Hi, I'm new and I apologise if this is a dumb question. I'm making things out of carbon fibre with compression moulds and they will easily fit into a kitchen oven. I googled it and nobody seems to be using their kitchen oven. Is there a hidden problem that I'm missing? Will the epoxy fumes kill me or something like that?

The reason I want to make the switch from room temp epoxy to pre preg is that I can't seem to get a neat weave. Will using pre preg help me keep the weave straight?

My oven goes as low as 60 celcius and my moulding material can withstand 300ish. So getting the right temperature shouldn't be an issue.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

dont trust the temperature read out on the oven.  Buy yourself a thermometer to check it.

If your curing something in a vacuum bag eg resin infused etc then you have no worry about fumes as its all sealed.

If you are postcuring parts or not using a bag then you will want to run the oven afterwards with the door ajar at 100 degrees for 20 minutes just in case you have any fumes.  Same really if you bake lacquered parts off in the oven.  Running it low temp with oven door ajar means the fan blows out any slight build up of solvents.

Cool, thanks Warren!

Does the temperature have to be that exact. From what I've read pre preg can cure in anything between 80 and 150 celcius. I was just going to set it to 120 and leave it for a couple of hours. Can you over cook it? I mean over cook it time wise not heat wise.

you cant normally leave parts to cure for too long. 

Just remember that you dont want to pull things out the oven too early and ruin the part if its not properly cured when you demould it so err on the side of caution.

The reason you want an accurate thermometer is that many ovens the jump on the thermostat can be quite large eg from 60/70 degrees straight to 100 or 120 which is not ideal with the moulding systems the DIY user tends to have.

Thanks again Warren. I might give it a go.

I've never used pre preg cloth before and I'm not even sure if it will help me. Have you used it? Does it hold together better and give a straighter weave?

Hi Adam,

Prepregs are tacky and then can help you "arrange" your weave. Its also helpfull to avoid bridging before a vacuum and /or positive pressure is applied.

See this video you can see the "tackyness" of prepregs. Skip at 1:57, you can clearly see it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1xy5u1DWnY&feature=related

Hope it helped.

 



 


    A $1000 electronic device will always protect a 10 cents fuse

Couldn´t you sort of make a budget pre-reg yourself somehow?

Thanks Joe, that video makes me want to learn Italian, it was awesome.

The prepreg looks like it would work for what I'm doing. I might try to make my own like Zekewarg suggests just to test the theory.

Pre-preg is kept in very cold temperatures to not cure, what epoxy do they use?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_tDQTgdsCg