Hello everybody.
Been a busy couple of months for me.
Getting a fence put up in the "rocky" Rocky Mountains wasn't a lot of fun, but it's done.
Spent a week chopping wood and installing the stove in the new shop building. (Built a new base with outside/cold air intake for it. Not as much of a worry about fire or explosion with the dust now)
Spent some time making door skins and trying to figure out how to get them bonded together. Didn't like the finished product, so now I might go a different way on the doors.
The new method will not use the mold I spent so long making, but I guess that goes along with the learning experience.
Speaking of learning....I cringe looking back on the first few posts in this thread. My ignorance was kind of astounding.
Now I can confidently speak about "0,+/-45 triax" and how strong it will be in my application. (answer: VERY)
Another thing I learned recently was how hard it is going to be to get materials in Colorado.
I haven't found a supplier that carries the core foam and fiberglass that I want anywhere between the Mississippi and the Rockies.
Finally ended up ordering out of Illinois, Florida, and Washington to get what I wanted at a decent price.
New work bench top. (3/4" melamine)
This caused problems that I will talk about later.
Cutting the fabric for the floor.
Floor panel under vacuum, ready to infuse the resin.
(Green color is flow medium, the while lines are the resin feed lines, covered in peel-ply)
Resin going in, 2-1/4 gallons so far, needed another 32oz to finish.
Getting close, another inch on the edges.
Last corner to get resin, I was starting to sweat, worrying that I was going to have a dry spot. (at tiny as it is)
No worries though, resin got there before it kicked off.
All covered with electric blankets, ready for bed.
Next morning, bag, flow medium, and peel-ply all stripped.
Funny the patterns that are left in the surface. Areas where just a little bit of extra resin is left.
Bottom of the panel (dark lines are tiny grooves cut into the core to help the resin to flow throughout the panel)
Finished floor panel! Cool!
Now to start on the walls!
The floor is calculated to weigh approx 60 lbs (64"X96")
That compares favorably with plywood. (3/4" marine should be about 100 lbs).
This panel was another learning experience for me. The panel came out perfect...it was the
table that was the problem!
Went out this morning to unbag the part, and I noticed that the entire table was rocking. I have adjustable feet on it, and I had spent a few hours leveling and making sure everything was flat and true before starting the floor panel.
I thought everything was fine, but to find the table rocking almost a 1/4" was unexpected. (rocking on the center set of the six legs)
I can only guess that it was caused by the resin kicking off on the top first, and shrinking a tiny bit before the bottom kicked.
The floor panel ended up with a little arch in it.
Thankfully that is not a big deal (I'll just put the curve upwards, it will help with the loading/deflection).
So to make sure this doesn't happen again, I'm going to have to build a better table.
Months ago I did some research on work-benches, and it led me to a "box-beam" type design on this website.
Box beam table
So next up is a trip to the lumber yard to figure out how much $$$ it's going to cost to get some TJI's to build another table.
Two steps forward, one step back.
More later,
Lee
by GuyllFyre » Mon May 16, 2011 6:07 am 
