Fiberglass foam and epoxy

It's been a while since I updated. I thought my health was improving but I was wrong. Hoping for more surgery this year. Anyway...

I have got some compset infusion resin.Obviously dearer than vinylester but I split a pack with someone and the price was pretty good. I have I think about 200 kg ready to go. And it's nice and thin.

Someone on a forum found a chinese foam called stucell. I found the manufacturer and placed an order for one each of many things they sell. Below is a breakdown of landed prices in Australia and photos of most of what I got. I have not yet unwrapped the glass. The 400 gsm and 600 gsm rolls are 60 kg each so a bit unwieldy. Prices:

400 gsm 45/45 stiched 60 kg $330AU
600 gsm  45/45 stiched 60 kg $299AU
200 gsm woven 30kg $173AU

It cost $1209AU to make this stuff and ship it from China to Brisbane. It cost $970 to get it from the ship to my car. Unbelievable. I hope to contain those costs next time. Prices are AU$ landed plus customs unloading etc.




1.08 sqm foam 10mm. It's green which worries me a bit. If it's polyurethane I'll be pretty annoyed, but it probably isn't. $37.34 As I say I should be able to reduce those costs next time.






Tack tape. 15m, seems ok. Sticky :) $7.86.




Carbon fiber uniaxial. 9 kg. $573.50. Far too dear. I can get it from non chinese sources for less than that, but I want to try making a boom. If that goes well I'll make the beams and mast.





Bagging film. $262. 200 sqm. Very cheap even with the shipping stuff up. Has a bright yellow tinge. Seems to be really good quality but you can't tell until you make a bag.



Spiral and tube. Spiral is as expected and at $105 for 200 m it's cheap. The 10mm/12mm tube is not the clear vinyl stuff I expected, it's the harder milky white stuff. It will probably hold up under vacuum and not require rope but it's harder to seal. Silastic I guess.. Again $105 for 200 m. I can get tube cheaper in aus but that may correct if I sort the shipping.



Peel ply. Looks like good quality. Should print nicely. I guess you can't test release until you've made a panel.

I'll post more on the glass once I've opened it and will test everything over the next few weeks hopefully.

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