mold making

you need to find clear resin for doing carbon fiber. regular resin has that nasty color to it and you wont have a clear view of the carbon. the clear resin is expensive... about $65 for a gallon and about $25 for a quart of hardner that goes with it. try a few practice pieces first, that wont matter, and use regular resin for the test pieces, since its much cheaper. that way you will get a feel for how the material lays and stuff. also, if youre gonna make molds for carbon fiber, you need a vacuum bagging sytem, if you want the piece to only be out of carbon fiber. you can wrap pieces, if you just want the carbon look though. hope this helps.

-------------
Nitrous is like a hot girl with an STD. You know you want to hit it, but you are scared of the consequences.

Carbon fiber uses epoxy not resin, supposed to anyways, as does kevlar. Carbon fiber is difficult to work with and is very hard to get to look right on curved surfaces, and is expensive to do trial and error. And like civicdetailer said, most companies use vacuums to make there products.

-------------
Certified Security Specialist
Always check info with a digital multimeter.
I promise to be good.
Tell Darwin I sent you.

I've been sick lately, sorry I won't be on much.

Actually I am just talking about doing some simple parts.  Like A pillars.  There are no complex curves I just want to be able to make a mold that I can lay some cf cloth into and be able to make many of the same part in.  No vacuums no heat just cf cloth epoxy and a roller.  I just need to be able to reporduce the same part with resonable quality.  Basically I just need to know what material to make the mold out of, i.e. plastic pour resin, wood, plaster, etc...  also I need to know what to use so that the epoxy does not stick to the mold.

I don't know if that would turn out right. Any mold release is going to effect the area where the mold meets the resin, which will give you a shotty finish. You can't sand CF and still get the look you want. The only way I know of to get that finish on any type of curve is to use a vacuume bag. Though I admit my CF experiance is limited to about 5 projects.

-------------
Nik
Jeeputer Progress
[|||||||||||-] 90%
Check it out.

Vacuum bag= vacuum form fitting bag used to ensure that there are no air bubbles or deformities in the finished product.

-------------
Certified Security Specialist
Always check info with a digital multimeter.
I promise to be good.
Tell Darwin I sent you.

I've been sick lately, sorry I won't be on much.

You can make completly flat panels without a vacuume bag. Just sandwich your CF between two pieces of glass. But once you get into any kind of curves this no longer works.

-------------
Nik
Jeeputer Progress
[|||||||||||-] 90%
Check it out.

where do you get a vacuum bag at and how much does it cost?

also for the original question, what do I make my mold out of?

I think you can find answers to both questions here. US Composites

-------------
Nik
Jeeputer Progress
[|||||||||||-] 90%
Check it out.

check these two sites

https://www.hotrod.com/howto/60478/

https://www.fbodyaudio.com/articleviewer.php?article=molds.tech

https://www.mrfiberglass.com/vacuum_bagging.html

isus] wrote:

---

where do you get a vacuum bag at and how much does it cost?

---

some folks use refrigerant compressor as a vacuum.

-------------
Houston,TX
"The two most common elements in the universe are H+ and stupidity" (Ellison).