Re: [ATM] carbon fiber composite fabrication

["Marco" <marco.miglionico@btinternet.com>]

The 2x2 twill CF cloth is the best for moulding round shapes (be it 
balsa/ply/plastic substrate)
I have used this on my truss scope.

There are only certain resins that are any good for 2x2 twill
the best resin I used was low viscosity "SP1113" which doesn't give off bad 
fumes.
It's distributed in the UK by ripmax. I don't know about the US or anywhere 
else.
Don't use high viscosity stuff on this CF mat. It won't wet out right unless 
you
have the spreading & vacuuming to perfection!

Be very wary of work times and cure times. They are very temperature 
dependent.

Wet out the twill well. I wet the substrate first, stick on the twill
wet the twill then bag up and vacuum. I actuallt used streatched clingfilm 
to bag up!!
Gave a nice finish (2x2 carbon twill over balsa). It truned out INCREDIBLY 
strong!

If you want to do flat areas buy the preformed sheets. They are expensive 
but are a
lot easier to work with than 'live twill and resin'. When cutting this stuff 
use a mask. It
is extremely dangerous for your lungs. It is usually smooth one side, rough 
the other
to make bonding easier.

The proper methods for laying up composites and vacuum bagging are well
documented in specialist manuals if you want to get serious.

Marco.



.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dominic-Luc Webb" <dlwebb@canit.se>
To: "William Marriott" <bmarriott@pacbell.net>
Cc: <atm@atmlist.net>
Sent: Monday, July 16, 2007 10:06 AM
Subject: Re: [ATM] carbon fiber composite fabrication


> On Fri, 13 Jul 2007, William Marriott wrote:
>
>> For the 20" RC telescope, I will be using a lot of
>> carbon fiber componets, a lot of which I will have to
>> fabricate myself.
>>
>> Who on this list have worked with this material?  I
>> would love to find our your experiences with this.
>>
>> Regards
>>
>> Bill Marriott
>
>
> I have, but only on a micro scale back when it was still pretty
> new material and hard to come by (about 10 years ago). The fibers
> themselves are a challenge to handle. They weigh next to nothing
> and fly away with the slightest wind. At the time, I had to handle
> discrete fibers manually. You really do not want to mess with this.
> I have wondered if it ever became available as rolls of mesh,
> similar to fiberglass (company said this would someday happen,
> Ameco???). That would be quite desirable. I do get some hits when
> I search for "carbon fiber mesh", so there is hope.
>
> Along this general lines, there is something called "carbon fiber
> paper" and related carbon hybrids (carbon fiber plus glass fiber,
> etc). It might be worthwhile to hunt down some material properties
> before committing.
>
> Dominic
>
> _______________________________________________
> ATM mailing list http://www.atmlist.net/ 

_______________________________________________
ATM mailing list http://www.atmlist.net/