Whether you're an experienced composites engineer in need of a small amount of material for an emergency job or a total novice keen to try your hand at making your own carbon fibre products, our Carbon Fibre Starter Kit provides you with all the necessary materials to allow you to undertake making a number of small carbon fibre products.
As renowned manufacturers of carbon fibre parts ourselves we use only best resins, carbon fibre and equipment in our own workshop and we would expect you to want nothing less for your own projects. For this reason our Carbon Fibre Starter Kit uses top quality 2/2 twill 3k carbon fibre fabric, Epoxy resin (formulated specifically for Carbon Mods' exact requirements) and includes the same high quality laminating brush and latex gloves we use daily in our workshop. The epoxy has been specially formulated for use in carbon fibre lamination having excellent characteristics such as the right viscosity, pot-life, strength and finish quality.
Video Guide
Kit Contents
- 0.3sqm 2/2 twill 3k dry carbon fibre fabric
- 333g laminating epoxy resin
- 166g epoxy hardener
- 35ml PVA mould release agent
- 2 pairs latex gloves, 2 mixing pots, 2 mixing sticks
All materials are supplied in high quality, re-sealable containers and shipped in protective packaging.
Dimensions
When unrolled the carbon fibre fabric is 300mm(11.8") wide and 1000mm(39.4") long.
Basic steps:
Typically you will use a GRP (fibreglass) mould, either polished and waxed or coated with a PVA release agent (included in the kit) to stop the carbon fibre part from sticking to the mould.
You will then coat the inside of the mould with epoxy resin (mixed with hardener) onto the inside of the mould and allow it to cure (typically 8 hours at room temperature). This forms a thin surface layer that can be polished without breaking through to the carbon fabric and spoiling the surface finish.
Once the surface coat has cured you lay your carbon fibre fabric in to the mould dry. This will allow you to adjust its positioning and alignment and make any cuts necessary. Bear in mind that once the fabric is 'wetted out' with resin it will be much easier to shape around the contours of your mould.
With the fabric roughly in place you mix up your next batch of resin and hardener and start to wet the fabric out using the supplied laminating brush. Normally, you would put down the first layer of carbon fibre and then allow it to cure before adding additional layers for reinforcement. This means that subsequent layers will not disturb the weave pattern of the first layer (which is the one that will be seen once the part is removed from the mould).
Once you have added as many additional layers of carbon fibre your project requires you need to wait for the part to fully cure (another 8 hours). Once this has happened you can remove the part from the mould and begin the process of fettling, trimming and polishing the part up to its final finish.
Uses for this kit
Because this kit uses only top quality materials it is as equally suited for novice experimentation as it is for small scale professional use. Because we buy carbon fibre, resin and consumables in large quantities we can provide the handy kit at a very competitive price allowing everyone instant access to the top quality materials we use everyday.
Use this kit to:
- Experiment with making carbon fibre products
- Reinforce an existing product
- Repair a carbon fibre product such as a fishing rod, yacht mast/boom, vehicle bonnet etc (this will require some degree of skill and composites knowledge)
- Satisfy an urgent or small requirement for some carbon fibre and resin in a professional composites workshop
What results can I expect?
The standard of the end result you can expect will vary greatly depending upon your level of practical skill, effort and perseverance but the materials contained within this kit in combination with the practical advice contained within the printed and video guides are quite capable of producing excellent results.
At the same time, we do not want to give you unrealistic expectations and as such people experimenting for the first time with carbon fibre (even even composites themselves) should be aware that initial attempts are unlikely to yield cosmetically perfect parts. The quality of the materials used though will ensure that structurally, the parts should still be very high performance.