MAKING FRISBEE BY HAND LAYUP

REPORT BY-
ANIMESH JAISWAL (2015ME20718)
AJAYENDRA SINGH (2015ME20711)

Aim-
Our aim was to make a FRISBEE by HAND LAYUP using
glass fibres and epoxy resin. Though the industrial
process for making Frisbee is injection molding, we
used hand layup since we did not require large
quantities of our product. Also, making a metal mold for
injection molding would have been a difficult job.

We want certain properties in a Frisbee. For example,

the most obvious one, it should fly. But for being able to
fly decently the Frisbee should be light in weight. It
should have perfect aerodynamic structure. Another
property desired is plastic-like strength, so that the
Frisbee withstands the many collisions it undergoes
with other objects while playing.
Method-
As mentioned above we decided to go for hand layup
for making our Frisbee. So how does the hand layup
process goes? The first step, of course is to make the
mold. The material choice for mold depends on how
many times we have to use the mold and the stresses
the mold needs to withstand while rolling. Then we
apply a layer of gel coat over the mold. The basic
purpose of this is to provide good surface finish and act
as a releasing agent. The important thing here to note
is that the layer of the gel coat should be thin and
uniform. After the gel coat dries and a thin film has
been produced on the mold surface, the next step is to
put fibres and resin. So we put one layer of fibre
reinforcement and apply resin over it and spread it
uniformly with a roller making sure that the resin
penetrates through the fibres and there is no air
remaining in the fibres. Then we put a second layer and
apply resin ensuring no air entrapment between layers.
The number of layers depends on the strength and
thickness required in the product. We used five layers
of dry reinforcement in total. After putting the layers we
let the resin cure and let the product harden. And then
finally we ejected the product out of the mold, and
trimmed the extra part at the edges.
Work Done-
So for our purpose, Plaster of Paris (POP) was a good
choice for the mold, because we did not need to have
an exceptional mold strength. We placed a Frisbee
(bought from market) over a thali at its centre as shown
in the figure. Then we poured POP over it completely
filling the thali, and let the mixture dry overnight. Next
step was to remove the mold from the thali. We took
the help of a knife to do that. The photos below help in
describing the process.
And yes, we deliberately did not remove the Frisbee
from the mold since it would provide better surface
finish. Moreover it would also as a releasing agent, in
case the releasing agent itself didnt work. a This also
gave us a crucial advantage: our mold was now totally
reusable, in contrast to a regular 1-time-use POP mold.
When the product was finally exctracted, we could
hardly recognize if the mold had been used or not (the
extraction photos attatched below).

The next step was to apply the gel coat. So we used

Polyvinyl Alcohol for that. We had to apply the gel coat
two times since it was very thick and uneven in the first
attempt, so we removed it and applied it again. Next,
we let the gel coat dry for 2 days. Next comes the main
part, laying resin and dry reinforcement. We used glass
fibres as the dry reinforcement and epoxy as the resin
along with hardener, using mixture of the epoxy
hardener in 2:1 ratio. The consistency of the epoxy was
somewhat close to honey and that of hardener was
close to water. Now comes the final step, ejection and
trimming. Though the ejection of the product was quite
easy, we needed to put some efforts in trimming,
because many tiny shards of glass fibers fell out of the
Disk, which could have been quite harmful.

The above photos show the ejection and trimming

process and next two show the final product before and
after painting.
Discussion-
So basically we need to take care of a few things. The
first and foremost- we must try to remove all the air
bubbles between the layers while rolling and laying the
reinforcement. Second, is to make sure that the fibres
are completely wet, i.e. they have soaked the required
amount of resin. Excess resin must not be applied.
Third, glass fibres must not be directly, since that may
cause itching and skin rashes. Gloves and protective
clothing is to be worn while working with glass fibres.

Conclusion-
Hand layup can be used to make other products with
simple geometry which are not required in large
quantities. The material cost is very less. We just need
semi-skilled labour for doing hand layup. Only the mold,
fibre reinforcement and resin will change with high-end
products. The mold depends on the geometry, and fibre
and resin depend on the strength and other mechanical
properties required in the final product. Hand layup can
thus be used to make important industrial products like
wind turbine blades, production boats, architectural
molds, or even car parts.