Assignment
This week assignment was Design and make a 3D mold, and produce a fiber composite part in it. What i chose to do is a padel. As fiber can make really tough thing and light enough, I think it's a very good material to be used as padel.
Designing
I use digi fab to create the mold－－Laser cutter. At first i want to create a complex padel but i don't think it can be made at last.. So i create a simple padel.
I use Adobe AI to design the padel. At first i used Rhino to design the model, but after i decided to laser cut the material i dropped the Rhino.
The final model also has a certain thickness, can be used as a mold, I only need to add multi-fiber, it can become a tough racket.
Here is my padel file.
PADEL
Making
First thing is to laser cut the padel. I cut the cardboard and fiber. It was quick and convenient.
But there were still some edges I need to cut with the shear.
Here is the fiber.
I added several layers of fiber to make it strong. Eight layers at last. Therefore my composite will very strong and can be used as a weapon.
Then i use epoxy glue, mixed in 3:1, to cover the cardboard and the fiber. Before cover it i calculate the volume of mold in assure not to waste the glue. My mix ratio was:
type A:100g
type B:33g
Put the glued mold on a tower and food wrap with holes. These holes let the air inside the mold come out when we vacuum the composites. I don't know if it's the reason we called it breather layer.
Then put two towels on both sides of the composites. When the liquid come out, towels can suck the liquid. But the towels give me a lot of problems, i will explain it later.
I spread some resin on the surface for the cloth to adhere in place, and then sprad some more resin over the whole cloth, for it to get completely wet from the resin. For the borders i had cut some 4cmm tall stripes og fiberglass cloth, that were kind of tearing apart, so it was a little messy, with it sticking to my fingers.
Then put it in a vacuum bag and vacuum it.
And wait for the whole night.
Here is my problems, as you can see, the towel's fiber has stick on the mold through the holes on the food wrap. Still don't know how to slove that problem.
And here is my padel.
