3D Printing and Composites

Posted on December 2, 2020 by Max Male

Building the surfboard got me interested in using composites. I’ve done a bit of experimentation with 3D printing and composites before and I wanted to see how far I could push the limits of this technology available to me.

I Brainstormed some areas that I wanted to try and improve my capabilities in. From these areas, I decided on 3 ways in which I wanted to test the technology: 1. For detail (with the teeth moulds), 2. For different methods of layup (with the cube moulds) and 3. for different ways of applying the epoxy resin (With the hemi-sphere ones).

Results

Detail

With these tests, I found that the moulds 1-3 produced very little deformation in the end product. I think this may have been partly due to the fact that there wasn’t that much clamping force applied. I would like to expand on this test by testing different amounts of clamping pressure and see how that changes the amount of detail I can get.

Model 4 did produce good deformation but the detail was lost on the ends of the points. This was partly due to the printer failing midway through the mould making meaning that the tips of mould 4 are cut off a little. This leads me to experiment with the printer to get better quality prints later on.

2. Methods of Layup

Left to right these models are:

90 degree laid fibres stuffed in,

90 degrees laid fibres trimmed to strips and then inserted,

45-degree fibres stuffed in,

45-degree fibres trimmed to strips,

90 degrees fibreglass trimmed to strips,

90-degree fibreglass stuffed in.

Conclusions: The Ones with the trimmed fabric generally produced a nicer finish on the cube, they were also easier to insert and needed less trimming. The fibreglass cubes ended up with a really nice finish and the 45 degree carbon fibre worked much better than the 90 degree carbon fibre.

3. Epoxy application

Improving my printer.

After the failed 3D prints, I decided to take some time to try and dial in the settings on my machine to get better quality. I used the standard model in the 3D printing community to test my print settings: “a benchy”

Surfboard Fibreglassing

Posted on November 6, 2020 by Max Male

Once I had a finished foam core ready, it was onto the fiberglassing. There were some dents and marks in the foam from knocks during the making process but I decided to go ahead and fibreglass the board anyway and fix these later because I didn’t have any expanding foam. how to cut lap | Composite Corner https://compositecorner.wordpress.com/tag/how-to-cut-lap/

I will be using the cut lap method for the rails of my board. This is where you use tape to mask off the underside of the board and then trim the fibreglass along this line. Here I am masking off the top deck of the board except for a roughly 10 cm area all around the rails so that I can have an overlap between the top and bottom layers of fibreglass. I also had to make small incisions every so often so that the cloth would wrap around nicely. They had to be closer together and more frequent on the areas of the board with tighter curves like the nose and tail. Next, I laid the cloth out, Mixed up my two-part epoxy resin and poured it on the board. I found it was useful to have a ‘squeegee like’ tool to direct the resin (I used a bit of plastic sheet) and to pour the resin in sections to ensure I didn’t run out. I found it was important to make sure the overhangs were fully saturated with resin before trying to stick them round, otherwise they didn’t stick nicely.

Surfboard Experiments

Posted on November 6, 2020 by Max Male

I have used hot wire cutters before and decided that this was how I wanted to get the rough shape of my foam. the picture below is my homemade wire cutter: The design is very simple: There is a thin guitar string stretched between the two wooden arms. this is powered with a variable power supply. The blue rope is used to tension the wire.

I bought some foam sheet from Wickes in Brighton.

I used the hot wire cutter to split this sheet in half.

This made it easier to handle and cut down to the surfboard shape. Tracing the outline of the board from my card template. I designed the board in AKU shaper and then fusion 360.

I then hotwired the outline making sure I stayed on the outside of the line. To give the board some curve lengthways (rocker) I glued some foam on the nose and tail. I used the hot wire again to rough in the curve. I then used a surform and apiece of wood with some 80 grit sandpaper stuck to it to make the shape to the template and symmetrical. I then traced some lines on the top of the board to give me an idea of how much to round off the rails with the sandpaper.

Documentation Methods

Posted on November 6, 2020 by Max Male

Documenting for yourself

Practising Documenting experimentation. We were given 45 minutes to experiment with a way of making patterns. I used a breadboard with little jumper cables to use colours to make a pattern. Using the red cables to make a basic snaking pattern.

Using two colours now. Trying to layer the pattern: wires overlap on two different heights.

Trying a rotational pattern, there is much more space for a liner pattern than a rotational one like this because the board is long and thin. Trying a pattern with bending the wire instead of just straight lines. Bent all together to make the bends in the same place.

Hello world!

Posted on November 5, 2020 by Max Male

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Author Archives: Max Male

3D Printing and Composites

Surfboard Fibreglassing

Surfboard Experiments

Documentation Methods

Hello world!