Greetings, I've never used Carbon fiber before so some of these questions may seem a bit convoluted. I've done a lot of research on the internet and YouTube demonstrations. So I think I have a good general handle on carbon fibering.

What I'm confused about is what material is best to create the molds used to fabricate the carbon fiber parts.

Suggestions seem all over the place. I understand that tooling gen is a must regardless of the core material but some places reference using some type of putty with a hardener, others talk about using fiberglass and still others talk about using a urethane foam.

It seemed to me that the putty produced the best results although that was just from watching a YouTube video. That said does anyone have any suggestions? If so what type of putty/hardener should I use?

Next question, some of the reference material talked about temperature limitations of the resin used for the fiber. I assume parts near the bay would need a higher tolerance where parts in the interior far less. What resins would you recommend for different applications?

Last question, I couldn't find reference material to help put together molds for complex parts like if you needed to attach a mounting point to a carbon fiber piece (i.e. screw point, or pushpin). Does anyone have any suggestions or know of any links I might be able to read?

 

No one knows about this stuff?

 

To make simple one off mold I use plaster from Home depot. It works well but is only good for one use.

 

Any suggestions for a mold that is made with the intention of producing more than 1 piece?

 

I think you can make a mold out of fiberglass that will last more than once. You would just need a good layer of mold release on it.

 

Any suggestions on the types of resin to use and how to ad in more complex attachment points?

 

Fiberglass & other composite materials by HPBooks....buy it...it's super cheap and it a GREAT composite reference. It'll teach you everything you need to know about mold making and subsequently making parts with that mold.

 

PM me, I have a book you can have

 

PM'd

So far I picked up a bunch of stuff from West Marine. Got some fiberglass mat, resin and hardener as well as some mold release stuff they had. Now I need to figure out a good brush to use and what chemicals to buy to clean the brush so i don't spend too much money on them.

 

Dude.
I have a Custom Carbon Shop in Keller, Tx.

You are about to get in wayyyy over your head. Send me some pics of WHAT your trying to make and I will try to step by step you through it.

You are already seriously bound for failure with the "West Marine" supplies.
1: You spent way too much for crappy 2oz matte
2: Are you going to use vinylester or polyester resin system? Epoxy?
3: Horse Hair brushes (for dabbing areas with resin and to help spread the resin on the fiberglass)
4: GOOD rollers (these are rollers with grooves in them designed to push AIR out of the laminate... AIR = BAD) These can be had at a number of places. Where exactly are you and I can suggest a good composite supply shop.
5: a razor knife (box cutter) to trim excess glass from the part while it hardens (if you have lots of sloppy excess hang over it will deform. best way to explain this is that the fiberglass will SHRINK slightly after it hardens...)
6: plenty of ACETONE (use this to clean your brushes, rollers, and misc items that may get catalyzed resin spilled on it.
7: Catalyst (back to the crappy west marine supplies...) you don't know what catalyst that is unless it specifically tells you on the bottle. You need to get some MEKP-30 catalyst. This catalyst is not as strong and will really help you as a beginner. Takes a while to cure but if you screw up you will have more time to fix it.
8: You will need stabilized plastic cups or buckets to mix your resin in. Most regular plastic cups can and WILL melt with catalyzed resin in the cup. Causing a most nasty mess and not to mention a fire hazard.
9: Catalyzed resin will build heat based on volume. (this is actually what causes the resin to "cure"...) Be careful, if you have a large volume of extra catalyzed resin, please don't let it just sit in the cup and cure... Once it begins to smoke you will see what I am talking about.
10: Please have a class D fire fighting chemical around (powder or even a class D foam extinguisher) in case the worst happens.
11: Catalyst (MEKP) reacts VIOLENTLY when introduced to steel and iron. Causing fire and in drastic cases explosions.
12: DO NOT Mix ACETONE and Catalyst. (Catalyzed resin is OK, I.E. cleaning up your dirty brushes and rollers, the resin dilutes the catalyst...) If you were to mix a large (more than 10cc of catalyst and 1oz acetone) you could have a nasty fire.
13: Use common sense, if it looks like a bad idea, it probably is.

As far as making the mold, there are really hundreds of ways to do so. The best way is chosen by asking yourself questions about what you want in the long run.
Are you making a production mold?
Are you making a mold to produce 1 to 5 parts max?
Are you making the mold to be used in a Vacuum?
What material are you planning on your parts being made of....
etc. etc.

There is so much involved with quality composite work that many people outside of the composite industry really don't understand. You can obviously just go buy some fiberglass from joe blow and build something. But you 99% of the time build a frankenstein's monster.

(But I will try my best to guide you thru it so you can build like a pro...)

Shoot me a PM and lemme know what you are trying to do.

 

if u can sculp use plastacine non hardening clay... were learning about molds and various manufacuring processes in my school. plasticine seems the easiest then theres always urethane resin etc...

ps im not spelling it correctly...

 

you can make the shapes you want from clay or foam then you lay fiberglass over the clay or foam model of what you have made then after that is done you pull the fiber glass away from the model and then you have one fiberglass mold you then take and lay your carbon fiber into and so on and so on thats just a very general overview of making your mold be careful doing your carbon fiber work depending on the parts you plan on making you will need to find a good honey comb core material for the something like a splitter you would need the core material and if you are going for just looks its not as complicated but looks and light weight performance makes the process much more extensive because it involves soaking up excess resin from the carbon fiber which is were much of the weight comes from one of the major import mags did a tech article on carbon fiber a while back it was ok had prices and decent overview you can probably find it online somewhere

 

Cheap molds can be made from stacked and bonded wood or dense foam. They're good for a few uses.