I got the small one. If I wasn't throwing it over a gunwale 6 feet off the ground, I would rather have gotten a large one for extra capacity. And get black beauty somewhere a lot cheaper than there. Like $0.25/lb, not $1 a lb.
Once I adjusted the media flow down, it worked great.
The carbon is stiff, and lighter than glass. But for what I am doing, I could have purchased a better glass orientation. (My 20 year old carbon cloth was free to me). I had a first layer of 1708DBM. So the fibers are at +/-45 degrees. Then two light layers of carbon in a 2x2 weave (I think), having a lot of roving running longitudinally along the stiffener- the most advantageous orientation for me. So it is quite effective. And light. But 1708DBM, then uni glass, then a biax cap would be pretty good, I imagine. Not quite as stiff or light, but way cheaper if I had to buy reinforcement. Again, I got my carbon for free, so that's why I used it there.
There are galvanic issues with carbon, so I only put it places where I won't screw into it. I believe it eats aluminum for lunch- worse than stainless.
And for the doubters in the bunch- the vinylester/ biax I put in last year was a LOT harder to remove and far more impact resistant than the original poly/glass. I was trying to break tabbing with a 4 lb hammer and getting nowhere on the vinylester. The polyester and glass broke pretty easily. It seems vinylester(epoxy) really does have a lot of elongation like ordinary epoxy.
|