Uploaded November 2018 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
In this 3 Part video-series I'll explain how I've made a Larry vs Harry Bullitt bike board (cargo bikes) out of a natural fiber called Jute, it's similar to Flax. The board is cored with a Nomex Honeycomb for extra stiffness. A few layers of carbon fiber were added as well.
In the first part *PART 1*:
I'll go through the details of using the VARTM or also called Resin Infusion technique, to make a plate. The lay up of the plate is the following. Jute, BlackStuff Carbon fiber, peelply, infusionmesh, spiral tubes and breather followed by a vacuumbag that is held on the aluminium plate using some tacky tape. Once everything is under vacuum, epoxy resin is being infused into the fibers to wet out the entire plate. First idea was to use SuperSap CLV Bio epoxy to do the infusion but some problems occurred. I'll go into more detail in PART 3 about the problems I had. I switched to regular IN2 epoxy from EasyComposites to do this infusion. Once the infusion has cured under vacuum, the vacuumsupply can be removed to leave us with a nicely finished plate. Next step is to cut it in halve to get the bottom and top layer. These two layers are held together by some extra blackstuff carbonfiber layers and a 3mm spacegrade honeycomb core inbetween. The two halves are bonded together by wetting out the carbonfiber on both sided with EL laminitating epoxy. The entire sandwich is then put under vacuum again to make it one big cored honeycomb and Flax board that can later be processed into desired shape (PART 2)
In the second part *PART 2*
I'll go through the details of using that board we've made into the first part to make the bullitt bike board for a Larry Vs Harry cargobike.
It's starts by tracing the edges with a razor blade and then trimming everything with a jigsaw with a permagrid blade.
The surface is then sanded and edges are finished with some bondo. An extra layer of Epoxy is being applied to fill some pinholes that were still left in the surface. An Extra hinge was made out of Jute to connect the bottom plate and top plate. To connect the board to the bike, BigBond threads were bonded into the surface of the board to create a strong bond using some P6 Polyurethane fastcast. Everything was then clearcoated with some clear varnish and the bike was re-assembled like it should.
In the third part *PART 3*
I'll go through my errors I've made with the SuperSap Bio Resin. Many causes made this resin infusion into a faillure.
Not being able to degass the resin, high ambient temperatures, slow infusion, high viscosity of the resin, big mixing cups with exothermal reaction, wrong placement of spirals. I also state that this is not a bad or wrong resin, It's just a matter of finding the right purpose for this resin. More at the end of the video I go through the good point's of the resin; Being ecofriendly and possibilities to make good parts with Flax as a demonstrator.
For more information and technical data sheets I suggest you to visit the Easy Composites Website:
easycomposites.co.uk
For more of my projects
Make sure to follow me on:
Facebook: facebook.com/MAT2COMPOSITES
Instagram: matthieu.libeert
twitter: @matthieutje65
web: mat2composites.com
In this 3 Part video-series I'll explain how I've made a Larry vs Harry Bullitt bike board (cargo bikes) out of a natural fiber called Jute, it's similar to Flax. The board is cored with a Nomex Honeycomb for extra stiffness. A few layers of carbon fiber were added as well.
In the first part *PART 1*:
I'll go through the details of using the VARTM or also called Resin Infusion technique, to make a plate. The lay up of the plate is the following. Jute, BlackStuff Carbon fiber, peelply, infusionmesh, spiral tubes and breather followed by a vacuumbag that is held on the aluminium plate using some tacky tape. Once everything is under vacuum, epoxy resin is being infused into the fibers to wet out the entire plate. First idea was to use SuperSap CLV Bio epoxy to do the infusion but some problems occurred. I'll go into more detail in PART 3 about the problems I had. I switched to regular IN2 epoxy from EasyComposites to do this infusion. Once the infusion has cured under vacuum, the vacuumsupply can be removed to leave us with a nicely finished plate. Next step is to cut it in halve to get the bottom and top layer. These two layers are held together by some extra blackstuff carbonfiber layers and a 3mm spacegrade honeycomb core inbetween. The two halves are bonded together by wetting out the carbonfiber on both sided with EL laminitating epoxy. The entire sandwich is then put under vacuum again to make it one big cored honeycomb and Flax board that can later be processed into desired shape (PART 2)
In the second part *PART 2*
I'll go through the details of using that board we've made into the first part to make the bullitt bike board for a Larry Vs Harry cargobike.
It's starts by tracing the edges with a razor blade and then trimming everything with a jigsaw with a permagrid blade.
The surface is then sanded and edges are finished with some bondo. An extra layer of Epoxy is being applied to fill some pinholes that were still left in the surface. An Extra hinge was made out of Jute to connect the bottom plate and top plate. To connect the board to the bike, BigBond threads were bonded into the surface of the board to create a strong bond using some P6 Polyurethane fastcast. Everything was then clearcoated with some clear varnish and the bike was re-assembled like it should.
In the third part *PART 3*
I'll go through my errors I've made with the SuperSap Bio Resin. Many causes made this resin infusion into a faillure.
Not being able to degass the resin, high ambient temperatures, slow infusion, high viscosity of the resin, big mixing cups with exothermal reaction, wrong placement of spirals. I also state that this is not a bad or wrong resin, It's just a matter of finding the right purpose for this resin. More at the end of the video I go through the good point's of the resin; Being ecofriendly and possibilities to make good parts with Flax as a demonstrator.
For more information and technical data sheets I suggest you to visit the Easy Composites Website:
easycomposites.co.uk
For more of my projects
Make sure to follow me on:
Facebook: facebook.com/MAT2COMPOSITES
Instagram: matthieu.libeert
twitter: @matthieutje65
web: mat2composites.com
