The inside was coated in resin which dried shiny and hard
  • The outside was left soft
  • Fab cable storage!