Building a Turbo Land Probe bike

[GoldCylon]

Never heard of the sandwich, and vac tech stuff. What I did use was foam core art board to frame out the seat section, then applied layer of fiberglass fabric, fiberglass resin, and Bondo.

[Big Al]

Never heard of the sandwich, and vac tech stuff. What I did use was foam core art board to frame out the seat section, then applied layer of fiberglass fabric, fiberglass resin, and Bondo.

Sandwich Core Construction

One of the basic concepts in composite construction is that if you can use a core of some kind, to separate your outer pieces a bit, you can increase it's strength and stiffness. Today, there are a huge variety of possible core materials you can experiment with, from some rather expensive synthetic foams, to something as simple as balsa. If you haven't tried this yet, you'll be completely amazed at how much difference a simple piece of 1/32" balsa can make on a molded part, for almost no weight gain.

Another product that would be difficult to keep light, by hand. This landing gear door is a glass/balsa/glass sandwich, and weighs 2 ounces. Thanks to the 1/32" balsa core, it's extremely stiff.

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You can also use Blue or Pink foam as a core, with fiberglass skin, or you can use Glass,Balsa Blue Foam,Balsa,Glass,....then Vacuum Bagged.

This process makes very strong, very light pro finished parts.

(Following Information Courtesy of Fiber Glast Corp)

Guidelines for Sandwich Core Materials

The rising demand for new materials with higher strength to weight ratios has created a dramatic growth in sandwich composite technology. Sandwich construction employs a lightweight core that has a flexural strength and flexural modulus far exceeding that of the skin laminates alone.

The normal method of building a composite sandwich is to laminate the outer skin by conventional means in a mold then lay the core material into the wet laminate. The inner skin is laminated onto the top of the core material effectively sealing it. Sandwich core laminates of this type are used to stiffen various composite applications such as boat hulls, automobile hoods, molds, and aircraft panels. By increasing the core thickness, you can increase the stiffness of the sandwich without substantially increasing weight and cost.

The most common types of core materials are:

1.Nomex

[Big Al]

Never heard of the sandwich, and vac tech stuff. What I did use was foam core art board to frame out the seat section, then applied layer of fiberglass fabric, fiberglass resin, and Bondo.

Here is a plane we are building right now


WWII Russian Mig I-220

The Fusalage is simple molded fiberlass cloth vacuumed bagged around a plug ( we will insert flat wooden formers later for strength)

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The wing core is cut from blue foam cut and constructed with bracing and spars (5/8' 5 layer plywood and 1/8th 3 layer plywood) and then it will get a layer of 1/ 16th balsa sheeting, Then glass cloth for a skin

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The Balsa sheeting and the Glass cloth will be applied at the same time with the epoxy resin, then vacuum bagged creating a completly bubble free bonding also creating a very smooth, clean surface.

This process maks parts "STRONG LIKE BULL" !!!

[Big Al]

Real Rocket Bike!

This bike was made by Tecnologia Aeroespacial Mexicana

They make Real Hydrogen Peroxide Powered Jet Packs!

This is a Rocket bike that they made and they used the sandwich composite construction method for the cowl, farings, and seat

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There is a better pic of this here in this gallery, second pic from the end.

Fiber Glast Gallery