3D Demystifying Vacuum Bagging of foam wings!!

[Terryscustom]

Terry, Which system did you buy ready made? I am getting a bit confused at the available choices. I am assuming its speaking widths, when it shows 18/36/60 ?
Curious what the pieced together system can do over the readily made one?

Yes, if you look above the drop down window there is the following explanation of the choices:

Following options are available:

• 18: 18” Bag tube, 20” Quick-lock seal and 15” Breather
• 36: 36” Bag tube, 40” Quick-lock seal and 30” Breather
• 60: 60” Bag tube, 70” Quick-lock seal and 60” Breather
• Mounted Auto-Vac Assembly without bagging materials*

I chose the 36" option and it has worked well for me up to 43% wings. You can also get the pump system without any materials but I wanted to unbox it and start bagging parts.

To answer your second question....nothing. They both work exactly the same except my other pump has much more capacity. I built the second one so that I could have two systems but found that if I linked them together I got much quicker evacuation of bags. I hooked them together with a hose that has a hose clamp on it so they can work together or independently. I am thinking about hooking up a small air tank like this one: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Husky-10-Gal-Portable-Air-Tank-CT10H/202528456. What this would allow you to do is evacuate a bag even quicker.

But the single system is more than adequate for any and all bagging jobs. Before I built my second system I vacuumed a 43% wing, two stabs and a rudder all at the same time in three bags. No doubt you could do an entire plane at once if needed.

 

[Terryscustom]

I've not used it, but this little EZ vac system looks pretty cool and holds just the right amount of vacuum. Very inexpensive way to start! Only thing I would do is add some sort of tank or reservoir to allow quicker evacuation and you'd be golden.
http://www.acpsales.com/EZ-Vac-System.html

The evacuation time will make more sense when I get a video done.....soon.

 

[Jetpainter]

I've been eyeballing that small EZ Vac pretty heavily. I even did some Internet research a few weeks ago and found several people that liked it and nobody complaining so it's what I've been leaning toward. The wings I need to do aren't all that big.

 

[gareth.ky]

Couldn't we rig up something to use a shop vac as an alternate low pressure source to suck out the bulk of the air and then turn on the little system?

 

[Terryscustom]

Couldn't we rig up something to use a shop vac as an alternate low pressure source to suck out the bulk of the air and then turn on the little system?

That's a genius concept actually! You would need some sort of valve though because wide open it may do it too fast to adjust the bag and smooth it out.

 

[Bartman]

That's a genius concept actually! You would need some sort of valve though because wide open it may do it too fast to adjust the bag and smooth it out.

a t-fitting with a ball valve might allow you to throttle the suction side but not sure if it would have any negative affect on the compressor by starving it on the suction side?

great thread Terry and thanks for taking the time to post it.

 

[Bartman]

..............The use of Rit Dye to color the resin will help very much to see the resin is evenly distributed on the sheeting.

great idea with the dye, never tried that!

 

[Bunky.F.Knuckle]

I remember when we used to use "Southern Sorguhms" to sheet wings with..... It was much like contact paper. Once you touch it to the foam core, that was it. No picking up and moving around. @Kitman knows about Sorghums.

 

[Fibertech]

I don't want to intrude on Terrys thread but I had posted this on the other side some time ago.

I had put this off for several years and just sheeted foam by loading down my build table with all the weights and bricks I had around the house. No more of that If you’re going to do much for sheeting foam or for that matter laminating material together invest in a vacuum system. During the process of looking for components on line to build mine I came across a sight called Joe Woodworker. He has everything you need to build a nice fairly inexpensive system. He offers new and use pumps. The one I show in picture is a new Gast 5.5cfm 28"hg max as I wanted to use mine for trying some resin infusion on glass parts and need higher Hg. The refurbished one he offers would be more than enough for vacuum bagging foam. For what I have pulled so far 4-6"hg has worked out very well on foam parts. By having the vacuum controller it allows you set the low/high side of amount of vacuum needed within 2-3"hg. I purchased the vacuum controller from ACPcomposits it has a range of 3"-30"hg with a control of 2-3"hg that was better for what I wanted.

Link to purchased parts

http://www.joewoodworker.com/veneering/v2-parts.htm

 

[jtec/radiowave]

Terry

Great thread. just want to add that we have had great success using gorilla glue sheeting a bunch of wings and foam parts. It saves on edge gluing as it expands into any gap in the wood and its easy to sand. Working time is shorter than resin so you need to have everything ready once you start. The next couple sets of wing we do will be with the west systems.

Terry is giving some great info here. Like most things after you do it the first time you realize how easy it was and wonder why you didn't try it before. We also us the Aerospace Composites system. Highly recommended

Al Young
JTEC/RADIOWAVE