14. Composite

Week assignment is..
○ design and make a 3D mold (~ft2), and produce a fiber composite part in it


In this week assignment,I made a planter cover.

14-1.Materials and tools

    Materials
  • burlap (fabric)
  • epoxy
  • clothe compressing bag
  • vaccume cleaner
  • the tooth-shaped mold
  • towel (breather material)
  • plastic wrap (breeder material)
  • 3D mold (download : tooth_small)
I used a 3D mold “tooth” which I made in the week 7
    Tools
  • cup
  • chopstick (for mixing epoxy)
  • kitchen scale (for mesuring epoxy)

14-2. Composites

First, I mesured the weight of epoxies and mixed them. Our epoxies ratio is 5:1. Then,I put and rubbed them into the fabric. I wrapped a mold in it.

14-3. Vaccume bagging

I used with a clothe compressing bag. It is very cheap and easy to get. ( I bought it in one doller store) I wrapped again with breather / bleeser materials. After that, I put it into the compressing bag and set a vaccum cleaner.

12-4. Result and troubles

After two days from vaccume process (because I had a work), I took the one out from the bag and removed breather / bleeser materials.

Sadly, this result made me disappointed. Plastic wrap film which is used as bleeser materials was often stucked on the surface.


For solving this problem, I tried to warmed it with hand blower. After this process, I could remove them with tweezers easily. And then I finished.
I will start my kitchen garden as soon as possible !

12-5. Extra works

I would like to make something from waste materials like used clothes. I tried to make a tray from my used scarf.

left : mold  right: scarf

I did the same way before.After that, I cut off the unnecessary part with bandsaw and filed the cut surface.

I finished!
I had hoped that we can see the pattern of the clothes. However, It became black and can’t see it. I think more vivid and clear pattern is good. (Next time, I will try again! )

japanese traditional sake cup ”MASU”, fish fins “FUGU HIRE” and Japanese sake “DASSAI”.