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Step 13More pictures of the Vacuum bag process
Here are some pictures I jacked from my friend Eric of us building the second generation of kiteboards last year. This time we tried vacuum bagging and it worked really nicely. We use a small 1/3 horsepower motor with a regulator valve and a pressure gauge to suck down to about -12 Psi while the epoxy cured.
On each side of the board we had a layer of Nylon, a cloth bleeder to allow airflow and absorb excess epoxy and then the plastic bag itself. This gave a much nicer nylon finish than the last board which still showed the weave.
We also used colorant in the epoxy. This worked well and saved us from having to paint the boards later. It also saved weight. The sun will slowly deteriorate epoxy but if you don't store your board in your backyard you should be fine.
Eric also bought some fabric a layed it in under the last layer of glass. This gave him a sweet pattern on the surfaces at the expense of a small amount of weight.
This time we were a little more confident in the process and invested in some better bindings. These amounted to about 70% of the cost of each of our boards.
On each side of the board we had a layer of Nylon, a cloth bleeder to allow airflow and absorb excess epoxy and then the plastic bag itself. This gave a much nicer nylon finish than the last board which still showed the weave.
We also used colorant in the epoxy. This worked well and saved us from having to paint the boards later. It also saved weight. The sun will slowly deteriorate epoxy but if you don't store your board in your backyard you should be fine.
Eric also bought some fabric a layed it in under the last layer of glass. This gave him a sweet pattern on the surfaces at the expense of a small amount of weight.
This time we were a little more confident in the process and invested in some better bindings. These amounted to about 70% of the cost of each of our boards.
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