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Tips on Working with Vinylester Resin

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wsimpso1

Super Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Oct 18, 2003
Messages
11,353
Location
Saline Michigan
Here I am, all experienced with epoxy and having built a bunch of my composite airplane, and I am having no end of a bad time building a few things with Vinylester Resin where I see the need for it.

Anybody have experience with Vinyester and have any tips on working with this stuff?

I am using Derakane 411-350 resin and MEKP catalyst. Bad choices? If better exists, please point me to material and folks who sell it.

Just to detail my bad time with it, here are the most difficult things so far:

This stuff really wants to grab my nitrile gloves, scissors, and rubber squeegees. I have learned to not touch the stuff if I can help it, but to use a brush for everything I can in terms of placing and smoothing tapes and new plies. Are there other types of gloves and squeegee materials to work with to use this stuff?

This stuff does not seem to stay down on underlying surfaces, it tends to lift off if left alone. How do we get it to stay put on surfaces? Maybe a bit of cabosil in the resin?

Applying tapes to a surface, either to build a layer or attach two parts together, can be a real pain. I am using polyethylene film and it curls up and off the tapes, so the film does not work as a carrier to get a nice tape where I want it. What does work as a carrier film for taping and tabbing with this stuff, and where do you get it? Is there an alternate technique for tabbing and taping? Is there a reasonable substitute for visqueen that works with vinylester?

I have found that I can make molds or forms from polystyrene foam if I completely cover the form in two layers of packing tape. Doing just a simple wet layup works OK - the foam does not collapse, but I have trouble getting the wet laminations to stay put. Try this with a vacuum bag, and some modest collapse of foam still occurs. I am thinking of applying a full cover of slightly wet micro-epoxy over the entire form, then covering that with packing tape, but I am certain some styrene will get into the foam and cause some distortion. Any tips on making molds and forms of styrene foams so they do not collapse. Or is PU foam the only way to make this work?

For my header tank, I was planning to make it on a male mold. I figure that I would build the outside body and lid each in three bag cycles plus other operations:
  • Peel ply against form, two BID, peel ply and vacuum bag;
  • Free part from mold, put it back on, pull peel ply from outer layer, then apply Divinycel over most of the surfaces, phenolic plate at each of the connections (fuel lines, gage, level switches, sump drain), and vacuum bag these cores in place;
  • Clean up the outside and then vacuum bag over the outside with two BID;
  • Pull from male mold, clean up the inside, and tab in the baffles/structure;
  • Apply a seal coat to the inside to catch any leak paths;
  • Transfer flanges and bond on a lid.
Does this even sound like it will work with vinyester?

After being the composite guy, I am humbled by how much fuss vinylester resin is giving me...

Bill
 
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