Hello, My name is Struan and I am an amateur motorcycle builder based in Scotland. I have a blog outlining all of my build process here www.remotorcycled.com for anyone interested.

On my newest build, I want to build a front light panel for the bike out of carbon fibre. I have designed the faceplate in CAD and I am now at a crossroads on how to turn this into a reality.



I was wondering whether I can get the part 3D printed and make a mould off this? The mould would really only need to be one-sided as the back of the light board wouldn't really be seen. I am going with this more for the visual impact than structural benefit (I will sort out the other issues that is LED's etc in time) but it would be good to get started with this. 

I am happy to invest time and money into this as there are other parts I quite fancy building also (wheel arches, panels etc).  As a complete beginner can you advise on the best method to do this? Am I better off going down the wet resin vacuum bag route or a prepreg route? My only concern with the prepreg is access to an oven which will allow me to function a vacuum pump. 

I am happy to consider anything really. I enjoyed working with fibreglass on my last build and I want to see what else I can learn.

thanks
Struan 

Hi Struan
Welcome to the forum! Where about are you in Scotland?
You can certainly use 3D printing for the tooling, especially for room temp wet lay and infusion. There are materials that can go to higher temps if you want to do prepreg work but you can get pretty good results from infusion, and if need be clear coat the parts afterwards.

Hello, 

I'm based up in Aberdeen. I work in the oil industry but playing around with motorbikes and learning new skills in my spare time keeps me sane! How about you?

I was thinking (hoping) that would be an easier methodology/lower cost of entry. I think I will get a print out made in the next week or so and then loop to order a lot of my equipment. I think the mould making equipment comes in kits on the easy composites website so will start with one of them. Can you point me in the right direction for a resource to read up on grade/weight selection of Carbon Fibre? Currently, I am not really needing A huge amount of strength as this part shouldn't see any flex etc. 

Thanks again
Struan

Typically you would want something like a 200gsm (or similar, eg 210gsm we sell) cloth for the surface layer and some backing reinforcement.  If it is supporting the weight of the LED lights, perhaps around a mm thick which would be 4 layers of a typical 200g cloth or less layers if you back up with a thicker cloth. 

Warren Penalver
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical Support Assistant

If it is less than 30cm wide, you could do some simple wet lay laminating using our Carbon Fibre Laminating Starter Kit as you get a 1m by 30cm strip of carbon and resin and bits and bobs to match, so it might be perfectly sized for this project.

Warren Penalver
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical Support Assistant