5 MISTAKES TO AVOID Making Carbon Fiber Parts 

Sheet was late again, and got a shoutout 🥲 mad love Team Street Banditos

#nohairs

All good tips guys. Pinholes are the breaking point for a lot of people getting started in composites for sure.

Some of these tips even I didn't know, and I work in a carbon fiber workshop for about a year now. The solution to pinholes for us usually is in the release agent. Using PVA basically eliminates all pinholes outright, some waxes can also help with pinholes tremendously. The one we use from R&G is almost liquid and ensures a no pinhole finish, but usually leaves alot of residue that needs to be wetsanded off with 800 grit. Keeping the carbon from fraying and the weave alligned is an artform unfortunatly. Don't beat yourself up if it doesn't work too well for the first attemps, it takes time and skill to do properly. A recomendation from my end is to use prespraced Carbon for these. HP Textiles has a set of carbon weave that is just very lightly sprayed with adhesives, making it stiff enough to move around without weave distortion, but a light pull along the fiber breaks these bonds and let's you shift and shear the weave in the mould. This makes it an awesome material to work on complex parts that need to have a nice surface finish. A more advanced tip I have for all of you that work with vacuum bagged parts, is to degas your resin after mixing. Get a vaccum bell and put the cup in it for 5 minutes after proper mixing. if removes most bubbles you introduced and helps you to avoid roling those into your parts later on. It's not neccessary, but it saves you the venting roller. Especially useful for tight radius parts where the vent roller is beyond annoyning to use.

I don’t make or plan on making carbon parts, just here to enjoy the channel some more

Roll the roller on masking tape prior to use and it will remove the loose nap

Its incredible this tech was reserved for high end military contract companies at one point and NOW people are making entire body replacements for their cars in their garages!!! That is incredible and is definitely helped by people like the ones making these videos!

You guys have me so hyped to start messing with carbon now. Crazy how you always post a video exactly when I need it haha

I know I’m a long ways down the list here, but just a note from my composites experience. Some resins (and gel coats) are unwaxed and meant to stay tacky between layers. Lay-up resin in particular and most gel coats are anaerobic and fully cure in the absence of air. The trick I use is to spray a few layers of PVA over the top. The PVA will seal out the air and let it fully cure. This really works good if you want to add a layer of gel coat to the outside of a part once it’s done. I make stuff from carbon without a mold from time to time, then spray/brush clear gel coat on the outside and coat with PVA. After curing you can peel/blow off the PVA and you’ll have a hard surface to sand.

I really enjoy this channel. I like these guys - they make me feel like I could actually do this stuff. I know I can't, LOL, but it feels like I could after watching....

Loving the tips boiz!

Love the full-tuber content 🙌🏻

#nohairs is the most important part

Hi, good video to explain 5 common mistakes. I'm work in composite industrie and i make plate with fiber/rigide foam/fiber and all that in vaccum infusion. I work in france and i follow about 3 years. Just i would like say one fact, i do one vaccum infusion with this specifcation: mold temp 16°C; resin temp 17°C ; room temp 18°C and 50% humidity. I does made plate but i do put 2.75% of hardener (normaly 2%). Finaly the plate are good just the gel point is morreless long. Ps: sorry for my english Have good day

Tim is the carbon fiber man! EXCELLENT tips once again!!

Lightweight Baby!

Moar food and lunch/dinner-break clips please.

yes thank you guys! Really getting confident in making my own carbon parts…

I saw that tip about the super glue on the brush on another video of yours the other day. I start doing this 15 years ago and have always had a problem with brushes. Can’t believe I never thought of it!

*summons @Deathstroke * 🔥🐐🔥

Thanks for doing. These videos I will be starting my own projects in January.

this was a great video man

Heeerrree we GooooOooOoOoO!!!

For the slightly large holes I think we can use carbonfiber dust with few drops of resin on top and sand it later.✌️👍

Heat gun cycles also works for tacky resin

What always works for me with #1 and #2, is denatured alcohol. Mix about 5%-10% in, after mixing your 2 part. This slightly dilutes the epoxy and makes it flow/absorb easier. It’s also hygroscopic, so I draws out the moisture and air bubbles. You will notice a slightly longer off time as the alcohol needs to evaporate

Appreciate the advice, this will be very handy when I try my first layups next year!

Thank you for sharing your talents! I am getting a little more confident to even try this. Keep up the fulluber content!

All handy solutions. I love powdered gloves from Sysco a food service supply company. Easy on easy off.my hands. I hate taking time to put them on,the prepowdered helps speed up this action.

Awesome stuff. How about tips for trimming a part after it cures and removing a part from the mold.

If your looking for a quick functional fix for something like that void, you can try filling it with baking soda and wicking in thin ca. Its super super strong. The soda works like a catalyst and it sets hard, quick. Just do it in layers if its deep.

Have you thought about running small workshops to run people through making CF parts? It looks like you guys have a lot of space to set up in-personal instruction. You have Fibre Glast as a distribution company so I bet they would be willing to kick in something for future sales. That could generate additional revenue and video content. If you DO decide to do something like that, HMU!

Great video some great tips. I wish you would have explained how dangerous and easy it is to inhale glass micro balloons. Also some resins will react if you put good resin on top of bad resin as well you may condemn the resin underneath to never cure as it will not have a path to off gas volatiles. Best to sand into the resin breaking the gloss barrier and giving it the most surface area to gas out. Some heat helps too😀

I never would've thought of that brush tip; these are awesome tips. Dumb question... does the super 77 make it difficult to remove from a waxed mold?

Do you have a video to join two ends together. Like a part that has a lot of shapes like a front lip or a diffuser?

Thanks team great videos, i'm about to try doing a VW beetle engine lid the old style very curvy any advise? Please. do you ship kits to New Zealand?

Do, and I repeat do not breath 🫁 in those glass beads

PPE.. You can develop a allergic reaction to the fiber glass and carbon fiber. Seen it happen to a few guys when I was working with the stuff.

Love it great info, I have been wanting to build a carbon fiber gas tank for a motorcycle project, what kinds of things do in need to consider when building a carbon fiber part that holds gas? Like what type of resin? Should I use a secondary epoxy liner on the inside after the tank is built? Can you lay metals like aluminum in between the layers of carbon so I can bolt on gas caps, and petcocks? Thanks allot guys love the channel you guys do awesome work

Thanks my friend for posting this.. There is so much 'non' information on how to actually make carbon fiber parts.. I am making a structural frame for my motion rig and already bought all the fiberglast stuff to begin. Not worried about pin holes (cause this is my motion sim frame IDK) but really trying to get as much info before I start.. Thanks so much! DMAX motion sim ch

I need a garage heater for my next part attempt, I'd be lucky if it's 55 in there

Thanks for all your´s videos. I want to make BMW E30 bonnet from carbon fibre by wet lying.. Can you help me to choose how much material to use? I got 2 opinions: 3K 200g and 12K 600g carbon fibre cloth. So for bonnet can I use 1x 600g and 1x200g on top and 1x600g + 1x200g for inner bonnet part and glue both parts together? Together it will be 1600g/m2 of carbon fibre.

What do I use to pull at least 6 pieces of one mold

Very great tips! I so want to try it.....just knowing me if i did and it works out i would not stop.....once you do a carbon fiber toilet you would know you have a problem 🤣

I have chip in carbon panel (that looks like bigger shown void). Is it still viable to just pour resin inside of it, sand flat and clear coat over whole panel?

Do u make any c5 parts

Connie !!!

Keep in mind carbon fiber causes galvanic corrosion! So it needs to be treated as if it's aluminum. Meaning it needs a dedicated area where it's not contaminating any metals

No Paintbrush = NO HAIRS!

What ever happened to Connie celica?

mistake number one don’t smoke your product

I think these are all great points, but I think you are not doing justice to the amount of time and attention necessary to how your total beginning setup relates to producing good parts even before you start mixing resin. Here are some of the easiest ones: Having a room/sectioned off with plastic that you just do carbon layup to minimize dust and particulates into the layup process. Never touch your carbon/glass fiber fabric that you are going to use for layup without gloves - your hand has oils and can transfer to fiber. Another tip, have a wet layup table that is kept clean and a separate cut table, or you run into the issue of dry fiber snags or weave distortions. Also not sure I agree with bristle brushes to apply resin because of the increased friction during layup. And lastly, maybe this seems obvious but people unfamiliar to composites might not know - Do the volumetric density calculations before you start mixing so that you only use what you need.

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Manscaped your brushes...check.

First