By brummelisa - 1/31/2012 9:54:05 AM
Hi,
I am planning to build a carbon bike frame and have a couple of beginner-questions.
I will wrap the carbon fiber around a plug and vacuum-bag it.
Q1. When I wrap the cloth around the plug and use peel-ply. I wonder when the carbon is done and I remove the peel-ply. Don't I need to sand the carbon at all before adding the next layers?
Q2. When can I saw and use sand-paper on the carbon fiber with minimal risk for my body.
I read in a forum that you should wait more than one week until you can sand it (the epoxy has to really harden before).
I have bought the resin and cloth from you
Q3. If I want to wrap the cloth around an irregular plug. Is it ok (strength-wise) to have small pieces that I use to wrap around it or must I use a cloth that is bigger than the plug.
Naturally I will use several layers, but can I use pieces that are much smaller (say 10 cm long) and put them on the plug like a bandage?
/ Marcus
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By Paul (Staff) - 2/3/2012 4:45:45 PM
Hi Marcus,
With regard to your sanding question, you can sand the material as soon as it is hard enough to do so, using a good quality dust mask and doing the sanding outside should provide adequate protection, essentially you must try to avoid breathing the dust, sanding with water can help to reduce air-bourne particles too.
With regard to your question on using smaller peices, although with sufficient overlap you will be able to acheive good strength you should aim to use continuous lengths wherever possible as this will keep the weight to a minimum. obviously around the complicated bottom bracket, headtube, seat stay-seat tube areas you will need to do these in smaller peices, you should aim to wrap these first with your main tube peices lapping over them.
Peel-ply will give you a surface that is ready to be wrapped straight onto, you will probably find that a little bit of sanding to level the surface will still be needed. A neat trick I have seen used is to 'bandage' the peel-ply around the wetted out carbon, this squeezes out the excess resin really well.
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