usually a layer of felt, flannel, cotton, or similar on top of the plastic covering the topsheet not only gives an even vacuum, but allows epoxy to seep into it and avoid the pump
I used to be a lifeguard, but some blue kid got me fired.
RoboGeek wrote:usually a layer of felt, flannel, cotton, or similar on top of the plastic covering the topsheet not only gives an even vacuum, but allows epoxy to seep into it and avoid the pump
I like that idea... We designed our mold to be sucked from the bottom so do you think if we put the flannel under our skis it should work?
if you connect an empty container of some sort (glas works fine, plastic bottles will implode) between the pump and the thing you ar sucking, the epoxy wil go in the container, but not further. If you get epoxy in your pump you are f***d
I agree with endre, but would like to add use a canning jar instead of reusing something (they're stronger), and I'd put the jar in a small wooden box in case of implosion.
------------------Take nothing I say as expert advice------------------
collin wrote:I agree with endre, but would like to add use a canning jar instead of reusing something (they're stronger), and I'd put the jar in a small wooden box in case of implosion.
is there an easy way to build some kind of t or some kind of manifold to run my vacuum hose through the jar?
Don't use so much epoxy. If you smear it on the base etc. And wet out your glass with a paintbrush. You end up with not much wasted epoxy, hence no problem of epoxy clogging the vacuum pump.
If you are using a high set speed epoxy and heat setting this might not be an option. But this is not normally true of a home vacuum setup.
At PMgear we are using epoxy that has a pot life of 20 min and use high temp and a pneumatic press to make skis. We have quite a lot of epoxy runoff. But
we don't really have the time I would take when pressing skis at home. And epoxy starvation in a ski is more of a worry than wasting epoxy.
that's right. It is a container on your hose. can be connected with a glue gun (hot glue), silicone or whatever.
(didn't remember the english term for it earlier, but I guess "trap" is the right word)