As the thread seams to have gone a bit quiet of late I thought I would share the results of my winter project. After a bit of thought i decided to make a twin band gun somewhere between 75 and 90 cm in length for hunting bass and mullet off the south Cornish coast. I wanted to include carbon fibre in the construction not so much for strength but more to provide a hard and slick surface for the open rail and to look trick!
The first step was to machine the mahogony laminates to size. Why mahogony? simply because a large chunk was donated to me in exchange for a bit of guidence for my friend to build his first gun. Once to size(oversize in hight and length) the rail was routed and prepared for its carbon overcoat. Being a composite virgin, I took advice in the process from a workmate who was a bit of an expert. The following photos show the vacuum bagging process from laying out the bagging tape followed by release ply, the rail coated in west system epoxy and the carbon, covered in perforated peal ply more release film then a spear layed onto the rail to help the carbon take the shape. Finaly some breather blanket and the bag itself. Once the vacuum pump was attached and running the air was drawn out and the entire weight of the atmosphere was clamping the carbon cloth to the rail. About 8 hours later it was all done and pretty chuffed i was too with the results.
The first step was to machine the mahogony laminates to size. Why mahogony? simply because a large chunk was donated to me in exchange for a bit of guidence for my friend to build his first gun. Once to size(oversize in hight and length) the rail was routed and prepared for its carbon overcoat. Being a composite virgin, I took advice in the process from a workmate who was a bit of an expert. The following photos show the vacuum bagging process from laying out the bagging tape followed by release ply, the rail coated in west system epoxy and the carbon, covered in perforated peal ply more release film then a spear layed onto the rail to help the carbon take the shape. Finaly some breather blanket and the bag itself. Once the vacuum pump was attached and running the air was drawn out and the entire weight of the atmosphere was clamping the carbon cloth to the rail. About 8 hours later it was all done and pretty chuffed i was too with the results.