Posted: Tue Jan 04, 2011 4:49 am
What's the bend radius on your tip ?
I had issues with a pair once as the tip radius was too tight (less than 100mm in the very end): a dry pressure test to see if the bladder conformed the mold seemed OK but in the end it was not. Now I keep my tip/tail mold radius above 200mm and I know I have a consistent pressure all over the mold.
If I ever go smaller again I do have a solution though, I'll try to take pictures tonight.
Pre-bending your wood core is a pretty easy thing, have a look at my journal, on my first pairs I used to do it. I made a simple jig to hold the core bent, sprayed some warm water on it (just a slight mist) and force drying with a heat gun, repeat a few times and you're good to go. The core will "relax" for sure but still, it helps a lot (I was using vacuum at this time, with almost full wood core). Just make sure your let the bent core dry completely before you proceed with the layup, epoxy and water don't like each other.
Did you pre-bent the edges vertically ? It also helps, even with a pneumatic press I still do it...
I had issues with a pair once as the tip radius was too tight (less than 100mm in the very end): a dry pressure test to see if the bladder conformed the mold seemed OK but in the end it was not. Now I keep my tip/tail mold radius above 200mm and I know I have a consistent pressure all over the mold.
If I ever go smaller again I do have a solution though, I'll try to take pictures tonight.
Pre-bending your wood core is a pretty easy thing, have a look at my journal, on my first pairs I used to do it. I made a simple jig to hold the core bent, sprayed some warm water on it (just a slight mist) and force drying with a heat gun, repeat a few times and you're good to go. The core will "relax" for sure but still, it helps a lot (I was using vacuum at this time, with almost full wood core). Just make sure your let the bent core dry completely before you proceed with the layup, epoxy and water don't like each other.
Did you pre-bent the edges vertically ? It also helps, even with a pneumatic press I still do it...