This is a beginners guide to carbon fiber. More industrialized guides supporting our how-to section on vacuum molding, positive/negative molds, and weight discount will follow.
Start by setting out your tools, along with a sheet of clean glass at least 4" larger than your largest piece of graphite mat. Apply some form of mold release to the glass to aid in dismissal of the laminate later. At this point mix your resin. What resin you use depends on on the end application for the part you are making. In this eaxmple of a flat sheet, that would most likely come to be a gauge trim piece or a blanking plate, almost any resin will work fine. Resin systems can cost from 30 dollars a gallon up to 200 dollars a gallon, so pick one that suits your needs. No matter what resin you use consistency is very important. The resin and the catalyst must be fully mixed.
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Ensure the face of the mat is clean from any debris that would fault the finish. Now, using a push pull request for retrial stretch the fabric until it has a uniform appearance. This is one of the most foremost steps. Once you are Ok with the pattern start applying resin. Start in the middle in work your way around. The goal here is to use as minute resin as you can while wetting out all of the mat. Excess resin will only make your parts needlessly heavy and weak. Keep applying resin as needed while working out any air pockets that appear. Any excess resin should be worked to the sides, and the pattern should be adjusted once more.
The second layer goes on in the same way as the first. For the second course use a minute less force so not to disturb the underlying layer. For cosmetic only pieces, two layers of mat is enough. For trim pieces I commonly use three layers, and for body panels 4-5 with a special veil layer that will be discussed in a later review.
Flip the glass over and assure that the pattern is still intact, and there are no air pockets. If there are small pockets of trapped air you can push them gradually to the sides. Once the air is removed, lay a large block of wood or another sheet of glass over the top. This will promote a uniform thickness and aid n the dismissal of any smaller un-noticed air pockets. Now allow the resin to partially cure. Depending on the principles you used and the conditions it is curing under, this can take anywhere from 10 minutes to 12 hours.
Once the resin has cured to a state where it is only slightly tacky, pry up the top block of wood. At this stage thinners laminates can be trimmed with a razor before they totally cure. Thicker laminates should be treated much like metal and only cut with fine tooth blades once fully cured. To take off the graphite from the glass, start at a edge with excess resin. You can peel up the resin to get the mat started much like you would take off a sticker. Any covering trimming can commonly be done at this point. For interior trimming such as producing holes or patterns I recommend waiting at the least several hours. When you watch the video, take note that the whole process takes only 5 minutes of labor. Total cost on a 14x14 sheet is only a few dollars. I have made sheets as large as 5sq/ft for use as tail gate trim pieces with these same steps. Total cost was under 30 dollars. If you do what most "carbon fiber" companies do and back the piece with fiberglass the same 5sq/ft piece cost less than 10 dollars. For a complete movie on these steps see: http://volvospeed.com/Mods/carbon_fiber_sheets.html
Diy Carbon Fiber Sheets
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