DIY CF sheet

[kookie_guy]

Making some battery trays out of CF since I tore out the stock ones from my BJ26. FIgured I'd post in here how to make some blank plates at home.

1) SAFETY FIRST! Wear a respirator and latex gloves when applying resin. Not a dust mask, a respirator.

2) Here are the glass plates I use to sandwich eveything between. They are 10mm thick glass, 12x12 (if I remember correctly). They were pretty cheap from a glass and mirror place (about $20 for both)




3) First thing you wanna do is throw down a couple coats of car wax. This will help with the glass releasing when you are all done. If you skip this step, have fun prying the panes apart without them shattering. Mold release will obviously work as well. Buff the wax out when it's nice and cured.



4) This is the CF I use, just because I have a big roll of it. It's 12K 2x2 twill. This stuff is VERY thick and VERY strong. Put tape on both sides before you cut it to prevent it from freying the edge, and cut down the middle of the tape. I cut the piece in half again as I am making a smaller plate (about 6"x10").

[kookie_guy]

5) Put on your respirator, and gloves. This is the MEKP hardener I use. And my big jug of resin. And the mixing cup of course.




6) Put your first piece down on the waxed surface, and saturate it with resin. You gotta make sure you get it in all the areas. Soak it, better to have more and have it squeeze out than not enough. Put the second piece on top, and again, soak it. Work the resin into the cloth with the brush.



7) Take the other pane of glass, and waxed side down, put it on top of the layers. Start with one edge, as you place it on top, you will see the air move out from under it. Apply pressure to spread the resin to get all the air pockets out.



8) Get a lot of uniform weight, and place it on top. I use a whole stack of tiles because they are nice and heavy, and spread the weight out nice and even.



That's it for now, gotta wait 24hours before you peel the panes apart. That will be covered tomorrow. Although I used 2 layers of CF, you can do whatever you want. In the past, I've made composite plates of CF-chop matt-poly cloth-chop matt-CF. Or throw some kevlar in there. It's all the same process.

[kookie_guy]

Ok, DAY 2

1) Take all the weight off the glass. See all the excess ooze out? That's what you want. Means you have enoughin there.



2) Now is the time consuming part. VERY gently start tapping a small flat head screw driver between the panes to separate them. And I mean GENTLY. Glass will chip easy on the corners. You will see air getting in as you wedge it, be gentle. After you split the glass, here is what you get. Set it aside for another day just to fully cure it. Then trim the excess and you have a nice strong thin CF plate.

[bonewar]

kookie thanks mate for sharing this info with us all. that piece you made looks better then the one i bought , its so shinny (awesome finish). I'm going down the shed to make a piece of my own carbon plate now . cheers bonewar

[kookie_guy]

kookie thanks mate for sharing this info with us all. that piece you made looks better then the one i bought , its so shinny (awesome finish). I'm going down the shed to make a piece of my own carbon plate now . cheers bonewar

the glass plays a HUGE role in the finish. hehe, if only I could make a glass mold now, hahaha.

[peells]

Thank you for sharing your process with us all, What type of resin do you use? is it special? or is any polymer lay up resin OK? (most likely not)

[peells]

sorry all I forgot to ask, where do you find CF cloth?

[ghostofpf1]

the glass plays a HUGE role in the finish. hehe, if only I could make a glass mold now, hahaha.

Heck..,,next thing you know you'll be carving plugs and making your own boat molds
Ghost

[kookie_guy]

Thank you for sharing your process with us all, What type of resin do you use? is it special? or is any polymer lay up resin OK? (most likely not)

hey,
Personally I use polyester resin simply because I have a 5 gallon bucket of it at home. Ideally you wanna use epoxy. My resin still works well for sheets, but if you wanted to make something that needs 100% strength, you wanna go with epoxy. The polyester resin will get you about 90% performance. Any epoxy resin will be fine.

[kookie_guy]

sorry all I forgot to ask, where do you find CF cloth?

I get my cf cloth off e-bay. To buy the stuff new is very expensive, because the military is buying it all up, so prices are sky high. Best bet is to just on e-bay, and just search carbon fiber cloth or carbon fiber fabric. You'll find companies that sell good size cut offs which they would typically throw away. They are perfectly fine, and much cheaper. There are always various sizes available.

[kookie_guy]

Heck..,,next thing you know you'll be carving plugs and making your own boat molds
Ghost

hehe, that's the plan. I wouldn't even paint it. I love the look of CF

[twinscrew]

wish I had found this a week ago. I just finished tileing my floor now I have no weights

[DISAR]

It is not that difficult to make a boat mold. I made one last year for DF 36". It is just very very very ....time consuming. Here is what I did:

1) The should be new or any holes etc.. should be closed perfectly. If your original has any imperfections they will be carried over to your mold and so on...If your original is shiny (preferrable) then all your boats will be shiny.

2) You will work for bottom, top and hatch. First let's start for the bottom the rest is the same. You wax uniformly and rub with clean cloth for 6-10 times. The wax can be any make for polyester.

3) For the mold I used polyester and glass cloth because they are cheaper.

4) You apply to the waxed bottom part the GEL coat for molds (mixed with resin). A thick layer is preferrable.

5) You wait dry.

6) You apply the first layer of polyester and thin glass cloth. To press well all areas so that there not any air bubbles.

7) After dried you repeat with thin glass cloth and for the 4th-5th time you can use thick one. You want the mold to be very strong.

oops sorry guys I have to go. I will be away for the weekend I will return on Monday with some photos.

[DISAR]

Ok,

Let's start again.

1) The original (male) must be perfect in shape (no holes, no cracks) and preferrably new and shiny. Do not do any sanding at all even with the finest sand paper. I was told to do some sand papering but then I regret it because even with 2000 paper the shine goes off and the male becomes a bit dull. So does the mold (female).

2) You will do molds for top half, bottom half and hatch. We will do for the bottom half and the procedure is exactly the same for the rest.

3) You wax it with any kind of wax for polyester in circle movements and then rub it with a clean cloth. Repeat 6-10 times.

4) Please note that you need to have the mold a bit extended where the deck seam is in order to be a bit bigger so that you can a insert a plastic putty knife later on. Therefore in the male I placed some plasteline covered with masking tape around the deck seam from the top half side. Wax also the masking tape.

5) Ensure that the male surface is perfectly clean and apply the first coat of GEL coat for MOLDS. This should be a relatively thick coat.

6) Wait for the Gel coat to cure and then apply the first coat of polyester using THIN fiberglass or fiber cloth. It is VERY Important that all areas are covered well and no air bubbles exist. Push the brush well to remove any air bubbles, and DO NOT Rush.

7) Wait to fully cure, and repeat again using THIN fiberglass. (I use polyester and fiberglass for the mold because they are cheaper)

8) Wait to cure and repeat for 2-3 more times using THICK fiberglass. You want the mold to be strong especially at the edges because this is where you apply more force for the detachment.

9) And now is the nice and difficult part. To detach the mold form the original. Remove the plasteline form the seam (or edge of the mold). By using 2-3 PLASTIC putty knifes insert gently and slowly between original and mold around the edge. The mold starts detaching, insert deeper and deeper and finally the mold will detach. Please note that nothing will go wrong with the original and be careful not to make any scratches on either.

10) Repeat same steps for the top half and cover and remember to use plasteline at the edges.

11) Now the making of the new boat starts. You can either use polyester resin with gel coat or epoxy resin with carbon fibre. I was told by a boat making factory that CF with epoxy will be harder to detach from the mold. I used gel coat and polyster firstly and then CF with epoxy. In the photos you can see that I used two colors of gel coat which please DO NOT do. Use single color of Gel coat.

12) We follow exactly same procedure. Wax well the mold 6-10 times using again plasteline and masking tape at the edges.

13) Apply uniformly the gel coat or you can use CF with apoxy directly. If you apply gel coat make sure that the thickness is the same. If you apply CF I recommend doing port side wait to dry then starboard (right) side and then Transom. This is because in my case the epoxy was "running" and then left over in the middle bottom part. ENSURE NO AIR BUBLLES.

14) If you used Gel coat, aplly now polyester with THIN fiber cloth, again remove air bubbles. And repeat with thin fibre cloth. As i remember I used Gel coat, polyster with thin fibrecloth and then CF with epoxy.

15) After all dried well use again PLASTIC putty knifes to detach the mold from the boat.

I wish you good luck and remember that the whole process takes a lot of time and patience is required. I am not an expert and this is my first mold and made one boat from the mold. All the best.

[DISAR]

some more photos