Composites
Small composite: Trying to build a mini tube
Components of the composite: fiber and matrix
*Fiber: Lace edging. This is a very typical cloth on the spanish culture of sewing. I want to experiment the posibilities of the material to create a lamp.
*Matrix: RESOLTECH 1040T + 1048N (from a spanish vendor) , a high temperature epoxy. To make a matrix from these products it is required to mix the two products in this proportion:
** 100 g of RESOLTECH 1040T
**30 g of RESOLTECH 1048N
Once the mix is done, there are 20 minutes working time left(tiempo de gel) until the product get to his higher temperature (more than 90º).
Materials needed to do a composite
*Microperforated plastic: It is needed to separate the mold from the fiber and the matrix of the future composite; and the composite itself from the wooly fiber.
* Woolly fiber: It recover all the volume of the composite, which is already protected by the Microperforated plastic, and helps the vacuum bag to do its work.
*Vacuum bag: It makes the fiber and the matrix take the form of the mold.
How to orgagnize all these materials and layers
*1. Take your mold and cover it with the microperforated plastic.
*2. Place the fiber all over the mold.
*3. Start the application of the epoxy on the lace. Do it in 20 minutes. 
*4. Cover the project of composite (mold+plastic+fiber+matrix) with the microperforated plastic and then with the woolly fiber.
*5. Put it into the vacuum bag.
*6. Start the compressor and leave the vacuum machine several minutes, until preassure is stable. Pressure stablish in 15 inHG, which are about 7psi.
It was very complicated to achieve total vacuum because of the vacuum bag. Ruber is used to close the bag, but there is always air entering somehow.
*7.Leave the bag all night with the manometer. After at least 12 hours, open the bag and take off all the plastic and wooly fiber. Then remove the mold. In this case this was not very easy and finally the mold was damaged.
Things I have learnt
*The surface inside the tube was much nicer than the surface outside the tube. Probably I put too much epoxy on the fiber and the final surface is not homogeneous.
* The mold was damaged, to be able to do a tube it is necessary to do twice the composite, one for the top side of the tube and the other for the bottom side of the tube. This is what I will do with the big Xtube big composite for my final project.
Result
Big composite: Trying to build a super half of a X tube
The documentation of how is the mold been done can be found at this link:
* CNC Machining (II) FOAM: An X tube mold (Click here)
The documentation of the composite made from this mold can be found at this link at the final project documentation: