To compress the layers of carbon fabric, express excess resin, and remove trapped air bubbles, rollers are typically used for composite layups.
I had an old paint roller handle, so I designed and printed my own squeegee roller with a concave surface to increase the surface area on a round tube. That would also keep it tracked... helpful because I didn't have an easy way of retaining it on the roller rod. This looks a lot more like a dildo than I thought when designing it.
Printed it out in PLA with minimal wall thickness just to test quick, and damn what do you know I dropped and broke it:
But I still got a feel for whether or not it would work.
Hated it. Too big. Too much work for something that would be tossed. But the roller rod felt nice:
So just cover that with PVC tube:
Now that worked well. And it worked on flats for squeegeeing the fabric before application. It doesn't roll very easily dry, so it might not actually roll at all covered in sticky resin. I will try next layup.
I had an old paint roller handle, so I designed and printed my own squeegee roller with a concave surface to increase the surface area on a round tube. That would also keep it tracked... helpful because I didn't have an easy way of retaining it on the roller rod. This looks a lot more like a dildo than I thought when designing it.
Printed it out in PLA with minimal wall thickness just to test quick, and damn what do you know I dropped and broke it:
But I still got a feel for whether or not it would work.
Hated it. Too big. Too much work for something that would be tossed. But the roller rod felt nice:
So just cover that with PVC tube:
Now that worked well. And it worked on flats for squeegeeing the fabric before application. It doesn't roll very easily dry, so it might not actually roll at all covered in sticky resin. I will try next layup.
Comments
Post a Comment