Making real Carbon Fiber parts (at home)!

Everyone, YOU MUST USE A RESPIRATOR. I cannot overstate this. Make sure your enviornment is well ventilated. When using resin, make sure you have an Organic Vapor Catridge and a particulate filter. When sanding, cutting, and trimming carbon fiber, please use a P100 filter and make sure your respirator fits right. And probably do it outside. Carbon hairs are tiny tiny and a P100 particulate filter barely has the ability to capture them. Please please please do safety research and take every precaution!

Hi Thomas, i have some experience with carbon parts. 1. since you already have the vacuum pump and bags, dry stack the carbon and do it with the vacuum infusion process. You get much better results with higher fiber to resin ratio, and no air pockets. 2. when you put the resin on the finished part and it pooled to the middle, that was because you didn’t clean and degrease the part from the mold release, also you absolutely need to sand the surface so the new resin sticks to the hardened resin. Otherwise it could just pop off.

Use blue painters tape on the cut line of the CF weave before cutting it. It'll keep everything in place and keep from making a mess of the loose fibers

Easy Composites Ltd has by far the best videos about proper techniques for very high quality production. But this kind of videos are really good to show what can go wrong in process like this and to show the methods for not having all of the fanciest tech, but for hobbyist to reach "good enough" parts. GJ 👍

Let Glue Dry reference to Laura’s channel was a nice touch 👌🏻 Incredible job, as always.

Why not making a negative stamp, that fits inside the laid carbon fibre, so it compresses the shape nicer in the corners while under vacuum. Of corse some vent holes/channels would need to be designed in to the negative.

a quick way to re-finish the part surface would be to sand it down till flat with your sanding sponge, then use a gloss PU spray instead of brushing it on. It should provide a very even surface and is what I use whenever I make mistakes with my CF parts

One tip. You could try using a stabilized carbon fabric. That way it maintains its structure as its cut and laid into the mold. You wont get those edges that want to pull apart.

Thanks for another fun video Tom. For the last step instead of clear coating with resin how about using 2-part automotive clear coat? You can get the “touchup” spray cans for cheap. They’re crystal clear and hard wearing.

Tom, total newbie here, I just did few fiberglass parts for my old motorcycle, but I think a friend of mine that used to do carbon fiber for nautical items used a gloss first layer of resin called gelcoat. It's thicker and gives it that deep glassy smooth finish to the parts

For that last coat you should really use clear coat, not resin. It will protect your resin as it doesn’t do well with UV.

FYI, you could probably line the mould with a thin layer of latex. There is some special latex for vacuum forming which is designed to release. It can be applied with a brush and should make the resin not stick to the mould while retaining all the details. Great vid. Very helpful.

Ah the good stuff! I like to tape the CFK with tape and then cut it so the edges of the mats stay in place. Also pretty overlooked is NFK natural fibers that are used mostly in Ski making because they have a nice flexibility. Together with organic resin its slightly more environmentlly friendly, even if its still Sondermüll.

I love how you show the fails as well as the successes. I wonder if it would work if you use another 3d printed part on top of the carbon fiber instead of all the cloth, if its about breathing air you can make it meshed, so it would go mold > carbon fiber > part. it would help a lot with the pressing the corners and angles.

I do this for years for automotive stuff, using 3d printed molds, really awesome especially the "forged carbon" process.

Interesting video. When we needed to make repairs to fiberglass aircraft, works on boats or whatever, we would put a piece of plastic down, put the fabric down, pour the resin on it then another piece of plastic and use a plastic squeegee to spread it into the fabric. Its easier to cut a shape when the fabric is wet. Peel one of the pieces of plastic off, put it in the mould (wet side down) and using a wooden stick or plastic stick push everything where it needs to be. Remove the second piece of plastic, make sure nothing shifted out of place then vacuum bag and suck it down! Very good video. Thank you.

You can also use Bondo or other brands of car body filler to help smooth the prints. It sands easily because it's made to do exactly that. It's also easy to see where you still have filler vs plastic coming through because it's opaque.

Now here we go. 👍. 3d printing for composites. Easy Composites' service and videos are great.

You should try out forged fiber. Doesn't have the same weave look but also looks super cool in its own way and should be easier since you won't have to vacuum bag.

This is something that has been on my list to play with for a while, easy composites have some really great videos and and starter kits available