Several days ago I made up some non structural panels to go in as dividers beneath the settees.
I used 8mm M80 core cell foam and 200gm glass. Up until now all panels have been made under vacuum but thought I'd do these without.
The reasoning is that temps are running around 10deg and even below over night and the vacuum would need to be applied for nearly a full day
and the panels were just dividers and non structural.
I weighed out the resin to give a 50/50 resin glass ratio and applied with a roller.
Followed this with peel ply etc and put between to panes of plate glass with 3 layers of bricks on top.
Once fully cure the laminate just peeled off the foam as I took the peel ply off.
This is in stark contrast to when I have separate foam from laminate (to put in HD core) in panels made under vacuum.
Then I have had to resorts to a hammer and very sharp chisel to get the M80 foam out to put HD in.
Needless to say I ditched the panels and went back to the vacuum method that has served me so well up until now.

I am so glad that I have used vacuum on the hulls, bulkheads and all other panels on the boat.
This little experiment has convinced me that the added expense and increase in time it takes is worth using a vacuum.
(Although I think had I primed the foam with resin before the galss was added and/or been warmer it would have made it less likely to delaminate so easily.)

BTW:-
Had I wanted to get the same pressure as a vacuum by putting bricks on top I'd need the bricks to be something like 30ft high.
Quite surprising how much pressure the vacuum applies.


I know that the voices in my head aint real,
but they have some pretty good ideas.
There is no such thing as a quick fix and I've never had free lunch!