Talk Composites - The Forum for Advanced Composites

Newbie Question : what kind of carbon fiber should i use for tube making (for bicycle project)

http://www.talkcomposites.com/Topic19075.aspx

By taikuri - 8/26/2015 11:56:33 AM

Hello Everyone.

Been lurking this great forum for a while and now i have already some experience with CF and vacuum bagging technic. 
For my next project i need to build CF tubes, mostly round ones, but also different shapes of tubes. But lets start with round ones. I have round mandrill with the exact internal diameter what i want and my idea is to roll the CF around it, then apply thermoshrinking tape over it to make nice carbon tubes, never done it but i have understood this would be best way to do it. 
Since i have very little experience on different kind of carbon materials, and I dont have any good shop nearby where i can go and buy small test pieces, my only choice is to read and ask as much as i can and then order some material for my projects. Now my question is, what would be close to ideal CF fabric to make round tubes, surface finish dont (looks) matter to me, just want to build good strong tubes for bicycle. Any advice or links to a further information is highly appreciated.

Thanks
By Chris Scott - 8/27/2015 5:13:47 PM

I've only made two layers thick so far, for a night stand.   It's pretty strong and light as a feather.

I'm going to be making some tubes 4 layers thick then filling with expanding foam for my race car (holding my fuel cell).  I'll be doing a three point flexural test to see the strength of that.

The awesome part is you can make the tube as strong as you need it by adding more layers (if dimensionally it is permitted).