Hi I'm a complete carbon fibre newbie so please bare with me. I'm looking for some adviceregarding creating a custom case from scratch. I do not have a case similar to anythingI want which is why I'm planning to make a case out of carbon fibre.

the case I would like to make needs to have internaldiameters of around 142cm Long, 16cm Wide, 6cm High. to allow for foam padding myquestions are.

1. roughly how thick do the layers of carbon fibre need tobe to provide protection to avoid damaging the item inside when stepped on andnot to warp if the case is leant diagonally - when I carry it in my car.

2. what would be the best way /material to make a mould outoff - I would ideally like all the outer corners to be curved so I feltMDF/wood may not be suitable. I'm not too concerned about the appearance of theinner corners of the case as it will not be seen however the lip where the case2 halves of the case join together will be seen so I would like them to be veryclean and tidy.

3. I plan to fit Hinges and locking fasteners onto the longestedges of the case I guess that if I made the mould 3cm high I could use themould twice so the top half and bottom half would be the near identical. isthis possible or would I have to make 2 separate moulds?

4. as stated in question 3 I will need to fit hinges andlocking fasteners does anyone on the forum have experience or can recommend asupplier also advise on the best way to fix them to the case.

5. roughly what materials and quantities will I need toorder.

wow reading all the above makes me realise how much of anewbie I may be. Thanks in advance

Rudger.

Well heres what my approach would be;

 

1. roughly how thick do the layers of carbon fibre need to be to provide protection to avoid damaging the item inside when stepped on and not to warp if the case is leant diagonally - when I carry it in my car.

4-5 layers of the heaviest 2x2 twill.

 

 

2. what would be the best way /material to make a mould out off - I would ideally like all the outer corners to be curved so I felt MDF/wood may not be suitable. I'm not too concerned about the appearance of the inner corners of the case as it will not be seen however the lip where the case 2 halves of the case join together will be seen so I would like them to be very clean and tidy.

make half the case out of wood, sand it down shape it and fill in al gaps with body filler, then primer and make smooth. Then make a mold off that.

 

3. I plan to fit Hinges and locking fasteners onto the longest edges of the case I guess that if I made the mould 3 cm high I could use the mould twice so the top half and bottom half would be the near identical. is this possible or would I have to make 2 separate molds?

read #2 answer

 

4. as stated in question 3 I will need to fit hinges and locking fasteners does anyone on the forum have experience or can recommend a supplier also advise on the best way to fix them to the case.

I would checkout the Structural Adhesives on easy composites; https://www.easycomposites.co.uk/adhesives

get some of that, glue a metal bracket to that and mount your hinges there.

 

 

5. roughly what materials and quantities will I need to order.

Im american I cant convert, to lazy but based on a 4-5 layer setup I think by going to the website you could figure it out or maybe someone from UK can help.

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This is something I know a little about 

Years ago i used to make "flightcases" for musical instruments from glassfibre reinforced polyester. (My uncle built glassfibre boat hulls, so plenty of knowhow and cheap materials...)

We always made a "plug" of the whole case, cut it in half and made molds from that. (Musical instruments are often asymmetrical... Think saxophone )

The companies catering to "flightcase" builders have a wide range of hinges, fasteners and aluminium profiles that can be bent/formed into shape to be used for the edges of the two connecting halves of the case, and some come with groove for an O-ring type seal (You can buy the "O-ring" by the metre and join the ends with superglue...  You should be able to locate such suppliers in the UK, even in Denmark we have several .....

We almost always made a sandwich type layup, with reinforcing structures  moulded in   Think longitudinal ridges / corrugation in the outer layer, then foam then a flat inner surface ... hmmm difficult to explain... In CF, you could probably get away with a thin sandwich construction using a core material.

Good luck...

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