Monday, April 29, 2013

Front Repair

Had a small setback with this frame due to a mislabeled tube and neglecting to measure said tube.  The head tube was not 44mm ID.  I noticed just prior to bagging for the oven, removed the pre-preg and baked the rest of the frame.

After grinding and prying off the wrong head tube I carefully replaced it after cleaning up the joint.  Everything was aligned in the jig to the same location.

Here is the new head tube installed and re filleted.
Below is the complete first layer of joint wrapping.
Here it is later on when I apply a woven layer.
And here is the final finished wrapped joint.
I have the wrapping with release cloth process down to only a few pieces now.
I only vacuum bagged the front portion of the frame this time since the other joints were already cured.  I'm leaving more slack in the bag now to allow for it to pull cleanly into the joint.
In the oven, under vacuum and ready to cure.


2 comments:

Crash said...

Just wondering why you put the twill weave after the first uni layer. Is it going on dry?

Albert said...

Thank you for sharing your experience. Since I have built a solar bike, see here: www.avdweb.nl, I make carbon parts too. The method I use was however too complex, so I was looking for another method, I found your wrap method with thin unidirectional carbon tape very useful. I will use this method the next time…

I wonder which carbon tubes you use and where do you get them?