[Garage Dog 65]

Thought I'd explain what a Hot Bonder is. Most aircraft these days are built using composite materials. So when those components get damaged, lightening strikes, bird strikes, hail damage, etc - we use portable Hot Bonders to go fix the damage instead of moving the plane or the component to the shop.

These type units have built in heater circuits, thermocouple detection circuits, vac pumps, computer controlled cure cycles - and a printer to printout the cure cycle for the part's repair record as proof the patch/repair was done per the structural repair manual.

Anyway, I bought one from surplus at our airline when they bought a bunch of new 'dual' units (2 of all the above in one portable unit). You do the repair - then put a heater blanket on top connected to the processor controlled heater circuit, put several thermocouples in there connected to the monitor circuit, vac bag/seal the deal - and then select the appropriate 'cure' cycle on the processor and go. I also bought several rolls 'out of shelf life' pre-preg carbon fiber (already has the resin in the cloth) and have that in the deep freeze with the pizza and pasta..... good enough for hoods and seats.

You can also vac bag a 'wet layup' if you have a vac source. That's the last pic it's a portable vac source for doing standard wet layups where you mix and add the resin to the dry fiber on the part or in a mold - then bag it and squish it with vac and a bleeder cloth to remove excess resins.

Wet layup is very messy - while pre-preg is not, but it's expensive for the materials and tools needed.