Making me some new fairings i Am

[Mattzxr750]

wheres the best place to get a big square of polystyrene?

and the best way to shape it?

[sprocket]

hey cjade1 so i take it you work @ cookson boats on hill rd in GF ?
unfortunatly where i build boats we dont have much use for vacuum bagging as i would imagine the tollerance in weight for the ACB is pretty stricked hrm.... you dont know jarrod gibson do you ? the reason i ask as he told me he had a friend that wrote off a bike that worked for cookson's are you that person?
anyway would be intrested in touching base with you on the do's and dont of vacuum bagging etc

[degrom]

Scalpel or really thin wire might work... If the wire is hot it will be like cutting butter...

[sAsLEX]

Scalpel or really thin wire might work... If the wire is hot it will be like cutting butter...

What about an angle grinder? You would need something more severe than a scapel on starting out

[jade]

you can cut polystyrene on a ban saw to get close to the shape...
but yes heated wire works real well..
yes thats me at cooksons, I could help you with bagging... i do it daily
the carbon tank is alot of effort for what it is, depending how good you are, youll probably end up using so much resin to fair it out that you might not really save weight... sanding the stock tank back and cover ing it in twill for clearcoat would be just as good _b

Its not a very good picture for seeing my work but if you check out my profile, the black fairing around the seat is twill... has about 5 coats of clearcoat to really mirror it up...
wasnt concerned with weight, purely cosmetic..
plus the more weight on the ass end... the easier it is to wheelie!

[spudchucka]

wheres the best place to get a big square of polystyrene?

and the best way to shape it?

Hot wire & planer. Google "surf board shaping" or something like that should give you heaps of info.

These guys sell large blocks of polystyrene.


Insulation Panel & Door Company

Phone number: 0800 373 393

[Mattzxr750]

thats some bling fairings cjade1
will it also work if you do a fibre glass tank?

and how would you make the conneter for the fuel?

[Kyle]

Dont you need a special type of resin for making petrol tanks?
I used to make water tanks for ribtec and we had to get some special resin to make a diesel tank once, not sure what it was but it was really thick and quite a hassle to lay up. That idea of just laying glass over your standard steel tank sounds like a good idea though. Would solve both problems of leaks and putting fittings in.

[Pixie]

Well I have been offered the services of a friend who happens to be an engineer to help me construct my frankenstein vacuum bag system, however rather than buy an off the shelf vacuum pump for $600 ive decided to go with an 1800watt vacuum motor which will be plumbed into a expired 9kg gas bottle with valves in between the motor and cyclinder then another valve between the cyclinder and the bag .

So the theory is while both valves are open the better part of 99% of the air will be evacuated from the bag then when you shut the first valve between the cyclinder and bag, the cyclinder becomes the acumulator then shut the second valve turn off the vacuum motor and open the first valve again to matain a constant vacuum there will also be a vacuum guage attached to the cyclinder to detect leaks via pressure drops and if all else fails ill add another vacuum motor


keep in mind im trying the cost effictive way first as to keep the cost of the project down to a minimum.

Does a vacuum cleaner unit reach much of a vacuum?
The unit I use has a Gast pump in it and reaches 27" mercury easily.
You could use a $90 compressor from the warehouse.Put hose fittings onto where the air filter is fitted for a vacuum source

[Mattzxr750]

just woundering how the project is going Sprocket. havent heard any updates for a week or so

[sprocket]

UPDATE.... after being a bit of a slacker lately, decided to focus back on my front guard tonight, so after a few hours dicking round i've patterned the mould fairly accurate so i can have the best possible efficent use of the carbon with minimal waste

Pic

hopefully ill get around to cutting the carbon and glass tomorrrow.

[Ghost Lemur]

Excellent sproket. Looking forward to seeing how it's done.

[R6_kid:Me]

how many hours all up now?

[sprocket]

Update: cut the first lot of boatcloth (6oz/ec200) to make sure my patterns are correct, and it's looking good for me to start on the carbon, so far its taken me three hours to the pattern and mark and cut the cloth I could do it faster, BUT i'm trying to be stingy on the wastage, so hence why I have taken extra time, so all I got left to do is cut the carbon and wax the mould then im all set to make the front guard............... wonder if i should hold out on the finished pics till the entire bike is done

Labour: 10hrs


PS: I forgot to explain the reason behind taping the glass, this is done to keep the weave intact hence it will no fray, and the weave will not move, all I do when I copy the pattern, well for the carbon anyway is put it face down so the tape is on the inside not the face and no one is the wiser, also you can, once finished spray bomb the inside black to hide any see through bits(sneeky sneeky trick of the trade)

[smokinrubber]

Hi Sprocket, been reading your article for some time with great interest and am looking forward to more of it. How is the progress going ??. I to have a carbon fettish and are going to make some parts myself. Do you know if the same resin can be used for fiberglass & carbon fiber, or do you need two types ??. Would love to know how your vacum system is going. Not sure if i read it here or somewhere about using the supply air side of a cheap compressor. Has anyone heard of this ??