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JoeDirt16
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Group: Forum Members
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+xTo keep costs down, you could start by practicing with fibreglass rather than carbon fibre. Both the cloth and resins are a LOT cheaper but the mould making, layup and curing processes are virtually identical. The curing times for fibreglass resins are much shorter than for the carbon versions so the learing process is shorter also :-) For making panels for your camper, I would personally use fibreglass anyway and I am a carbon fibre fanatic! Oddly enough, my initial thought was to do a fiberglass finish similar to a strip canoe finish. Looks super cool, but cedar strips are more expensive than fiberglass and carbon fiber combined. Decisions, decisions. Maybe I'll play around and make some tabletops with carbon fiber, or something.
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Steve Broad
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+x+xYeh, you won't find that in books. Composites is heavily dependant on experience. I've been doing it professionally for 8 years now, and I'm constantly finding new and better ways to do things. Some stuff I thought was the bees knees 2 years ago is old hat today. Other stuff I hated doing 2 years ago I've rediscovered lately and my better experience and understanding means I love it. Hell, I even still watch and rewatch the Easy Composites tutorial videos despite knowing those processes like the inside of my eyelids. Sometimes you get so set in your ways, and then you rewatch a video you've seen a dozen times before and you pickup something you had glazed over or forgotten and it changes the way you do things. Those sorts of things aren't going to come to you without just getting stuck in and doing it. You'll waste a lot of time and a lot of material, but that's the name of the game. I'd still recommend getting a copy of Competition Car Composites - it's a touch old school, but it's a great place to start to understand the fundamentals. Thank you, kind sir! Maybe I'll get that book and watch more stuff. My ultimate goal is to either redo the roof of my small pop-up camper, or the exterior walls, but I just have a million questions on so many things. I just know that I wouldn't even begin to entertain my ultimate goal until I learn a ton. To keep costs down, you could start by practicing with fibreglass rather than carbon fibre. Both the cloth and resins are a LOT cheaper but the mould making, layup and curing processes are virtually identical. The curing times for fibreglass resins are much shorter than for the carbon versions so the learing process is shorter also :-) For making panels for your camper, I would personally use fibreglass anyway and I am a carbon fibre fanatic!
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JoeDirt16
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Group: Forum Members
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+xYeh, you won't find that in books. Composites is heavily dependant on experience. I've been doing it professionally for 8 years now, and I'm constantly finding new and better ways to do things. Some stuff I thought was the bees knees 2 years ago is old hat today. Other stuff I hated doing 2 years ago I've rediscovered lately and my better experience and understanding means I love it. Hell, I even still watch and rewatch the Easy Composites tutorial videos despite knowing those processes like the inside of my eyelids. Sometimes you get so set in your ways, and then you rewatch a video you've seen a dozen times before and you pickup something you had glazed over or forgotten and it changes the way you do things. Those sorts of things aren't going to come to you without just getting stuck in and doing it. You'll waste a lot of time and a lot of material, but that's the name of the game. I'd still recommend getting a copy of Competition Car Composites - it's a touch old school, but it's a great place to start to understand the fundamentals. Thank you, kind sir! Maybe I'll get that book and watch more stuff. My ultimate goal is to either redo the roof of my small pop-up camper, or the exterior walls, but I just have a million questions on so many things. I just know that I wouldn't even begin to entertain my ultimate goal until I learn a ton.
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Hanaldo
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Group: Forum Members
Posts: 2.5K,
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Yeh, you won't find that in books. Composites is heavily dependant on experience. I've been doing it professionally for 8 years now, and I'm constantly finding new and better ways to do things. Some stuff I thought was the bees knees 2 years ago is old hat today. Other stuff I hated doing 2 years ago I've rediscovered lately and my better experience and understanding means I love it.
Hell, I even still watch and rewatch the Easy Composites tutorial videos despite knowing those processes like the inside of my eyelids. Ive seen them so many times I feel like I could probably list Paul's haircuts in chronological order 🤣Sometimes you get so set in your ways, and then you rewatch a video you've seen a dozen times before and you pickup something you had glazed over or forgotten and it changes the way you do things.
Those sorts of things aren't going to come to you without just getting stuck in and doing it. You'll waste a lot of time and a lot of material, but that's the name of the game. I'd still recommend getting a copy of Competition Car Composites - it's a touch old school, but it's a great place to start to understand the fundamentals.
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JoeDirt16
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Group: Forum Members
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+xHard to recommend books without knowing what you are wanting to learn, but Competition Car Composites by Simon McBeath covers all the basics of composite manufacturing in general. If you're wanting more advanced than that, then you're really into research papers rather than books. I don't know, I want to learn the process. Moulds, wet-lay, epoxy resin, what's it stick to, not stick to. I've spent hours watching videos of guys that do really tremendous stuff, only to later hear them say the thing I just watched them do in a previous video was the wrong thing to do. Then in forums, people debate that one thing is or isn't correct, but they did it and it worked, but someone else says it shouldn't have. Gaaaaa! LOLOL!!!!
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Hanaldo
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Group: Forum Members
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Hard to recommend books without knowing what you are wanting to learn, but Competition Car Composites by Simon McBeath covers all the basics of composite manufacturing in general. If you're wanting more advanced than that, then you're really into research papers rather than books.
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JoeDirt16
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Group: Forum Members
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Can anyone direct me to some sort of reference info, books, etc. to read about the carbon fiber process? I can't really seem to locate anything.
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