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Castle Works Motorsports
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Group: Forum Members
Posts: 4,
Visits: 11
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Hi,
I am new to carbon fiber parts, but want to give it a try and start with some small parts.
I am comfortable creating 3D parts in CAD, I have CNC mills and able to create molds.
I would like to try some prepreg parts but unsure about what to use when it comes to an oven. Can you simple use a conventional kitchen oven (assuming vacuum could be plumbed into it). What problems would I encounter?
If a conventional oven cannot be used, what do most use starting out? I would prefer not to invest in the cost of an oven specifically designed for curing CF parts until I know this is sometime I would like to do more of.
Thanks,
Kevin
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Steve Broad
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Group: Forum Members
Posts: 408,
Visits: 4.1K
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+xHi, I am new to carbon fiber parts, but want to give it a try and start with some small parts. I am comfortable creating 3D parts in CAD, I have CNC mills and able to create molds. I would like to try some prepreg parts but unsure about what to use when it comes to an oven. Can you simple use a conventional kitchen oven (assuming vacuum could be plumbed into it). What problems would I encounter? If a conventional oven cannot be used, what do most use starting out? I would prefer not to invest in the cost of an oven specifically designed for curing CF parts until I know this is sometime I would like to do more of. Thanks, Kevin I bought a conventional electric oven from ebay and have used it for many years for small parts. Plumbing in the vacuum is simply a matter of drilling a hole in the side :-) The main disadvantage of a domestic oven is the rather course temperature control compared to a PID controller. However I have had great results by raising the temperature manually approx 3 degrees C a minute using a hand held temp gauge. In fact, for simple things like brackets I simply turn the temp up until the orange light, the one that tells me the oven is below the set temp, comes on, wait until it goes out and repeat until the oven reaches the required temperature. You can make quite big things in a basic oven.
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Castle Works Motorsports
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Group: Forum Members
Posts: 4,
Visits: 11
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+x+xHi, I am new to carbon fiber parts, but want to give it a try and start with some small parts. I am comfortable creating 3D parts in CAD, I have CNC mills and able to create molds. I would like to try some prepreg parts but unsure about what to use when it comes to an oven. Can you simple use a conventional kitchen oven (assuming vacuum could be plumbed into it). What problems would I encounter? If a conventional oven cannot be used, what do most use starting out? I would prefer not to invest in the cost of an oven specifically designed for curing CF parts until I know this is sometime I would like to do more of. Thanks, Kevin I bought a conventional electric oven from ebay and have used it for many years for small parts. Plumbing in the vacuum is simply a matter of drilling a hole in the side :-) The main disadvantage of a domestic oven is the rather course temperature control compared to a PID controller. However I have had great results by raising the temperature manually approx 3 degrees C a minute using a hand held temp gauge. In fact, for simple things like brackets I simply turn the temp up until the orange light, the one that tells me the oven is below the set temp, comes on, wait until it goes out and repeat until the oven reaches the required temperature. You can make quite big things in a basic oven. Steve, Thanks for the reply. I appreciate it. I will defintely give it a shot.
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Chris Rogers
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Group: Forum Members
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If you're looking at trying prepregs you might find some of the stuff in my post useful: https://explorecomposites.com/articles/lamination/basics-laminating-with-pre-pregs/There's a link in there to another post about building ovens (cheap). A used electric oven should work fine if you can handle the fact that it doesn't mix the air so the temperatures can be very uneven. Should be able to supplement with a few thermocouples to give some visibility on whats going on with the actual part temperature. From a heating perspective it is way overkill - but nice and safe to operate compared to home-made stuff.
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Steve Broad
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Group: Forum Members
Posts: 408,
Visits: 4.1K
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+xIf you're looking at trying prepregs you might find some of the stuff in my post useful: https://explorecomposites.com/articles/lamination/basics-laminating-with-pre-pregs/There's a link in there to another post about building ovens (cheap). A used electric oven should work fine if you can handle the fact that it doesn't mix the air so the temperatures can be very uneven. Should be able to supplement with a few thermocouples to give some visibility on whats going on with the actual part temperature. From a heating perspective it is way overkill - but nice and safe to operate compared to home-made stuff. If you get a fan assisted oven, which I forgot to mention, then the air is circulated and, as it is also a small volume, the temperature will be pretty even.
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Castle Works Motorsports
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Group: Forum Members
Posts: 4,
Visits: 11
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+x+xIf you're looking at trying prepregs you might find some of the stuff in my post useful: https://explorecomposites.com/articles/lamination/basics-laminating-with-pre-pregs/There's a link in there to another post about building ovens (cheap). A used electric oven should work fine if you can handle the fact that it doesn't mix the air so the temperatures can be very uneven. Should be able to supplement with a few thermocouples to give some visibility on whats going on with the actual part temperature. From a heating perspective it is way overkill - but nice and safe to operate compared to home-made stuff. If you get a fan assisted oven, which I forgot to mention, then the air is circulated and, as it is also a small volume, the temperature will be pretty even. Hi Chris, Thanks for the reply, that is all very helpful. Kevin
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Warren (Staff)
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Group: Administrators
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A few members on here have made their own ovens so it is doable DIY. There are a few threads on members own oven projects. However we always tend to advise you take the safety side of it very seriously. If you get it wrong you could burn your shed down! Hence why we are always a bit hesitant in suggesting making your own unless you have the correct electrical knowledge and general knowledge on making an oven safely.
Warren Penalver
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical Support Assistant
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Castle Works Motorsports
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Group: Forum Members
Posts: 4,
Visits: 11
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+xA few members on here have made their own ovens so it is doable DIY. There are a few threads on members own oven projects. However we always tend to advise you take the safety side of it very seriously. If you get it wrong you could burn your shed down! Hence why we are always a bit hesitant in suggesting making your own unless you have the correct electrical knowledge and general knowledge on making an oven safely. Warren, thanks, yep, I completely agree. Kevin
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Steve Broad
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Group: Forum Members
Posts: 408,
Visits: 4.1K
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+x+xA few members on here have made their own ovens so it is doable DIY. There are a few threads on members own oven projects. However we always tend to advise you take the safety side of it very seriously. If you get it wrong you could burn your shed down! Hence why we are always a bit hesitant in suggesting making your own unless you have the correct electrical knowledge and general knowledge on making an oven safely. Warren, thanks, yep, I completely agree. Kevin Agreed, safety is always important when dealing with electricity. If you are not confident there are plenty of electricians that will do the work for you. If you are concerned about using heating elements you can use light bulbs as the heat source. They will be surrounded by heat resistant materials and the max temperature will be around 120 deg C for basic curing (you can cure most prepregs below 100 deg) or 160 deg C if post curing, all of which are not even hot enough to ignite paper. So the chances of setting your garage alight, as long as you don't have an electrical issue (but that is the same for any appliance/lighting/heating circuit) are virtually nil. However, I accept that EC staff members have to be very careful with what they recommend. And, likewise, these comments are my own personal opinions based on a fair few years of experience in building curing ovens. You will have to make your own judgement on your skills and capabilities when it comes to building anything involving electricity.
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Hanaldo
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Group: Forum Members
Posts: 2.5K,
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+x+x+xA few members on here have made their own ovens so it is doable DIY. There are a few threads on members own oven projects. However we always tend to advise you take the safety side of it very seriously. If you get it wrong you could burn your shed down! Hence why we are always a bit hesitant in suggesting making your own unless you have the correct electrical knowledge and general knowledge on making an oven safely. Warren, thanks, yep, I completely agree. Kevin Agreed, safety is always important when dealing with electricity. If you are not confident there are plenty of electricians that will do the work for you. If you are concerned about using heating elements you can use light bulbs as the heat source. They will be surrounded by heat resistant materials and the max temperature will be around 120 deg C for basic curing (you can cure most prepregs below 100 deg) or 160 deg C if post curing, all of which are not even hot enough to ignite paper. So the chances of setting your garage alight, as long as you don't have an electrical issue (but that is the same for any appliance/lighting/heating circuit) are virtually nil. However, I accept that EC staff members have to be very careful with what they recommend. And, likewise, these comments are my own personal opinions based on a fair few years of experience in building curing ovens. You will have to make your own judgement on your skills and capabilities when it comes to building anything involving electricity. The biggest danger, aside from a wiring issue, is the heating element. Sure 120° is quite low temperature and not going to ignite anything, but it's the element - these are just on and off full power and get extremely hot. Especially if you are ramping straight up to 120, thats going to be a solid 20-30 minutes in a mid sized oven where a 2kw element is at full power and very very hot. So everything right next to the element is what you have to be worried about, you don't want anything there that could be flammable, and you have to make sure that nothing can shift or fall on the element. Anyway, I think it is quite a low risk sort of project, you just have to think about it a bit. It's really dead easy to do.
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