vacumm bagging, another approach?

I could use one about now too. Been out for just over 2 months. My computer and my job went to florida, and I didn't even get a t-shirt :-(

I hear ya brutha. I've spent about 12 months total unemployed since

9/11. Sucks when your single and have high mortgage. Needless to say this took a big toll on rocket stuff, but there's more important things in life. The only reason I've been able to fly the last 4 1/2 years is because I stocked up big time on motors and kits years ago. About 3 weeks ago I started my first build since 9/11. Granted they're modrocs but what the hell, I'm building rockets.

I'm giving myself 2 more years in IT then it's on to something else. No clue what it'll be but I'm going to make certain it's great. I'm getting too old for this IT shit.

Ted Novak TRA#5512 IEAS#75

Remora?

Decades ago I thought IT was the ticket. I was a hot-shot Systems Programmer (remember those) with a goal of becoming a Data Center manager by 30. It was a fun job for someone right out of college. Luckily I made a couple of job changes that landed me in development and then design, first in software and now hardware.

IT is basically a support role, which makes it ripe for outsourcing. Plus technology changes so rapidly its hard to keep your skills honed on tomorrows technology while keeping yesterday's running. I think corporate IT is a dead-end, but personal services has a huge future. If "professionals" have a hard time understanding today's technology, how can "normal" people cope? I regularly field questions from relatives on what seems like trivial problems to me. If you can stand to work with ignorant (not stupid) people and help them use technology (e.g. setting up a digital camera, monthly/quarterly software maintanance) there is a growing market opportunity.

I use a surplus medical vacuum pump rated for continuous duty to do glider wings and rocket parts. If you can get a good enough seal on your bag, it should work to hold a vacuum on something as big as a boat hull. You'd have to use something like a shop vac to remove most of the air and then seal off that opening. The bag can be a sheet of polyethlene folded over like a taco and sealed with Moretite caulk. That's the grey stuff that comes on a roll and looks like a sticky modeling clay. I found a box at Home Depot years ago and am still using it. You warm a strip by rolling it in your hands, put it between the two layers of poly you want to seal, and use a wall paper roller (a little wood wheel about an inch wide and maybe 2 inches in diameter on a handle) to press everything firmly together. Just work around the envelope a little at a time and make sure not to puncture it. I honestly don't know if you can get a good enough seal on something that big since I've spent a fair amount of time chasing leaks in a rocket sized bag. The most common leaks are where the vacuum pump line hooks in and anywhere you get a crease or wrinkle in the poly. For a job this size, you should put a trap in the line to capture excess resin so it does not go into the pump. A thick jar with fittings in the lid to allow the line from the pump to come in one and another line to continue on to the bag should work. I know from experience that a plastic gasoline can is not strong enough. :-(

I wonder if a 5 gal bucket could stand up to the vacuum>?

Unlikely.

I know from experience that a 55 gal. steel drum will not withstand a strong vacuum.

Will it stand up to a light dusting???

David Erbas-White

Well I think the Henderson incident proved that it can't.

Ted Novak TRA#5512 IEAS#75

Ah yes, The Florence Henderson incident, I just hope something like that never happens again.

About 20", IIRC, YMMV, Etc.