I was browsing around about this topic today and came across a pretty cool writeup

http://www.webbikeworld.com/t2/carbo...orcycle-parts/

 

Good link!

 

great find, just bookmarked it myself

 

An even better link... Great How-to's

http://www.mci.i12.com/carbon/


Another.... http://www.ffcobra.com/FAQ/cf.html

 

and finally, all of the supplies/equipment/books/videos you need.

http://www.fibreglast.com/

 

that is all fine and dandy, but it takes experience and practice to do this. It is a lot harder than it looks and you could do a thousand pieces and still mess it up. Your enviroment must be perfect for curing and laying resin. You have to know how to work with different types of cloth, and which ones are which and better to use for specific applications. The resin is the hard part, you need to find the right kind of resin and see how it works, then there are air bubbles and fabric lift and sanding and clearcoating and trimming. This is not an easy thing to do at a very high standard. That's why there's not many people out there that can do it. I have been training to do this for over a month now, non-stop, lets just say that its been very time consuming and expensive to experiment and learn. Practice is the key and technique is the number one thing you must learn. None of those books and videos covers Carbon Fiber Wet lay-up techniques. NONE. I have them all. You must teach yourself with the basic info thats out there and hope it works. BTW if you don't know fiberglass then don't even try to do CF, you will waste your money and time. The cloth is $50.00+ per yard and that does not go very far. Hope this helps. Have fun.

 

when you get good you can lay CF in a thick 4x4 twill like us. But yes as the guy just told you above its expensive and its like anything else. If you go cheap on equipment, supplies, and materials well just plan for your stuff to look like you made it at home

 

I guess I should quit playing golf then since I'm not a scratch golfer yet. It's pretty time consuming and expensive, and the books and videos aren't helping me shoot 70's either.

Or maybe I'll just keep practicing.

 

practice. read everything. apply other techniques. these are gonna help you master this. It is extremely subjective to little things that have to be right. Vacuum bagging and vacuum infusion is the proper way to go. I didn't like the first link because the guy oversimplified his info and was using jimmy-rigged materials and techniques, this can mislead someone and cost them a lot of time and money. My best advice ever was "do a flat piece first" get a piece of wood or plastic, flat and small and expendable. Then research different resins, fabrics and techniques, there are basics you have to learn. Look on www.Fibreglast.com and you will see under information a lot of good info to start off reading. I will tell you that it will cost you a least $100 bucks to get the right start-up materials. Where most things have a gradual learning curve, CF work is a little more demanding. Just when you think you got it down, back to the drawing board. BTW, that 4 twill is thick and probably expensive as hell, I personally don't like the weave and how it looks. That's another part of it, getting the weave to look right.

 

Matt, golf is a bad comparison. If you go out and suck it up on the course, the only person it effects is you. You make shitty Carbon Fiber parts then everyone has to look at them and you have to take credit for them. That would not be a good look. Composite work and laminating is a trade and a learned skill, not a game. Just take my advice and try it and see. If this was just as easy as following some half *** write-up from the UK, then everyone would do it. I bet most people think they can do it, get the stuff, figure out how difficult and time consuming it is and quit, in turn wasting money and time. Be sure what your getting into, before you underestimate it and waste your money.

 

Well if i was gonna practice making some molds, the only person it would affect would be me, so i think golf would be a good comparison to learning. I never mentioned anything about doing anything for anyone else and starting a business with it. I was just mentioning websites with good info. Also, learning any type of craft or skill I cant see being a waste of money if it interests you.

 

not what I was getting at. I encourage people to try it, how do you think I learned to do it. I am just saying, know what you are getting into. That's all. More power to you in that regards, you kind of have to screw something up to get it right anyway with this. Trial and error is the best way of approaching this, if you have the time and money and no one to train you. I was lucky, I had both.