Carbon Fiber And Balsa Wood Bat For Guaranteed Homeruns 

As a guy with 30+ years making things from carbon fiber, I will say round things, especially non-uniform round things are tough to cover. You might look at using pre-preg instead of dry fiber, doing a tape wrap or cut gores. Vacuum banging would also help.

> _"So basically this was pointless?"_ > _"Yeah, pretty much. Welcome to the Waterjet Channel"_ That reponse is on point. Ought to be put on a shirt.

Every video from this channel seems like a bunch of guys being told to experiment with highly valuable and volatile tech using only what they find in their kitchen... I love it for that!

I want to see the hollowed out bat, just because you guys playing with the napalm byproduct sounds like a terrible idea lol

I would definitely like to see the follow up with a hollowed out carbon fiber bat 🌝

If you do it again, consider a vacuum bag with cotton batting strips. It'll suck up the excess resin for extra strength to weight. Carbon fiber is pretty brittle when processed; aramid fiber (Kevlar) is a bit more durable.

Same day garage 54 makes Carbon Fiber con rods. Excellent.

It may not have been real carbon fiber. Without the lick test we'll never know.

Next try put the bat in a vacuum bag as its drying to get rid of any air bubbles. That will make the carbon stronger.

I wonder if you could get away with losing the carbon fiber altogether and just using the balsa with copious amounts of epoxy haha

Getting the densest wood possible and wrapping that in carbon fiber would be interesting to see distance difference.

Preview pic shows some dents. You can reduce those if you cut and re-glue the core so it exposes the end grain of the Balsa to the carbon fiber impact surface. The end grain is 3-10x harder in compression than the side of the grain.

I think they use a vacuum to pull the resin through the fiber by basically putting it a big vacuum sealer/bag.

I’d love to see the part where the fracture was cut through and see if it destroyed the balsa wood beneath, or is the wood even taking much impact force at all because of the carbon fibre

to make carbon fiber as strong as possible you need to minimize the amount of resin in it, This is normally done with a vacuum and peel ply

These guys are grown kids, my type of people

lmao props to that guy for politely attempting to hit those abysmal pitches

“This was pointless”, “welcome to the water jet channel”. That about sums it up. 😂 laughing emoji to make sure no one’s feelings are hurt.

If you do it again, I recommend you to see some videos on how carbon fiber fishing rods are made and based on the same process, it is certainly longer than using vacuum bags but to make a parellelepiped it is much more effective

you can hollow it out easily without gasoline, take a bat you like and vac form some sheets of plexiglass for both sides, these will be your molds, once your sides are formed you can assemble them using clean strips of carbon fiber, also look for a higher density carbon fiber vs the cheaper stuff to make your parts and i'd suggest buying a 3" wide 20 yard roll so you can roll it from the top to bottom of the parts after sticking an x of the material on both ends to be covered for a cleaner finish, also if using molds make sure you have release wax spray or it's not coming out

If you do the hollow bat with Styrofoam, make sure to research resins as some resins will melt Styrofoam. Another option would be to have someone 3d print a bat out of ABS plastic and melt it out with acetone. Or have a bat mold 3d printed or carved out of wood and use a bladder blown up inside of the carbon. That would give the best outer surface finish.

Yes, do a hollow one. But use plaster of Paris or something water soluble, and then use water. Instead of toxic chemicals. But, you could use a different toxic chemical, and fill it with expanding polyurethane, or expanding wall insulation. Spray foam. Etc.

I've worked with composites for a long time, if you guys do the hollowed out bat with only carbon fiber it is going to go *crunch* as soon as it hits a ball.

I make prosthetics out of carbon fiber on a daily basis. We lay up all the fibers dry then pull a tube of pva plastic over the model and fill one side with resin and the other side with vacuum. Then we push and pull the resin to get it even and as little resin as possible.

Crazy I didn't know you guys were in NSL!!! Know that park!!!

Presoak the carbon first on a piece of cardboard. When it’s laid down you can form it easier. Overlap the pieces. Usually like 1/2-3/4 strips wrapped is best. Make sure you roll it out with glass roller! With glass it’s best if you get all your layers at once. It’ll make for a stronger item. Not sure about carbon fiber.

Now a bat out of just carbon fiber. Take that Louisville slugger

From a physics standpoint it makes sense the lighter bat doesn't hit as far. If anyone knows pool and the difference between the cue ball at a bar as opposed to a regulation cue ball the one at the bar is heavier. The extra weight of the bar box ball makes a not insignificant difference from shot to shot. But the one the makes this make sense the most is the draw shot. When you draw with the heavier cue ball the ball will always travel forward a bit before reversing. This happens Because the cue ball is heavier than the object ball. With a lighter cue ball the ball immediately reverses because the balls are equal weight. If you used a cue ball that was lighter than the object ball it would bounce backwards before any English takes place. So that explains why the lighter bat doesn't transfer as much energy into the baseball. It will give way to the baseball more before actually exerting a force on it.

this is the dopest channel and the exact shit id do if i had a water jet

one word of advice. instead of standing in front of batter and throwing underhand. You can safely get on a knee about 3 feet to the side of the batter. Side Toss for safety

01:45 - The Monty Python of Carbon Fibre Story commences... and they all very naughty boys!

It's almost like zero thought went into making this bat. Just "fugggit, go!"

Next thing you know, they’re going to make a bat out of resin. Keep up the odd yet satisfying work!

y'all should get a spool of carbon fiber tow and wrap the bat that way - you'll get a much tighter fit, and if you pour the epoxy on while you're wrapping it'll get into the fibers better and not have such a colossal amount of excess epoxy which increases the weight while also compromising strength. Should look like a funky carbon-fiber driveshaft when you're done I think.

JUST jokes, Nothing but love, and no hate at all, but that under hand throw kills me 🤣

GAURANTEED HOME RUNS BABY YEAHHH

I want to see the hollow bat. And a bat with liquid inside that transfers the weight / momentum out to the tip when you swing it.

How about a balsa core (same) and a woven carbon fiber tube or sock shape drenched in resin then vacuum bagged while the resin sets?

I would like to see it done hollow but make sure the solvent doesn’t damage the carbon fiber acrylic gas might not be the best option

Try rolling the carbon on in long strips so you get a more uniform pattern that might let you use less carbon and save some weight.

As a composite fabricator the lay up on the bat was hard to watch but at least you tried lol there’s a lot that goes into the process

1:40 yeah, work that shaft....

I think you want end grain balsa and essentially a hollow tube. This would add stiffness and reduce weight. Good first attempt.

For a moment there at the end I thought you were suggesting to make a baseball bat full of gasoline.

Definitely need a lot more resin in that first wrap. But something like this is best done with pre preg strips and a vacuum bag at minimum

Styro-fiber bat sounds like a good idea even without hollowing it out

Pointless or not, it was cool to watch!

Get like a thick wooden dell then use light materials before the first layer of carbon fiber, even something more flexible could work if it is lighter than wood, might be on to something, try the foam for roof and wall sealers as a middle base

This series is awesome

Dont know if you did the hollow one, but there is probably a fair amount of ethanol or some kind of alcohol in the resin. That will probably melt the Styrofoam before you can actually put the carbon fiber on it.

Glue is stronger than balsa: glued sheets of balsa, grains crossing every conceivable direction with superglue between the ply, lathed, spun with fiberglass and resin, then wrapped in carbon-fiber. But isn't corking a thing, and can't expanding-foam lift a concrete foundation out of the ground; what if you cork an aluminum bat with expanding foam so it almost breaks, to test?

Hollow carbon fiber bat? Yes please! Just make sure to check to see if the resin will interact with the Styrofoam.

Baseball guy smiles like someone who's buried girls in the woods.

if you do this again you can use electrical tape sticky side out to wrap the outside and compress the carbon fiber and squeeze the epoxy through it but also to get rid of extra resin so the weight would be lower this would let you put a few layers on at once and still get pretty good penetration the only down side is it will have a bit of a ripple (but i use this when reinforcing hammer handles with a thin rope and epoxy or if i need to build up a handle with a cloth wrap sort of making micarta in place so less wastage and plenty of strength)

Video idea, I know you mentioned about being weak, but a major flaw of the lead bat was it’s flex. Why not throw a threaded rod in the middle of the bat running the entire length to prevent flex. Just an idea. Y’all went and improved the flaw in this bat. Why not that one?

Coincidentally I just watched a Carbon Fiber Con Rods video by Garage54, it's like Carbon Fiber Day or something :P I love carbon fiber and resin videos.

I cringed pretty hard with this. Round stuff is pretty hard to cover with cf. You can either try to create smaller strips and lay them out in more directions or make a mold of the bat and then you lay the CF out in the mold, then you join the molds. I don't have any experience with the last method but Koenigsegg makes their engine intakes this way. Also, dont let the CF layers dry before applying the next layer, what you created is basically epoxy resin with some carbon fiber content. The less the resin you use the better the result. You can also try using a vaccum bag while it cures. This helps to get rid of excess resin. You can also use pre-preg carbon fiber, it is easier to apply in such situations

I think you guys should either make a bat out of a strong rubber, or wrap a bat with some strong rubber. I'm curious to see if the bounce it gives aids in the ball travel. Maybe find a really strong liquid rubber that you can mold around a steel core, or something?

do it again... but instead of using carbon fiber... use flex seal instead

Wait, is that an island in the background? Dang, didn't know you were my neck of the woods. I even know which park that is.

It's got too much give to it maybe? What if you took the hollow one you made and put a sealed section of innertube inside it and pressurized it? Then you can adjust the air pressure to calibrate the next dinger for maximum distance. You'll also need to try and overcome some of the mass of the baseball. Maybe add a couple of big washers into the front end of the bat to give it some mass of it's own.

You need to do the wrap first and then cut off the excess. It’s like doing a vinyl wrap. Use a plastic putty knife or something as you wrap it wet to smooth it out and keep it pulled really tight until it cures.

You've built the ultimate whiffleball bat

You guys should try to make a 2 piece mall, you can layer your carbon in there, you can make a bat that's stronger, more even, and a lot lighter.

you should do a lignum vitae bat, super hard, very heavy wood also pretty expensive. its also know as iron wood.

this is turning into a real life tinker's construct

You should make one out of fiberglass lighter and stronger

Try superglue and baking soda. Do not quote me on this but from what I understand, the chemical bond between the two is stronger than carbon fiber. I guess they use the mixture to repair airplane propellers.

Y’all should hollow it out use a carbon fiber rod(hollow rod) for interior strength. You’ll get a lighter and stronger bat.

Shouldn't have dried between layers with the hot air, should've probably done more wraps and vacuum bagged to get the excess resin out, should've used kevlar cuz CF isn't very impact resistant. But this held up surprisingly well regardless

Hollow would be cool but the gas is definitely gonna react with the resin. I would suggest a wax core and melt it out in the oven at like 200 degrees.

I have an idea for the lathe. Let the jet turn it. BUT have a slight resistance from it turning.

holy SHIT breathing protection when dealing with carbon fiber

Might be worth weighting the top to get more force behind the swing like a golf club

This is why I want to see a x10 style mode for sports. If you don’t know, 10x is a game mode originally made for games like unreal tournament where everything in the game is multiplied by ten. Basically everything gets proportionally bigger and stronger compared to everything else. What if we applied this logic to regular sports? Just mod all the equipment to be better and edit the game itself, like giving every batter this specialized bat in baseball. And what about combat based sports? Double battles and other modes for boxing would be great because now it enables team work and strategizing among some of the greatest fighters in the world, tell me that doesn’t sound the slightest bit intriguing.

i think they are somewhere in utah right? goddamn that view of the mountains is lovely

i think the balsa would be a more effective bat wood if compressed- most other harder woods are even compressed to greater density

5:47 instant Glen flashbacks...

Did I blackout during the last videos? I thought the waterjet was what was spinning the bat like a lathe.

You guys ART HARD!!!

Definitely try a hollow one!

Yeah balsa is a hardwood just like I believe it is maple is a softwood just because something is a hard water softwood doesn't mean it's going to be hard or soft it's just designations and sometimes those don't make any sense

Its like watching teens roll their 1st cigarette, but with carbon fiber

You should have rolled layers until the cylinder was the dimension of the barrel and then cut it out on the water jet and then resin it one more time. Sand and polish

Hell yeah we want to see a hollowed out bat!! My guess it it would weigh 7 ounces. Also maybe make a practice one with cheaper fiber glass, try getting the fibers not frayed

Yessss make a hollow carbon fiber bat!

Mike Patey has some good techniques and know how in some of his early “Draco” videos.

Are Dan and Mitchell to busy to run their channel anymore or did they just lose interest?

Never in a million years would ANYBODY hit a homerun off a tee with such a heavy bat. Not even Barry Bonds. Bat speed is important, but so is incoming ball speed.

You guys have to get into bowling, make the world's heaviest bowling ball.

Yes please make a hollow one with a couple more layers

Yay, next time we’ll learn how to make napalm and a hollow carbon fibre bat

y'all should make a fart bat. like a normal looking bat but the inside is hollowed out and replaced with a whoopie cushion-like device that somehow compresses and farts when you hit something with it

Use to design carbon fiber bats for a living, you guys have some work to do!

Why did you fire Dan?

u guys should make a whole bat out of resin would it be better who knows would it be fun to watch hell yes

It would be ridiculously expensive but a titanium bat would be awesome

Layers! Balsa,carbon, balsa,carbon. Ect. Glue in between!

What about 3D-printing a hollow bat? Not necessarily out of PLA (which will shatter for sure), but metal or carbon fiber.

Send this bat to the baseball bat bros. I think you have something here. Just take your time and make it better