Making your own carbon-fibre parts?

[AngelGrinder]

As per the title, I am looking for a new hobby, maybe getting serious if I enjoy it...

Has anyone ever had a go? Done it as a career?

I would practice in the garage, with views to become skilled enough to make sellable items to forum members in the future.

I've watched a few videos, and have a basic understanding of the process.

The most awkward part seems to be making a mould, are companys locally likely to make moulds of objects I bring to them?

Secondly, any good suppliers you could reccommend? Need the resin/hardener, carbon fibre sheets and releasing agent mainly.

Basically, any info, tips, adivce is all appreciated!

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[chris-red]

https://www.carbonmods.co.uk/

N30 posted this site and they have some kits moderately priced, ch-ch-check it out.
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[Kickstart]

Hi

I know some people who do it for a living.

A lot comes down to the quality you want. Whether you want basic stuff and don't care about the weight, low startup costs using prepreg, better control and cheaper (but more equipment and skill) by using CF matting and seperate resins, whether you have the facilities to vacuum bag it and cure it under vacuum / at temperature.

There are fiddles (like using laquer to make the finished item shiny).

Suspect a fair few places will make mould but also expect it not to be cheap. A decent strong mould is a good few hours work for someone with a fair amount of skill. A days labour wouldn't be cheap.

Once you get going you will find that the CF matting isn't cheap (last time I looked for prepreg it was around £50 a square metre).

All the best

Keith
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[BenR]

www.cfsnet.co.uk Making moulds isn't hard, you just need time & a bit of patience. Click the link above they do some great deals on raw materials I buy all my materials from them. The main problem with carbon fibre is it doesn't like to be bent at all once the resin is added so depending on what you're making you may need to make 2 separate moulds (inner/outer) plus you need to use epoxy resin as polyester doesn't bond to it, epoxy is 2-3 times the price of polyester hence why I make my stuff in fibreglass.
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