Carbon Fiber

[grundelboy]

I'd love to know how to work with carbon fiber, I'm looking to make a custom bumper for my car and would love to do it out of this stuff.

Any info or help here would be great.

- THX-

[mikec]

A few questions for you, one where are you going to find an autoclave or vacuum bag system large enough for a bumper? Second, what happens if you get into an accident? Bumpers, like the other parts on a car are engineered to meet standards. Your insurance company may be able to walk away and not cover you. The stuff can also be brittle, which means a low velocity impact might cause significant damage.

[ieatpunk]

i think he was referring to the "bumper cover", not the actual steel bumper that lies beneath the bumper cover.

[grundelboy]

Yes the bumper cover not anything too structural.
As for the Vacuum pump and the bagging that's why I'm doing this. So I can get for more info.
Also I'm not too sure on the best place to get the fiber and resin and get a good deal.

I'd love to see this covered in the show.

[mikec]

OK, I understand now. You would have to have a finish coating, from what I have read, sunlight may damage uncovered carbon fiber. The big issue would be how brittle it would be. You don't want to have to attempt repairs if a shopping cart rolls into the car.


What hazmat issues are there with this stuff? I know that a good respirator would be needed. Do you have to protect your skin? Eye protection probably would be needed.


This could be an interesting subject.

[kid_entropy]

There was a pretty good article in Make: #9 pg. 164 about laying Carbon fiber. If you don't have a subscription check out your local library or library network to see if you can check out the issue.

It's not unlike working with sheet fiberglass, so if you read up on that a lot of that knowledge will carry over.

Link to article if you have a make account: LINK (http://makezine.com/09/primer/index.csp?page=last&x-maxdepth=0)

Or if you want to act like a common thief get it off BT. :D

~eriC