HOW TO: Vacuum formed Carbon Fiber Part for $200 (Part 1)

Hi, Matt Behning here with another $200 high quality mod. This is part 1 of seven:
HOW TO: Vacuum formed Carbon Fiber Part for $200 (Part 1)
HOW TO: Make a Carbon Fiber Part (Part 2: making a clay mold)
HOW TO: Make a Carbon Fiber Part (Part 3: making a fiberglass mold)
HOW TO: Make a Carbon Fiber Part (Part 4: making the budget vacuum bag)
HOW TO: Make a Carbon Fiber Part (Part 5: mold prep and cutting CF)

HOW TO: Make a Carbon Fiber Part (Part 6: vacuum bagging CF in mold)
HOW TO: Make a Carbon Fiber Part (Part 7: two part piece and final steps)

Anyone can go out and start making carbon fiber parts with all the "kits" out there, spending $400+ getting the expensive: peel ply, vacuum bagging film, bagging tube fitments, one way valves, double sided bagging tape, special breather cloth, mold release, and other components. This is a how to on making the exact same high quality CF part with alternative tools for about $200 (start to finish); all the while using the highest quality Carbon Fiber and Resin. I'll show you what works and what doesn't. It's not as easy as the youtube videos and other write ups make it look.

Here I'm going to make a carbon fiber cowl. This is for my 2000 Honda CBR 929 which have built the tail out of carbon fiber. But you can make anything for your car, boat, house, etc. Using these instructions you can learn to make a DIY carbon fiber hood, instrument panel, brace, a boat, cover, tail gate, bike frame, seat pan, etc.

I make rear sets out of carbon fiber

More of my experience making carbon fiber parts

Practiced different mold and vacuum bagging methods until I found the correct process 

Highest quality CF-$17 a yard (you'd need only a half a yard tops for a small part 3 layers)

24oz high quality epoxy resin-$25

small electric vacuum pump-$60

Digital scale:$7

4 mil poly plastic film sheet for bagging- $10

Duct tape- $6

Painters tape-$5

water based clay-$10

carnauba Wax-$5

Fiber glass cloth for mold-$10

fiber glass poly resen-$15 (or you can use the epoxy resin that is about twice the price ounce for ounce)

80grit and 220grit sand paper-$6

clear vinyl tubing 1/8" and 1/2"-$4

foam brushes-$5

rubber gloves-$5

two 1/4 x 1-1/2" bolts-$2

Things you need that you probably already own:

-plastic cups

-cling wrap

-measuring tape

-scissors

-puddy knives 

-a drill

-a wood drill bit (any size around 1/2")

-an old sweat shirt or fleece fabric

-wax paper

-wire brush or wheel

-old spray bottle (use an empty windex or something)

-old piece of 2'x'1'x1/2" piece of wood

-old juice or milk bottle

-piece of card board (cereal box works)

-string

Vacuum bagging is the gold standard in getting the best/strongest end product, as opposed to "free lay up." Which is saturating the carbon fiber cloth the best and most even you can, without adding too much weight in excess resin; avoiding trapped air bubbles; getting the wetted out cloth to conform to the mold with gravity; on and on problems exist when you attempt to save time and effort by not using vacuum bagging.

The parts I made were made using the professional industry standard of vacuum bagging, (but in my budget method)

First thing to understand is there is some basic Carbon Fiber terminology to know before you buy. (my un-official understanding)

1.) Never buy anything except the PAN manufacturing process (pitch process is less quality)

2.) Never buy CF that doesn't come on a roll... usually they come on rolls 50 inches wide and can be purchased by the yard... average price is $20-25 a yard that is 50 inches wide. Folded or remnant fabric left over from other people's projects is just a gamble.

3.) Pre-preg carbon fiber- is great. However it needs to be stored in a freezer because the resin pre-infused CF cloth will cure at room temperature eventually. (can be shipped to you at room temperature fine). ALSO, you need an oven big enough to bake your part in on a mold that can tolerate up to 500 degrees... take away: leave pre-preg CF for the pros that make lots of parts from expensive molds in big ovens. 

4.) Weave- that is the orientation the groups of tiny strands of carbon fiber are arranged in when the manufacturer produces the "cloth" sheet of carbon fiber. Not all weaves are created equal

HOW TO: Start DIY Carbon Fiber. (Layers, weaves, resin) Test results too!

For example there is:

Twill: the classic "carbon fiber look"ie: 2x2 twill ... that means two bands of CF are patterned next to each other in the weave 

Plain: that is the classic checker board looking weave... 

5.) Tow- that is talked about in "k" or thousands of units. I test 3k tow (2x2twill weave) CF that means there are 3,000 filament strands of CF in each thread group of CF that is being weaved. I also test in this experiment 12k tow (Plain weave) that means there are 12,000 filament strands of CF.... naturally the higher the tow, the thicker the fabric will be... but as you will find out in the testing... that doesn't mean it'll be stronger. See the picture of the ebay seller I bought from and the two fabrics I purchased from them:

6.) weight or GSM- it goes up with the higher the tow and better weave you buy. My 3k tow 2x2twill weave has a weight of 5.7oz per yard squared If I wanted to pay 30% more I could get an even tighter plain weave from Hexcel with the same 3k tow strands weaved in a product that is 5.8oz per yard squared. these two 3k products can be converted to a weight of about 200 Grams per Sq meter. The 12k product I was using is 300 GSM. 

7.) Resin- is the liquid product you mix with the supplied hardener that cures (without the need for air, because it doesn't dry). Usually a 2:1 formula. Google it if you want to know more. The main thing you need to know is that you should buy epoxy resin

as opposed to cheaper polyester resin that is available at the hardware stores. Epoxy has superior strength, UV light protection, and clarity. You get what you pay for with resin so do your research. I used "Max Clear 1618 epoxy resin" I've also used "Max Clear High Performance epoxy resin"... but the 1618 is slightly more fluid and better for vacuum bagging since it soaks into the CF better.

I come to you with this budget how to after completing basic experiments like this:

That Vaseline is NOT a good mold release:

Strength testing and weight comparisons with different weaves and layers of Carbon Fiber:

And making these couple two piece parts:

Plus lots of messing around with free lay up etc wasting CF and epoxy to self teach myself:

or "a single piece of duct tape will seal a home made vacuum bag fine" That's false, along with 13 other designs I tried. Everything from medical tape, truck bed liner sealer, hot glue, heat gun sealed, plastic, ziplocks, and different types of plastic.

You can also save a lot of time here learning the skills no one else really posts about, like how to make a clay mold. 

1.) Clay was too moist when molding the clay so it dried incorrectly and cracked (turns out you don't have to let the clay dry)

2.) tried to salvage job 1 and found clay was too inconsistent to proceed to casting

3, 4, 5) was a week long pain staking attempts to use foam and it turned out to be FAR more time consuming than working with clay

6.) Complete restart, made this up in short three hours... now to casting

7.) LOL, spraying some "great stuff" foam into a mold was a disaster