Autoclave

[anarchos]

Has anyone thought of building an autoclave? Take 10" diameter pipe that's 8' long with a end cap welded on one end, and then a 10" flange on the other end that you bolt a blind flange on to act as a "door". Then some sort of safety blow-off dump valve, a couple of bungs welded in for pressure gauges.

The only part I haven't figured is out how to heat it. A couple of resistance heaters would work, but I'm not sure if they make such a thing as a pressure proof electrical passthrough.

I think I can probably get the materials for cheap through work, and I know people who weld pipe rated to insanely high pressures. I might give it a shot.

[twizzstyle]

You can safely and easily get 60-80psi from a firehose, and you don't need to vacuum bag anything. With an autoclave you have to vacuum bag it.

Not worth the effort to build a safe tank in my opinion. I've wanted to build an autoclave for other projects I do, but certainly not for skis.

[Richuk]

Is this what you are thinking of building?

http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2009 ... cy_cannon/

[rcbahn]

I have been thinking about building an autoclave for various projects and I thought it would work well for building skis as well. It will depend on if I can find a large diameter piece of pipe for not too much cash. As for heating you could build a box out of blue/pink board around the pipe and throw in some heaters, a friend built an "oven" like this and got it up to 170*F with electric radiators. For me it will all depend on sourcing the pipe...

[brewster]

I did the math on something like this a while back. (the thread is around here somewhere) I came very close to building one but ultimately went a different route. My thought process was that skis/boards are essentially a 2D structure. The direction you are "forcing" your resin is essentially in plane. Of course you could argue cap.construction etc but even then you are doing a relatively small geometry compared to your overall structure.

Secondly, just like in a normal press the forces get large very quickly. The surface area goes with the square of the radius. Throw in some heated air and it can be a challenging design problem. The pipe should be fine it is the doors you need to worry about.

In hindsight, I decided to abandon the idea more for the first reason than the second. After all, there are huge autoclaves for wings, etc. If you build one , definitely post pics.

[Brazen]

I want that cannon when you're done with your "autoclave".

[twizzstyle]

I'll say it again, an autoclave is definitely NOT the way to press a ski. If you're going to use it for other projects, then sure by all means, but if it would be dedicated to ski pressing then it's just time, money, and effort wasted.