I had some success with DURACLEAR topsheet, I solvent printed a reverse on the layup side, then laid up with a white pigmented resin. unfortunately my solvent printer is bust now :( if you can find a local printers with a solvent printer and can persuade them to run your topsheet through it then you...

It looks like a kind of pre-preg, the resin is applied to one side only to stabilise the weave, then when you heat and apply pressure from a press or autoclave, the resin reduces in viscosity and impregnates the fibres. Either that or it's just a weave stabiliser, although as there are cross fibres ...

You need a proper RIP (Raster Image Processing) software You can occasionally find them used (licence) but a lot of them use a dongle - or at least the older ones anyway. I use Colorgate ProductionServer on my solvent printer, but I got that with my printer. Others include Onyx & Caldera. I thin...

Here in europe you can get decent firehose at builders supplies sold as "construction hose". Same quality and specs like firehose (except certification) and decent price. + they have it in bigger dia. then normal firehoses have you got any product codes / manufacturers? I've been having a...

you could try dbabicwa on here, he bought a job lot of materials a few years ago

Any 3d modelling program has a steep learning curve, especially anything by autodesk! I've been using autocad and others for 20yrs now and still learning things! Well worth it though, Autodesk do a beta testing and home user licence thing so you may be able to get a cheap or free licence after the y...

I'd move the taper forward about an inch past where you cracked it, yes that may have been a weak point because of the plug but that looks like bending failure rather than core shear failure, so basically the compression side (top face) exceeded it's limit debonded and buckled. I was going to say ju...

Akiwi wrote: Hi Chrislandy, When do you do that with the APF7? After the layup and before clear coating with time for it to dry?

yep, before clear coat think of it as a invisible pinhole filler as it blends into the carbon. wait for it to cure then clear coat

Just a little tip for getting rid of the pinholes on the carbon, get hold of some APF7 (sold by Ami-con in the UK) it's known is composites circles as "black magic" as you just give the carbon parts a quick skim of the stuff and laquer it et voila, no pinholes and you can't see the filler

I did some work on this during my masters thesis, but can't remember all the bits now (it was a few years ago!) You can model it but the most accurate was from empirical testing because it is so reliant on the quality of the layup and materials. i.e. you and I could layup the same part but it would ...

There's a big show in the UK in November where you can talk to pretty much every manufacturer & weaver in Europe, it's a really good show over a couple of days. It's free entry with prior registration so if you can stomach the travel costs it's well worth a visit http://www.easyfairs.com/events_...

try Eric at http://www.carrreinforcements.com/ in the UK, they are weavers.

They will do or have stock of most things, their website is a bit rubbish and out of date and certainly doesn't show what they actually do, but their products are excellent

Standard linear elastic laminate analysis (or classical laminate theory) is perfectly good, I really wouldn't bother with FEA unless you have a barrel load of time to kill, it takes a lot of insight and time to get the correct answer out. You won't get that much more accurate, in fact you'd probably...

When you say larger camber, is it the same, less or more than the former? I can understand why glass and carbon ski's/boards can end up with different camber off the same mould, purely due to the elastic modulus of the fibres and the springback force from the wooden core. Don't forget also that some...

That might make sense but then why do my carbon skis have twice the camber as my glass skis. I have to cook top heavy by 25 degrees f to get normal camber in my carbons. Interesting... I'm looking to build my first press this year for the wakeboards so I would be interested to find out why! - I cur...