DIY Carbon fibre

They don't exist anymore it seems.

What I've been doing lately is:
* Modelling clay: art supply store
* Icypole sticks and paper cups for mixing epoxy: cheap store like Hot Dollar
* Cheap 500 g scales from ebay
* Titanium coated scissors, acetone to clean up brushes, and paint brushes from Bunnings.
* Often cheaper to throw out brushes than cleaning one brush every time.
* Pure carnuba wax from a car detailing store
* Mould release PVA, epoxy (West System 105/205), woven fibreglass, carbon fabric from ACT Fibreglass

I have bought fabric from overseas too; ACT Fibreglass don't carry carbon-kevlar like I used for the latest set. They do have pure carbon, and pure woven kevlar, though.

To make life easier to make flat edges on items, I have taken to laying them up on glass from large but cheap picture frames from cheap stores like The Reject Shop. They do A3 sized frames for $5, throw out the rest and keep the glass to lay it all up on. Works well.

 

95-97 ZX6R covers for [MENTION=133]MickLC[/MENTION]

Didn't take a mould of these, they're one-offs. Stator cover takes a battering on these bikes (it hangs out the side) so I laid up 4 layers for that, and alternated the weave for extra strength. Clutch cover is 3 but I did some slightly ugly reinforcing where it'll bolt on to add some extra strength. Not 100% pretty but it's strong.

 

Laid up another ZX6R ignition cover today. Fitted in nicely with writing.



It's pretty amazing the results you can get when you consider the most high-tech tool I use for this are the scissors for cutting the fabric.

This one's got a special little treat, it's double layered in selected areas.





Pretty hard to tell where the extra layer is when you lay the next full layer over it. Adds a bit of complexity to the timing cause you need to get it all tacky enough that the half layer will lay on nicely, then add more epoxy to that extra layer, and get that epoxy to a point of being fully tacky while not letting the epoxy on the uncovered part get too cured. Added complexity today was the weather, I had to heat my kitchen up to make sure it'd cure in an acceptable timeframe. Roughly 2 hours between layers, though I did 90 minutes, put on the double thickness layer, then 45 minutes to a full layer to get that all to work nicely.



Took a bit of planning to get the weave to lay how I wanted it to, the 3 full layers are offset 120º (0, 120, then 240) to each other with the inner layers offset 240, 0, 120, so they're all sort of offset with respect to each other.

 

And here we present how to repair one after it's been rubbed down the road. It did the job and kept the bike running for the rest of the day, but was a bit threadbare.


Start with getting rid of the really loose fibers where the epoxy has all been abraded.


No huge drama to cut it out and get back to solid parts. Thin stainless/steel cutting wheel is perfect for this. Flap disc to clean up the edges so we have something to get into with the new epoxy.


All cleaned up.


Laid up on engine case. Case has been waxed and mould release applied.


Acetone to get into the old epoxy, then lay up some new epoxy. To stop it running too far, you let this epoxy get a bit tacky (~1 hour) before you put it on. Give it another hour and you're ready for classic wet layup.


Couple of layers in. Using offcuts from building the new one here so it won't be pretty but it will still be strong.


All done and viewed from the inside. First couple of layers only overlays on one out of the two edges to make it less thick overall. Then a couple more of larger ones, then a few more to really cover the whole area. Finally, a few key pieces went into reinforcing a couple of seams.


It would be possible to make this more attractive than I have done, but by the time you're laying up full layers you might as well just make one from scratch as it'll end up looking prettier.

It will do as a spare cover in the track kit though.

Really it's pretty easy to do. A little time consuming and I still maintain it's not something you want to do as a job - you just can't charge enough (let alone covering the prices Makita grinders go for). For bikes where you have no other choice it definitely works though. Way lighter than bars of steel or alloy over the top, and just as effective.

 

Mostly a bump cause people haven't perhaps seen this, but also cause I'll probably end up updating it in the future over at TGR: http://teamghettoracing.com/fabrication/diy-carbon-fibre/ cause some of this stuff is better as articles than forum back and forth. Here might be easier for questions though, I've never sussed out the notifications from the FB comments over at TGR.