Ninja 250 "Clone" Made in China

Some more progress:
I stripped down the chassis entirely and gave everything a good thorough cleaning:

IMG_20211031_190720.jpg

Then I started working on relocating the foot pegs a bit higher so they won't keep on rubbing the floor while cornering:

IMG_20211102_002856.jpg

One is already welded in place, I just have to finish the second one.
I will also try to reinforce some areas, the frame wasn't very well made from the factory, they bended the tubes very poorly. I'll try to add a few braces here and there, but I need to find some steel to do that.

I also removed the stand from the frame, I'll make an other one on the swingarm out of carbon tube, same way I did on my other motorcycle.

Meanwhile, I'm working on designing a better enclosure for my ANT BMS. Her is how my first prototype turned out so far.
The inside:

IMG_20211030_200039.jpg

The outside:
IMG_20211102_003011.jpg

I had some fun and tried to put a logo on it, I think it looks cool. I'll probably make the logo a little bit smaller on the final version.

This thing has been 3D printed, the final version will be 3D printed as well, but I'll add some layers of primer and paint in order to protect it from the sun and make it look better.

I'm also gonna print new brackets for the battery box. These ones were only supposed to be a temporary test, but they worked so well I didn't bother replacing them. Hence the weird blue color, That was the only filament I had left at the time.
I've already printed new ones, in black color this time.
As you can see, one of the bracket took a serious hit. Despite that it was still holding the battery box just fine.
IMG_20211031_192216.jpg

It's also a good opportunity to rebuild the front shock absorbers, I ordered new seals and cleaned everything:
IMG_20211031_191941.jpg

Last but not least, I received my new brake pumps and brake lines:
IMG_20211029_231756.jpg
IMG_20211030_174053.jpg
IMG_20211030_200601.jpg

Also, my battery is getting repaired, in total the supplier will replace 6 cells, I should get it back this week.
It was super fast and cost me something like 30 bucks. China's great for that kind of things, I can't imagine how long and how expensive that would have been to do the same thing in France.
 
j bjork said:
It looks like you are really trying to fry that poor little motor now :wink:
Is there a specific reason why you got an ATP instead of a far driver for example?

Haha, yeah. I hope this motor will be able to take it. It was happily running at 510 amps per phase, but 900 amps might be a bit too much. :lol:

Only reason I'm going for it is that a friend left this APT controller at my place when he moved out, so I thought I'd try it instead of having it collecting dust on a shelf.
The FarDrivrers are super nice, but I don't have much money so I can't spend thousands on a controller. If I had the money I'd surely buy one though, they are awesome. :wink:
 
Thanks for the kind words and support guys, much appreciated!

This weekend I tried to keep working on the frame. I haven't had the opportunity to work on the frame since I got it, so now was the perfect time to do so.
The frame was very poorly done from the factory. Not only the welds are horrific, but also the way the tubes were bent horribly wrong by someone who clearly didn't pay much attention to basic structural integrity. This has been bothering me for years (basically anytime I was hitting a pothole), but I couldn't work on this until now because the bike was my daily.

So here is how it looks like from the factory:
IMG_20211107_170231.jpg

I decided to make some gussets using some steel rectangular tubing I had around in the shop:
IMG_20211107_170258.jpg

Did the same for the top and bottom of the frame. But I couldn't weld the ones on the bottom since I was out of welding gas, I'll need to refill this week
Anyway, right now it looks like that:
IMG_20211107_201834.jpg

Everything still fits in the frame, so that's great!
IMG_20211107_230525.jpg
IMG_20211107_235852.jpg

The next step will be to weld the bottom gussets, then I'll start working on the stand. After that it will be time to prep the frame for painting.
I already received my battery, it's fixed, no problem anymore :)
 
Your build is looking excellent! I have a few thoughts if you don't mind?

1. How much does it weigh? Do you really need twin front calipers? It always upsets.me when a vehicle has too much braking. Remove 1 caliper and you'll have more power for the other caliper, lighter weight in the wheel for better suspension and lower rotating mass meaning the 1 caliper actually won't be doing double the work.

2. Your gussets look great, exactly the right thing.

3. What cooling will that APT have? Under the tank or behind the battery doesn't have much airflow and with those currents you absolutely need to shed heat quickly!

PS, love your 3d printing and the BMS case looks awesome! Don't make the logo smaller [emoji16]

cheers
Tyler

 
Thanks Tyler!
I sure don't mind, it's always nice to get some comments, the forum is a bit too quiet usually :wink:

tylerwatts said:
1. How much does it weigh? Do you really need twin front calipers? It always upsets.me when a vehicle has too much braking. Remove 1 caliper and you'll have more power for the other caliper, lighter weight in the wheel for better suspension and lower rotating mass meaning the 1 caliper actually won't be doing double the work.

It weights 130 kg so that's pretty lightweight, but I weight 95kilos :roll:
The dual caliper came standard on the bike, and to be honest I absolutely love it. Believe it or not, but I actually care more about braking power than I care about acceleration, more G force for much cheaper! :lol:
Removing it would maybe lower the weight by one or two kilos, the rotating mass gain would be very unsignificant because the diameter of the disk compared to the diameter of the rim/tire is much smaller. Eating less and working out is probably a better option :lol:
The front brake is my favorite thing on the bike, so I don't think I'll change it anytime soon!

tylerwatts said:
3. What cooling will that APT have? Under the tank or behind the battery doesn't have much airflow and with those currents you absolutely need to shed heat quickly!

Basically none, just a bit of air flow coming from the front of the bike.'
The Sabvoton controller was installed at the same spot for years and it didn't heat, So I expect it to be the same with the APT. But if it turns out that heat is a problem I can probably watercool it easily.

tylerwatts said:
PS, love your 3d printing and the BMS case looks awesome! Don't make the logo smaller [emoji16]

Haha, thanks! I probably won't make it smaller then ;)
 
Elektrosherpa said:
Honestly-I have never seen such a lousily made frame.
Even if a Moroccan or Pakistani backyard welder would build a motorbike, it would look much better.

I guess it is a good idea to reinforce that...

Yeah that's absolutely horrific. I have litterally zero welding experience (learned from youtube videos a few months ago) and yet even my ugly welds are better.

But, if I'm being pragmatic:
-It worked amazingly well for 4 years, even with the old 80 kilos lead acid battery
-The bike was fun to ride and I had no complaint about the frame
-This thing weights nothing :lol:
 
Thank you for posting all of these pics and information. It is good to show the truth about these products, and then you show where and how to strengthen the weak parts.

Excellent thread.
 
Thanks @spinningmagnets!

Ok so now most of the big works on the frame is done.
First, I've finished welding the gussets:
IMG_20211111_193728.jpg

Then I worked on the bike stand. I'm making more or less the same thing I've done on the red roadster, which is to have the stand directly on the swingarm. While in theory this isn't ideal, it turns out that it worked just fine in practice. The main advantage here it that the stand will never rub on the floor again while cornering.

So first I had to cut and weld some metal:
IMG_20211113_163600.jpg

IMG_20211113_173326.jpg

Then added some reinforcement:
IMG_20211113_183632.jpg

Finally gave it a bit of grinding wheel to get it nice and smooth:
IMG_20211113_185853.jpg

I was using the red bike's stand at this point, so I had to duplicate it for this bike. I already made the first part on the lathe:
IMG_20211114_001912.jpg
Now I just hade to cut a bit of carbon tube and make a small endcap with the lathe, but I can only do that in the end because I need to cut the tube at a specific lenght. For that I need the wheels and suspension to be installed.

I also took the opportunity to go over most of the important welds with the TIG welder, in order to fill some holes and make them a bit prettier.
Now I'm in the process of smoothing a bit the frame, especially the parts that will remain visible. I won't go through the hassle of smoothing stuff that will be hidden behind the fairings since it would be a bit pointless, but at least whateer is visible should look nice.


So first, a bit of bondo:
IMG_20211115_194317.jpg

And then some sanding to get it nice and smooth:
IMG_20211115_202911.jpg

I'll now repeat this operation a few times until I get a nice result. Then It'll be time for a good coat of epoxy primer. The frame will be mate black, I've already ordered the paint.
 
Good news: the frame is finished, yay!

First I went with a few coats of epoxy primer:
IMG_20211117_201734.jpg

And then a few coats of black. Was supposed to be mate black but in the end it turned out a bit shiny. Not sure why but it's not really an issue, still looks just fine.
IMG_20211124_192004.jpg

Not much else to show, this took a lot of time, prepping for paint is always very time consuming.
Also I did lose a few days because my air compressor released the magic smoke while I was painting the frame. So I had to wait a few days to get a new one.

Now I'm working on the battery box, I'll reuse the carbon one I made, obviously, but I'm improving a few stuff, in particular the way the brackets will be connected to it. I'll also need to design some kind of system to better secure the battery in the box, so It won't be able to move around anymore. I'll also need to design a way to keep moisture out of the box, I had a lot of condensation and this is a serious problem. Not sure yet how to tackle this issue so suggestions are welcome!
I'll also keep using the aerogel sheets for insulation. It does make a huge mess with lots of dust flying around, but it is the best possible insulator and it should keep a fire contained in the box for a while if it ever comes to that (hopefully never).

Anyway, still a lot of stuff to be made, the paint will have plenty of time to dry.
 
Elektrosherpa said:
I know it's a bit late to ask this-but why didn't you reinforce the horrible bends of the lower frame tubes in the front part,
as you did it with the other two/four bad bends ???

IMG_20211117_201734.jpg

That's because I can't, unfortunately. Otherwise I'll have no way to install the battery box back in place, it is an extremely tight fit.
It's actually so tight that I have to break a little part of the box in order to make it fit, then I have to fix it after it is secured to the frame. :roll:

So yeah, I didn't have much choice
Hopefully that shouldn't be a big issue, it should still be much stiffer than before
 
I worked mainly on the rear swingarm and the battery box these past days.

The bike had a lot of play in the rear swingarm and that bothered me for a very long time. Made the bike slightly unstable while cornering on bad roads, I couldn't feel where the rear wheel was for sure. Basically all the pivot points and shocks anchors had a few mm of play, which translated to almost 5cm of play at the rear wheel. So yeah, quite a lot.

First thing I've done was to remove the rubber bushings on the shocks and press fit some bearings instead. I'm not sure yet if this will last or not, I've just used some skateboard bearing I had layin around in a drawer. The idea is to test it this way, and then later upgrade to needle bearingsonce these one will get damaged. The idea behind this mod is a bit difficult to explain, but basically this remove entirely any kind of play on the shocks pivot point.

IMG_20211201_193120.jpg

Also machined these spacers out of aluminum to remove any play from the screws:

IMG_20211201_193142.jpg
IMG_20211201_193240.jpg

Finally, I replaced the swingarm bushing with a slightly tighter one, I had to custom machine it to fit, which proved to be a bit more difficult than I thought, but it did fit eventually.
Also finished the bike stand by adding a screw that acts like a physical limit stop. Now the bike can stand on its own again.
IMG_20211201_193255.jpg

IMG_20211127_231018.jpg



Everything worked really well so far, I have absolutely zero play in the whole swingarm assembly. It feels much more solid than before. I cannot test it on the roads right now, obviously, but I'm pretty confident it will make a great improvement while riding.
Time will tell

Now in the battery box side, some progress too:
When I originally designed my battery box, the plan was to make some kind of air conditioning system to keep the battery in optimal riding conditions. I never actually had the time to build the thing, so now was the perfect opportunity to do so.
So I picked up my work right where I had left it. The system is composed of two Peltier modules running at 12V, managed by an Arduino nano and two relays (this way it is possible to reverse the polarity and so getting either heating or cooling down the inside of the box). There is also a 5V voltage regulator and I've also added another relay to activate the fans (they help a lot speeding the heating and cooling inside the box)

First, I tried using a different sensor. This time, I used a sensor capable of sensing both temperature and humidity. So I just slightly modified my wiring, then re-wrote my code to work with this sensor, and a few hours later I was able to make a first test:

IMG_20211201_225955.jpg

I'm not sure this is visible on the picture, but my computer screen displays the actual battery box inside temperature and humidity, as well as what is the heat conditioning system doing (either heating, cooling down or standby). During the test it was able to heat the box from 13 to 25 degreeC in a few minutes, and then keep it at this temperature for a while until I stopped the test. So all in all, great success. The thing was drawing about 4 amps at 12V .

Now I'm preparing the PCB for its final installation. I'll add a few switches to command different functions.
I've not decided which functions I'll program yet so any idea is welcome!
IMG_20211202_003034.jpg
 
Some progress on the air conditioning system: it is almost done!
Took way less time than I thought, so that's great

First I made all the wiring, attached the two sensors, the peltier modules and a switch:
IMG_20211208_213036.jpg

Then I went through the tedious step of programming the arduino, writing the code and testing again and again.
Weirdly enough it went relatively smooth. My code would probably cause heavy vomiting to whoever read it, but somehow it seems to work and be stable.

It works like this:
-Startup and check the relays, the fans and the LED
-Wait for the button to be pressed
-If button is pressed for 1-3 seconds: enable the air conditioning for 30 minutes
-If button is pressed for 3-5 seconds: enable the air conditioning for 3 hours
-If button is pressed more than 5 seconds: cancel action, exit air conditioning mode and standby

Air conditioning mode maintains the inside temperature within 25-30 degreeC, either by heating or cooling down
The button's LED is used to give feedbacks on the selected mode and status. I also use relay clicks to give sound indications.
IMG_20211209_001103.jpg

IMG_20211209_002706.jpg

I made many tests yesterday and so far it seems to work great. I'll test it some more, hopefully everything works fine.
I found out that carbon fiber is a very good heat conductor so the box definitely needs insulation, otherwise it gets back to room temperature in just a few minutes.
Anyway, so far I'm super happy with it, I just need to do the finishing touches, protect the wires, weather proofing, that kinda stuff.
 
Looking very tidy! On the Honda Prelude battery cooling, I decided to just use the aircon heat exchanger whenever the aircon was being turned on in the cabin. The idea being, if the driver is hot, the battery will be hot. It doesn't run when charging, although you feasibly could do so if you wanted to.
 
jonescg said:
Looking very tidy! On the Honda Prelude battery cooling, I decided to just use the aircon heat exchanger whenever the aircon was being turned on in the cabin. The idea being, if the driver is hot, the battery will be hot. It doesn't run when charging, although you feasibly could do so if you wanted to.

Thanks mate, I absolutely love your builds BTW, the voltron is awesome.

A little side quest this weekend: after seiing a youtube video on carbon forging it looked relatively easy so I gave it a try.
The goal was to make my lower battery brackets out of this material instead of just 3D printed PLA. For no real reason other that the sake of experimenting, the PLA ones were working just fine, but it's alway interesting to try new techniques.

So the first thing was to design a mold. I went for a rather complicated 4 parts assembly because I had some intricate shapes I couldn't unmold otherwise:
Battery bracket  Clamp Version 2 Left MoldCopy 1 - Google Chrome.jpg

Here is the assembled mold as well as the original 3D printed part:
IMG_20211217_223627.jpg

Then I took all the carbon cloth leftover I had around and chopped them into smaller bits. It took a surprizingly long time, on next projects I'll just purchase chopped fibers, it's much cheaper too.
Anyway, I ended up with this:
IMG_20211217_232218.jpg

Then I mixed some epoxy, put all of this into the mold and pressed it slowly with clamps. I did this progressively over a few dozen minutes until it was completely tight. Then left it like this to cure for around 24 hours:

IMG_20211218_010100.jpg

After that it was time to unmold. I took the precaution of using some unmolding wax all over the mold prior to pouring the epoxy. This helped, unmolding wasn't very difficult, but I did break the mold entirely. Doesn't really matter since I only needed one part anyway, plus printing a new mold doesn't take very long. Left and right brackets are slightly different so I have to make another mold fot the other side no matter what.
Here is how the part looked like righ out from the mold:
IMG_20211218_171249.jpg

And after a bit of cleaning:
IMG_20211218_180352.jpg

The result isn't perfect but it is still very nice.
Then, as usual with carbon fiber, I had a lot of post processing to do... Sanding, epoxy, sanding again, clear coat, sanding, etc. Super boring stuff, but each step makes it a bit prettier.
Hopefully it's almost finished, probably one or two more sanding/clear coats and it should be perfect.

Here is how it looks like right now, there are still a few pinholes but they should disappear after the next coating:

IMG_20211218_231945.jpg

IMG_20211220_212803.jpg

It was an interesting process, actually wasn't very difficult. I think I'll use it more from now on, it's pretty convenient, the resulting parts seem tough and they look really nice.
 
It will be interesting to see how this battery temp management works :)
I am a bit worried that it will get wet inside, but maybe your humidity sensor will react in time.

Nice work with the carbon bracket, Im trying to learn 3d printing so I am a few steps behind..
What cad program do you use?
 
j bjork said:
What cad program do you use?

I'm using Onshape, it's an entirely web based application, no need to install anything, no need for a powerful computer, only thing you need is an internet connexion. It's really easy to use, fast, very powerful... I absolutely love it. I don't know if it is still possible to gt a free account nowadays, I was lucky enough to get one a very long time ago.
I started learning 3D design with tinkercad, which is also web based. Tinkercad is ideal when you are a total noob and have no clue about how to 3D design. Then once you are a bit more experienced you can switch over to Onshape, Fusion 360, Autocad and whatnot.
Let me know if you have some questions regarding 3D printing, I'd be glad to help.

Speaking about 3D printing, I've done a bunch of prints these past days. Trying to finish the battery box, and more specifically the BMS enclosure.
I slightly redesigned it so it is now a bit wider.
IMG_20211222_220017.jpg



IMG_20211222_221017.jpg

I made an internal bracket system with captive nuts, this way I will be able to disassemble and reassemble the BMS enclosure without needing to access the inside of the battery box.
IMG_20211222_221843.jpg

As you saw on the first pictures, the BMS features two little 40mm fans. But they would be close to useless if they were blowing hot air from inside the enclosure. So I had to design some air channels to collect fresh air from the outside and deliver it to the fans. Also I needed to add a little 24V converter in order to feed the BMS screen and the little fans.
So I got these printed:
IMG_20211222_234614.jpg

And then installed everything in the enclosure:
IMG_20211223_002415.jpg

The air comes from the inlet on the top left side, gets sucked by the fans, blowed onto the BMS and gets released inside the box, then it should find its way outside through the outlet on the top right side. The inlets and outlets take a lot of space, the reason is that I had to make the fins relatively long in order to avoid water ingestion. Hopefully everything should work fine.


I also got an idea for the finishing of this enclosure. I'd like to try to use wrinkle paint. It's the kind of paint Ferrari uses on their engines to make them pretty:


ferrari-engine.jpg
I'll order some of this paint and give it a try. If it works it might look really, really cool, but I have no idea if this can work on plastic.
 
Wow that carbon bracket looks beautiful! I'm curious how strong it will be compared to the printing or even say cast aluminium. Not expecting it to exceed proper T rated aluminium billet parts but that's overkill most of the time so this is an awesome alternative! But more effort but you build a machine to keep right, and enjoy, plus the process looks therapeutic [emoji4]

Great work! Love the BMS assembly also.

cheers
Tyler

 
Thanks Tyler!
I think it should be more or less equivalent in strenght with an aluminum part, it is very stiff. But it doesn't really need to be very strong for this particular application, I just did it this way for the sake of experimenting with a new process, it's always nice to learn new stuff! I discovered that it is fairly easy so I'll use this technique a lot more in the future. The only part I don't like about this is the enormous amount of time necessary for finishing... Lots of sanding, lots of time trying to plug tiny holes... I wish it could be perfect right out of the mold, but I probably don't have the right technique just yet.

Anyway, a bit more work:
I made the second bracket, the same way I did the other. This time it came out slightly better, but the mold deformed in some places so I had to sand the part down quite a lot in some places. Next time I'll make the mold a lot stronger to avoid this situation.

First filling the mold with epoxy + carbon fiber chops:
IMG_20211228_231610.jpg

Then clamping it slowly:
IMG_20211228_234028.jpg

Then the usual boring process, sanding, more epoxy, sanding, more epoxy, sanding.... etc.
Now I'm doing the last stages which is to use clear coat. I'll have probably one more sanding and clear coat to do, hopefully I'll finally get rid of the last pinholes, they are stupidly hard to get rid off.... These two brackets took me a lot of time to make...but they sure look cool though!
IMG_20220105_002823.jpg

So far it is a success, even though it's not perfect.
Next thing I've done was to experiment with the wrinkle paint. So far I haven't got any good results to show with plastics, but I'll keep working on it. Meanwhile, I had decent results on metalic parts.

First attempt was on this old motor cover I had layin around in the shop.
First removing the paint:
IMG_20211227_130729.jpg

Then sprayed the paint in several coats to build some thickness. I think building good and homogenous thickness is the key to get good results, so I'm working on understanding that part better for the plastic parts:
IMG_20211227_184901.jpg

Baked it in my kitchen oven at 80 degree for 30-40 minutes
And after a bit of cleaning, it now looks like that:
IMG_20211227_215912.jpg
IMG_20211227_220005.jpg

I think it was a great success, it looks awesome. Better than the paint QS is using from the factory, I even wonder if I should paint all my motors with it. Maybe someday.

Since I found it convincing, I decided to paint the rear brake supports with it. This way I'll see how it lasts and how badly it collects dust over time.
Anyway, so far it looks like that:
IMG_20220103_180534.jpg
IMG_20220103_180542.jpg
Im very happy with this result, it looks super cool, almost like if it was some high quality stuff.

Last but not least, I've worked a bit on the battery cooling system. I integrated the control button on the BMS box and found some ways to route the cables inside instead of outside, this way I'll be able to fill all the holes I currently have in the front of the box, which will be less worries regarding water ingestion.
Now the wiring is pretty clean:
IMG_20220103_002834.jpg

And the button is accessible easily on the side of the BMS box:
IMG_20220103_002822.jpg
IMG_20220103_002857.jpg

I've tested it for many hours already and so far it seems to work very well. I'll keep testing as much as I can before installing the battery.
No I'm working on the battery box internal structure. I need to find ways to make room for the aerogel insulation as well as a way to tightly secure the battery in place so it cannot move at all. I need to come up with some clever 3D printing because it is not a trivial task, there is very little room available. I have a plan for that, hopefully it should work.
Cheers and happy new year to everyone following, best wishes for you and your families !
 
Still working on the battery box. I've printed the BMS box cover:
IMG_20220110_000607.jpg

I'm also printing the internal structures. These internal parts shall serve several purposes:
-Provide a physical separation from the layer of aerogel sheet that I will add between this part and the carbon box, to not damage the aerogel
-Make sliding the battery in and out much easier than in currently is
-Create some paths for the air to flow with little restrictions, in order to cool down or warm up the whole battery and not just one side of it
-Help wire management by providing some internal channels to protect the wires going to the temperature monitoring system.
-Help in keeping the battery dry. Moisture trapped inside the aerogel shouldn't be able to accumulate too much on the battery with this separation.
-Provide a way to physically secure the battery so it cannot move around anymore.
-Do all of the above in a small enough form factor so I can still insert the battery in the box, obviously.

That was a lot of goals to achieve for these parts so it took quite a lot of thinking to get there. Right now I've only printed the first part,which is the one on the bottom, but other parts will follow. These are the last critical parts I have to finish on the battery box, after this I should be able to reinstall all of this stuff inside the frame.

IMG_20220110_000901.jpg

Last but not least, I designed a PCB for the battery temperature and humidity management system:
IMG_20220106_222638.jpg
IMG_20220106_223338.jpg

Its the first time I''m designing a PCB, it was a fun and interesting experience. I've placed an order at JLCPCB and I should receive the finished PCB with already assembled/soldered components on it in a few days. I've made a design change compare to my first prototype, which is that the fan is now controlled by a mosfet instead of a relay. This way I can PWM it to lower its speed. I intend to use this to enable the fan in slow speed mode to get air circulating in the box at regular intervals, maybe a few minutes every hour or so, because air circulation should prevent moisture accumulation. This way it would use very little power and remain almost silent.

I hope it is gonna work fine and not explode in my face. I guess we'll see.
 
Wow great progress Dui!

Just wondering about the carbon parts, do you mix the fibre and epoxy before filling the mould? And maybe mix it thinner to better coat thee fibre? Of course need enough hardener to effectively cure but should have plenty time to get it in the mould, the trouble is mixing it. I think also maybe your ratio of carbon to resin is too high, use less carbon bits to mix better? Just my engineering thoughts.

The paint looks FANTASTIC! Wow, better than factory finish like you said, I love that.

cheers
Tyler

 
tylerwatts said:
Just wondering about the carbon parts, do you mix the fibre and epoxy before filling the mould?

Actually no, I fill progressively by adding fiber and resin together, with a brush. I thought about this method but it will make a thick paste and probably won't be able to make it to the tiny features of the mould.

tylerwatts said:
And maybe mix it thinner to better coat thee fibre?

I warmed it slightly so it got thinner indeed, but that was mostly because it was too cold in my shop. It should probably help to make it thinnner yeah. Though you have to be careful not to heat it too much, the mould is 3d printed plastic so it can melt and deform, especially since the resin will keep heating up while curing pluys you'll add the pressuree from the clamps.... My second mould has been deformed because of that, I realised it after demolding the part and had to sand it a lot to correct this defect.

tylerwatts said:
I think also maybe your ratio of carbon to resin is too high, use less carbon bits to mix better?

Generally on carbon fiber parts you want as minimum resin and as much carbon as possible, as long as the fibers are completely wet it's ok.
This is the reason why I clamped the mould in the vice, to squeeze out progressively all the excess resin.
But I'm no expert, so if anyone has a different experience then he's wecome to correct me :)

tylerwatts said:
The paint looks FANTASTIC! Wow, better than factory finish like you said, I love that.

Yeah thanks! really like it, plus it wasn't very difficult to do. I hope I'll get some good results on plastic!
 
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