ORIGINAL: davidfee
I use peel ply (tight weave dacron fabric) on the bag side of my sandwich panels (wing skins, fuselage parts... flat panels, etc.). I use peel ply when I want to remove excess epoxy, but primarily to result in a bondable surface where panels will be joined, internal parts will be added and so on. The perforated release film leaves a surface much like nonporous film, with the addition of little dots at the location of each perforation.
I've got some perf release film. Dying to try it but haven't had the chance.
I don't usually wet-out the peel ply, as that would reduce its ability to wick epoxy out of my layup.
I thought that's what would happen with vacuum.
Keep in mind that Rutan was building full scale light aircraft... so the scale of things is a little different. I suspect the strip of peel ply he suggested using would have been wet out to use surface tension to hold it flat. It won't be as flat as a bagged surface though. There's no way around that, so Long-Eze builders do a lot of sanding.
Yes. And I've read that Rutan never bags anything. You're right. As I recall the context now, he was probably referring to a 3-4 in strip along the full leading edge of a full sized aircraft. Perhaps that would work if you wet out the peel ply.
The most "interesting" use I've found for peel ply is to use it as the hinge material in a skin hinge. Cheaper and easier to deal with than Kevlar and works just as well.
I've seen you write that before and I can't imagine that the stress at the hinge would not cause delamination over time. But I haven't been able to visualize just exactly how a fabric hing of any material would work right. Can't visualize how the resin would score and crack without cutting/breaking the hinge material. Except perhaps kevlar. (sigh) I'm sure the cure for that, like many other things is just to build one and see how it comes out.