#5,934 in Health & Personal Care
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Reddit mentions of West System 879-18 Release Fabric
Sentiment score: 1
Reddit mentions: 1
We found 1 Reddit mentions of West System 879-18 Release Fabric. Here are the top ones.
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60″ wide x 9″ sheetRelease Fabric is a tough, finely woven nylon fabric treated with a release agent.Used to separate the absorber, breather and vacuum bag from the laminate in vacuum bagging operations.Peels easily and leaves a smooth textured surface, ready for bonding, sanding or finishing.Not recommended for post-cure temperatures over 120°F (49°C)
Specs:
| Color | White |
| Height | 1.15 Inches |
| Length | 12.55 Inches |
| Number of items | 1 |
| Weight | 0.2 Pounds |
| Width | 5.4 Inches |
Crashed pretty bad this spring and a friend of mine builds carbon fiber and fiberglass boats for a living, and offered to show me how to do repairs the right way. Some pics of the process. Carbon fiber and fiberglass work essentially the same way.
Cloth is glass or CF, and resin is 2 part epoxy. For structural repairs, he recommends keying up (roughing) the inside which is typically primed with 80 grit or so until you see bare glass for at least an inch outside of the repair area, see the third pic in the above series. Clean it well with acetone. Do this for all the interior sites that need glass to repair.
Get a big table like you see in the picture, lay thick drop plastic on it. Lay out your cloth on the drop plastic - you usually want 2-3 layers of cloth and offset the 'weave' by 45 or 90 degrees between layers depending on number of layers to get strength in all directions. Don't trim it just get a big-ish piece like the carbon fibre in in the set of pics above.
Mix up 50-100 mL of the resin at a time according to the manufacturer instructions, it's an exothermic reaction and will get hot, hot is bad (can set on fire) and it will go off faster meaning less work time. You're better off pouring it all out on the plastic on the table (higher surface area will keep it cool).
You've got maybe 10 minutes in warm weather (90 deg) or 30 or so in cooler (around 65-70) as a rule of thumb, once the resin gets kind of tacky it's toast.
Pour the resin into the cloth and use a rubber spreader/squeegee to smear it into the cloth. You'll want to paintbrush on ('prime') the keyed up glass on your part with some resin, ideally this should be resin mixed with some silica to give better adhesion and strength. Do not breathe this shit in.
Get clean scissors then trim the cloth with the drop plastic - so you've got a backing layer of drop plastic behind your layer of cloth soaked in resin. This lets you handle the cloth and apply it in funny tight corners. Apply to the primed surface (you've got ~minutes to do this). Unpeel the drop plastic once the cloth is on the part to your satisfaction.
Note here: excess resin and air bubbles are structural WEAKNESSES. Cloth is what gives strength. Lots of guys just slobber tons of resin on cloth with a paintbrush and this is signature of an amateur job that will just crack bad at your next crash.
To get rid of bubbles and excess resin, you get peel ply and apply it in strips to the back of the cloth you just stuck on. Stick it with your hand then get a clean paintbrush and stipple it so the excess resin goes thru it and eliminate any air bubbles. This is an engineered material and will not bond to resin. Leave the part to dry overnight, and then you can tear off the peel ply which will take any excess resin and unevenness with it. It also leaves a pre-roughed surface perfect for priming or another layup of glass.