Hello Harrison
The video you referred to shows the carbon fiber skinning method.
I have used this method and have got results that are absolutely perfect. I do a lot of infusion and prepreg autoclave work and you would not know which method was used by the results I got with the skinning method.
Just make your steering wheel and skin it as instructed on the video. Wet sand and clear a number of times until perfectly flat and then polish.
There is only one thing to keep in find. Don't even think about using regular epoxy resin, you MUST use the special skinning resin sold on this site. I know because I tried regular resin, its not thick enough in viscosity.The skinning resin is super thick.
Hope this helps
Fred

I started with wet-lay years ago, making some very nice items.. They were a kind of "skinning" since I made up rifle-stocks from Balsa, and skinned them in CF.

I used simple methods to keep the CF/resin in place, mainly wrapping the stocks first in long strips of peel-ply, then perforated release-film, and then a layer of old linen cloth to absorb excess resin.

The stocks looked like mummies with the embalming fluid leaking through  .. when laid out to cure on top of a central heating radiator 

The first one got locked quite solidly to the radiator, I just didn't think to put down some polythene on top of the radiator...

I discovered that the peel-ply surface with only a very thin coat of spray clear, acts like a very good non-slip grip area ... Sort of like a built in "checkering pattern"

I then went on to make CF "domes" for some Subwoofer speakers ... to make the cheap drivers look A LOT "cooler" ...   To get the desired low resonance frequency, we needed to add mass to the driver membrane, so why not glue on an outer "dome" of CF ???  It works perfectly..
 I used a glass dome from a ceiling lamp as a mould, waxed it, layed up two layers of Twill, peel-ply, perforated release and some old fleece cloth ... to keep everything in place, i put a large polythene bag of warm water on top!  (A trick I have later used to speed up the cure of both vac-bagged and infused parts..   The bag of hot water conforms nicely the most concave shapes, thus transferring the heat nicely to the part in the mould.)
I use hot water straight form my hot tap, which is precisely 55 Deg. Centigrade ... so ... no damage to mould or other parts.
 

 

"Sapere Aude"... Dare to KNOW!

The written word is the only truly efficient vehicle for transmitting a complex concept from mind to mind...

103% of all people do not understand statistics...

Do not adjust our mind, theres a fault in reality :-)

Always nice to be able to use several methods to get the desired outcome.  Wet layup makes a big mess and (in my opinion) is much harder to get a good result unless you know what you are doing.  Vacuum infusion, if done right, is pretty simple and clean......

Hi HarrisonC,

I have only ever used resin infusion.
Should do some testing with wet layups

The main thing that puts me off wet layups is the potential for even more mess as I am a messy git resin would end up every where.

Looking forward to seeing the mould for the racing wheel

---

David Stevens
YouTube: Comment | Rate | Subscribe
Instagram

Composite Projects
Body Package for Dax Rush
RC Car Touring Body 1/10 Scale

As above start with wet layup until you can get some funds together to buy the vac pump and bagging materials.

Wet lay is the place to start.

You can make fantastic cosmetic parts with just wet laid methods but this typically needs to be a simple shape without any sharp details as the resin and carbon may not stay in or fill the details leaving a bubble here and there, which can be fixed.

Pre pregs will make the best structural part when compared to wet laid but you will need an oven and pump etc and even then getting a cosmetic nice part is not easy with oven only process (no autoclave/pressurised oven).

Infusion really ticks all the boxes but in my opinion is a far more difficult process than those above, trial and error, mistakes, and reject parts etc.

Hey mate,

Hey,