14. Composites

I'll made Japanese traditional helmet called "kabuto" as my final project. So, I tried to make decorations for the kabuto. I comosite many sticks made of cardboard bacause the kabuto I used as a reference has many needles.

Make Parts

make ai.file
laser cutting
place sticks in a row
→ DOWNLOAD Ai data

Composite

I tried to do composite cotton and epoxy.

I mixed the main agent and the hardener in the ration of 5:1. Then, I steeped some cotton in mixed liquor.

layer

  1. poly bag
  2. black cotton
  3. sticks made of cardboard
  4. black cotton
  5. poly bag made many holes
  6. towel
I attached poly bags each other with masking tape because my poly bag cannot cover whole of the composited item.
vacuum forming

Result

I made composited item vacuum, using a vacuum cleaner.
extra epoxy exuded to towels.
I found my mistake. I should have place poly bags not to touch composite parts. As a result, the masking tape of composite part remained
I borrowed strong scissors from technical staff worked in Kyushu university.