Making real Carbon Fiber parts (at home)! 

Everyone, YOU MUST USE A RESPIRATOR. I cannot overstate this. Make sure your enviornment is well ventilated. When using resin, make sure you have an Organic Vapor Catridge and a particulate filter. When sanding, cutting, and trimming carbon fiber, please use a P100 filter and make sure your respirator fits right. And probably do it outside. Carbon hairs are tiny tiny and a P100 particulate filter barely has the ability to capture them. Please please please do safety research and take every precaution!

a quick way to re-finish the part surface would be to sand it down till flat with your sanding sponge, then use a gloss PU spray instead of brushing it on. It should provide a very even surface and is what I use whenever I make mistakes with my CF parts

Top coat works better if you just sand the part and apply a spray varnish (clear coat) instead of a new layer of epoxy. Results are much better.

You needed to wipe the amine coating off of the cured resin before you added more epoxy resin. Also it needed sanding because cured epoxy doesn’t stick well to cured epoxy. Trapped air is a big issue in a face down part getting more coats too but didn’t look like too big of an issue, just the first two.

Interesting. You already have a 3d model for the toolhead that will fit into the carbon fiber cover you are creating. If you scaled it down just a bit and made it a bit more solid it should be easy to clamp it over the carbon fiber and resin and ensure that the carbon fiber gets into all the corners. Is this a good idea? I imagine the vacuum pump bag is meant to be dual purpose to get the bubbles out of the resin, however I think if the mould was double sided and had clamping force it would yield a better result? I've never done this before, just something I would try.

Hello Tom, once again a great and entertaining video. One comment carbon fibers conduct electricity and since they are ~ 7 micrometers in diameter, they might get inside electronic devices and generate shorts. They can damage in particular power supplies. I would recommend working carefully specially around you printers ;).

For those small parts i would prefer prepreg material. It is more expensive and you have to work with higher temperatures, but it is very easy to work with and the results will be much better.

A non vacuum method: Use a 2 side mold. The front like you did. The BACK side will be covered with a thin layer of clay/silly putty/ soft plastidip spray/ thin foam/ tpu. Just press them together. No vacuum is needed. No bags or special clothe. Put it in a vice and clean it later with a solvent if you used silly putty. I really want to see you print the last layers of the back part from TPU. If you do it, let me know how it worked. 😜

Love the "let glue dry" referenz😍

Rather than sanding why not use ABS and vapour smooth it? The ABS should be able to withstand the temperatures too.

The part looks beautiful and WOW that's a lot of messy work for someone just getting started into this whole process. I'll stick w/ my 3d printers whenever possible. Do you have any idea how much stronger a carbon fiber / epoxy part is compared to a 3d printed part using engineered materials or what the MarkForged can make?

we could always make carbon fiber parts with our $250 000 autoclaves

Just an idea since you deliver information really well, heated chambers and high end engineering grade materials would be cool to so from you, with a lot of carbon fiber and glass fiber filaments becoming more common

For the top coat, you are better off sanding the entire part to a smooth, dull finish (wet sand with 600/800 grit) and then doing a 2K clear coat spray instead of a floating resin coat.

I think for this type of part you need dual sided mould.

how about using a wooden dowel like a chopstick to push in each layer?

Thomas, it’s a simple rule of thumb taken from American hot-rodding: anything to make your stuff look sexy and cool like chrome, billet, or carbon fiber is a 10% increase in horsepower. It’s just facts.

Since this is purely aesthetic you could also just cut and apply a piece of “carbon fiber” vinyl in a couple minutes

👍

Hi Thomas, i have some experience with carbon parts. 1. since you already have the vacuum pump and bags, dry stack the carbon and do it with the vacuum infusion process. You get much better results with higher fiber to resin ratio, and no air pockets. 2. when you put the resin on the finished part and it pooled to the middle, that was because you didn’t clean and degrease the part from the mold release, also you absolutely need to sand the surface so the new resin sticks to the hardened resin. Otherwise it could just pop off.

Use blue painters tape on the cut line of the CF weave before cutting it. It'll keep everything in place and keep from making a mess of the loose fibers

Why not making a negative stamp, that fits inside the laid carbon fibre, so it compresses the shape nicer in the corners while under vacuum. Of corse some vent holes/channels would need to be designed in to the negative.

Easy Composites Ltd has by far the best videos about proper techniques for very high quality production. But this kind of videos are really good to show what can go wrong in process like this and to show the methods for not having all of the fanciest tech, but for hobbyist to reach "good enough" parts. GJ 👍

Let Glue Dry reference to Laura’s channel was a nice touch 👌🏻 Incredible job, as always.

One tip. You could try using a stabilized carbon fabric. That way it maintains its structure as its cut and laid into the mold. You wont get those edges that want to pull apart.

For that last coat you should really use clear coat, not resin. It will protect your resin as it doesn’t do well with UV.

Glueing the carbon fiber part to a printed core seems like waste. I thought it's gonna be a structural part, not just decoration.

why not just use 4d carbon fiber wrap if it's for aesthetics only? 10x less cost and so much faster. Shame it wasn't a weight reduction mod

If you can send us the 3D files we’d love to take a stab at making this for you with some prepreg carbon. A video on how we would approach (we make automotive carbon parts) this part sounds really cool! If you’re down reach out and we can make something happen…

Tom, total newbie here, I just did few fiberglass parts for my old motorcycle, but I think a friend of mine that used to do carbon fiber for nautical items used a gloss first layer of resin called gelcoat. It's thicker and gives it that deep glassy smooth finish to the parts

Thanks for another fun video Tom. For the last step instead of clear coating with resin how about using 2-part automotive clear coat? You can get the “touchup” spray cans for cheap. They’re crystal clear and hard wearing.

Very cool idea but I was disappointed by the fact that the carbon is basically just aesthetic - there’s still a 3D printed part behind it… so maybe a fully 3DP stealthburner would be the same, functionally. It could’ve been a cool idea to make some other parts - like the rails - out of this process, then remove the 3DP part from the middle. Maybe a follow up video.

Erm if u want it just for looks why not just use a sticker? Going through all that effort and money just for the looks seems a huge waste.

Would it not be better to spray a lacquer on the finished part rather than trying to touch it up with resin?

Carbon fiber is amazing, i just cant get over how much waste there is. The bags, the mold.

Why not make a negative of that tool and now your profile is convex instead concave and then you put the nice layer last it should help with the vacuum, and back will fit better on rest of the assembly

what about making a two-part mold that keeps the shape well pressed?

Fiberglass isn't actually heavier than carbon fiber . CF starts at about 90g/m2 (yes, there are lighter ones as well), where FG starts at around 28-30g/m2. As the fibers of FG are less stiff you can also get a nicer surface finish with way less pinholes than CF, although you lose the CF wow factor. Strength to weight ratio of CF is much better than FG (of course), but in this case it doesn't really matter. You have sped up the curing time of the resin by holding the cup from the bottom and heating it up with your hand. And yes-it does make a difference! To get a better outside quality of the part you can brush resin first (you can heat the resin a little to make it flow better, but it will set faster), wait for it to set a little, but still be tacky and then follow your process. That layer could be then polished to get better quality of the finished part due to the additional outside resin layer. Another tip- when you are using a real vacuum pump and don't have the professional connector, put the pneumatic tube in a piece of sponge (kitchen one cut in half works well), then it sucks the air out more evenly.

I do this for years for automotive stuff, using 3d printed molds, really awesome especially the "forged carbon" process.

You can also do chopped carbon fiber compression molding as well. ("Forged Carbon Fiber") It's quite a bit messier, but you don't need to rely on the vacuum bag that way, and the printed part can be doing the compression work.

Ah the good stuff! I like to tape the CFK with tape and then cut it so the edges of the mats stay in place. Also pretty overlooked is NFK natural fibers that are used mostly in Ski making because they have a nice flexibility. Together with organic resin its slightly more environmentlly friendly, even if its still Sondermüll.

Interesting video. When we needed to make repairs to fiberglass aircraft, works on boats or whatever, we would put a piece of plastic down, put the fabric down, pour the resin on it then another piece of plastic and use a plastic squeegee to spread it into the fabric. Its easier to cut a shape when the fabric is wet. Peel one of the pieces of plastic off, put it in the mould (wet side down) and using a wooden stick or plastic stick push everything where it needs to be. Remove the second piece of plastic, make sure nothing shifted out of place then vacuum bag and suck it down! Very good video. Thank you.

Recently saw another video showing parts smoothing with baby powder and uv resin. It came out super smooth after a few coatings. Might be something to check into to prep the molds.

FYI, you could probably line the mould with a thin layer of latex. There is some special latex for vacuum forming which is designed to release. It can be applied with a brush and should make the resin not stick to the mould while retaining all the details. Great vid. Very helpful.

Why not print the mold in negative..this way you can lay the layers over the top of it...instead of concave...make it convex, this way the vacuum back holds the part to the mold rather than inside the mold. Large carbon fiber works well in a mold like that...smaller ones it might be easier to do it over the top Use car wax as a release agent

It would be interesting to see someone do it like in the auto industry. They heat form the polymer fiber mesh before infusing resin so the fibers stay aligned.

"let glue dry" Laura would be proud.

You should try out forged fiber. Doesn't have the same weave look but also looks super cool in its own way and should be easier since you won't have to vacuum bag.

Good call on the rename for the time being, Thomas! Your name still being there is great for searching. I still find your videos by your name, but I like Made with Layers.

Why not spray it with clear coat instead as last coat?

How do you clean the brushes? Water or alcohol? And do you bring the chosen liquid to the recycling station?

Very interesting! I think it would look a bit better if you block sanded it afterwards and then polished it. Like that you get sharper lines which will make it look a little bit better imo :)

you could've printed the mould with ABS, then removed all the layer lines with acetone, then no need for sanding or coating it in resin

I love how you show the fails as well as the successes. I wonder if it would work if you use another 3d printed part on top of the carbon fiber instead of all the cloth, if its about breathing air you can make it meshed, so it would go mold > carbon fiber > part. it would help a lot with the pressing the corners and angles.

Does anyone happen to know if this Aurapol PLA has more VOC's than normal PLA? It looks good, I might try it out.

Ein Glück kein Bambu A1 Mini 👍

It's the release agent that makes the epoxy bunch up and not to flow out to a even surface for you. Even if you clean the part Wich acetone you will have to sand the surface to get a good adhesion of the next layer of resin.

Maybe using negative moulds and having a thin silicone layer on top of them to sandwich ... the silicone would require its own moulds too but the ease of use and reusablilty would outweigh the initial work if mass production was the end goal

i feel like smoothing spray paint like filler primer would work fine for that smoothing step. maybe cheaper and more available than UV resin

As a person who made molds before 3D printing was affordable, you might want to make a buck. So a 3D printed too part, so when you vacuum seal the bag, both sides apply pressure to the carbon fiber so you don't get wonky corners

Since looking at a 3D printer for hours on end while printing is mesmerizing adding a bit of bling makes it even nicer.

Tom, good job. at one point the carbon fiber part was looking very attractive. Very interesting process. Keep on making :)

Be careful with those dry fibers. I used to keep some PVA or paper tape to put where I would cut them. Also for finishing the parts: get something like a shower head and use wet sanding only: as long as the sanded powder stays wet it will wash down the drain and not go inside your lungs. Word of warning: the fibers you put into the air can stay in a room for days. Get some proper ventilation!

well this was freaking cool. but now I also want to do a stupid thing and print a voron with that Aurapol filament... also, loved the Laura Kampf eater egg)

Well, "rather cheap" not so much dude. :) But yesss definitely CFRP is a mesmerizing material to feel. I managed to get outta mold a hair ring, whatscalled. It's not the final piece tho, i had some scraps of tissue for tests. It's light, but lighter than you'd expect. It's stiff, but it flexes how it has to but has an unexpected torsional rigidity. And finally, its gloss to touch but squishy outside bc of the foam core and the thin outer layer. Squishy like a hair ring should feel. I'm pretty satisfied, I'll let it gloss and smile. If you might need one, it's like 30 bucks and I'm gifting the labor time, otherwise it would be a 100 and I'm cheap. Would this stop me ever from crafting many other useless CFRP craps, just because hopefully one day someone will pay me to make his car's wing or so? Guess what. ;)

I'm sure you have some folks who work in CF and I myself have a slightly different experience working with prepreg CF on race cars and maybe I'm missing some nuance but once huge thing I noticed is at 14:40 you're adding layers to wet resin. I was a bit surprised to see this even work but I kind of want to A/B test it. My hypothesis is you left considerable performance on the table. The resin in this hand lamination process in my own experience mind you is meant to cure to it's "sticky" stage I'll call it to keep it 10,000 foot. it takes much more time but the point is to ensure maximum property effect of the layers. This would replace the need as well to key the surfaces which i also noticed isn't something you were doing that in the least affected the resin to ttake hold of the material. In my experience I've seen on average the 120 grit be the acceptable keying to be done. e.g., 14:48 i noticed that pool of resin. you've now just created an aritificial gap for some reason between materials. after your post processing it'll be small but it's there. allow resin to work the material between layers to the point of touching it and still getting residue string off, your layup is MUCH more precise and bond intra-weave layer more robust. just my $0.02 - well done though this is great stuff and expands how people think about using this stuff for other projects which i maintain is so incredibly underrated for ANY hobbyist.

Might look at the Ramy RC channel. He has been making large scale RC models of airliners for a few years now evolving a 3D printed mold and mostly hand laid CF process. Also, Mike Patey's channel where he designs and fabricates full scale airplanes using many CF fabrication techniques.

Hi there .. any intentions to review the Prusa XL ? im really looking forward to buy one but @ that price i can build a Voron 2.4 350 Or get 2 BambuLab X1C

While the initial investment may be fairly low I found that, at least in my case, it grew exponentially as I was constantly trying to improve the strength and quality of my finished pieces. After less that 6 months I had a vacuum bagging setup and now, after a little under 14 months, I have an autoclave and resin infusion system. That being said, it's still a great hobby and being as how I autocross and sim race it has.practical benefits

Interesting, but maybe a bit useless, no?! Do not forget that carbon fibres are 1) highly toxic especially when breathing the dust of it, and 2) not recyclable at all! Therefore, using it for cosmetic changes is in my opinion kind of irresponsible. I'd prefer false carbon fiber tape instead if I just need to make a part look "better".

Having worked on a bunch of carbon fiber projects I can say that it’s a pretty unforgiving material and if you don’t have a really well crafted methodology, then you’re going to have a lot of failures, & frustration. Though people are attracted to it for its use in luxury automotives, it’s strength to weight ratio, unless your product needs to be made out of carbon fiber, you’re better using a fake vinyl wrap that you’ll be much happier with. Real carbon fiber in addition to the aforementioned difficulties, it’s also quite hazardous to work with from resin toxicity, tendency to splinter, micro dust toxicity from sanding.

17:32 Nice Laura Kampf branded Let Blue Dry^tm block. I have no idea what you built but it looks awesome. I never thought you could make your own vacuum sealed bag so I'm absolutely looking into that

Your parts are looking amazing for a beginner. But there is issue with you molds. Carbon parts can't go around sharp corners. You'll need an radius of a few mm. this increase the parts quality by a fair amount. And for parts, that are mostly for looks and not the strengh of Carbon is needed. Use glasfiber as core material. Its cheaper and not noticable from the outside. Carbon and Glasfiber, have nearly the same weigth by density.

What kind of LED light do you use and what was the exposure time to cure the resin layer? I am struggling with a smoothing process based on photopolymer resin, and suspect I need a lamp with more power or angle, or just a different light source. The lamp is sadly very out of focus at about 5:03.

Instead of applying a second coat of resin spray paint the part with 1-3 layers of clear coat. It will fill in the gaps, spread out much more evenly and prevent your resin from becoming yellowish from UV.

It does beg the question, would compressive forces rather than vacuum work better? Not sure if the plastic will take the pressure of a light hydraulic press or not by squeezing the resin between two hard surfaces..

hi Thomas, one quick question. how do you model the negative mould? did u model it from scratch or using a positive model to create? im using fusion 360, i was hoping the software can do most of the work instead of creating negative mould model from scratch. thanks in advance.

Instead of sanding the PLA, why didn't you subject it to a chemical vapor of chloroform? It perfectly evens out the imperfections and can be done in a very controlled manner.

definitely wouldve done better with a compression mold and chopped fiber, but nonetheless an informative and amazingly well put together video.

The easy composites videos make it look so much easier, it is good to get a more realistic demo :)

I wonder if everyone I have seen on RU-vid do carbine fiber stuff has learned it from watching easy composites videos on RU-vid? They have had videos for a decade showing how to do this stuff. I think they are responsible for a million people making stuff in carbon fiber.

The process is interesting, but the result was a bit under the expectation. I don't mean the actual technical layering result (that looks enough fine to me) but It is almost a purely decorative part while I expected you made actually a lighter version of the existing part. There is so much plastic that could have been removed before sticking the carbon fiber part that would make this part lighter.

Wouldn't it work better to apply the resin to the FDM print, then sand the resin? That would ensure that the resin would adhere to all the nooks and crannies and you'll have a much smoother finish. Yes? No? Also, brushing the resin in against the grain of the layers should result in a smoother finish than brushing along the layer lines, i.e. less sanding required.

Vacuum bag assisted hand lamination is not the best method for this application. If you want perfect edges in a mold that has a complex design and lots of sharp edges, prepreg would be the preferred method. Unfortunately for prepreg you need an aluminium mold and at the minimum a curing oven because the curing temp for prepreg is much higher.

All through the lay-up sequence I kept waiting for the Xyla Foxlin cameo, because it felt a lot like one of her videos. :)

Forged Carbon Fibre seems more easy to make and you can replace whole part make it lighter not just decoration, also carbon fiber need special coating according to Easy Composites Ltd

Hi, Thomas! You have your exposure or contrast way too high. Whites looks completely blown out on your video.

use a 2-part mold with drains and a vacuum bag it. Also, you can spray the carbon and with super 77 then use Vail fabric on the back

Top cost didn't work because you didn't key the part to give the top coat a chance to bond. Probably should have been cleaned and degreased better as well. On the whole though, I think it turned out pretty good.

Where can one find the design for the Buggy Wing? Really would like to try a CF wing on my 10th scale race buggies

I think that with this small part for low production will be better and more efficiency if you had print a positive and a negative mold and press between them the fabric (like a sandwich ) i think will be more faster as a procedure and more economic with the same results maybe worth it next time to try this approach although the vacuum bug method it is the professional way

Reason you got the uneven last layer of epoxy. You need to wipe off the surface with warm water and a scotch brite spunge in order to remove some recidue that the former epoxy sweats out. Then sand with very fine sand paper before putting on the final layer of epoxy.

Yikes, 20 min is a pretty short pot life IMO. I would shoot for closer to an hour, it really sucks to work with resin after it starts tacking up.

PleaSE I NEED HElp I got a Ender 3 printer a year ago and one day the screen went blue i then flashed it with the ender 3 pro firmware on acident and the motors would lock up i tryed to get the ender 3 firmware and it blue screened again now i cant flash it please help

Don't think I'll ever be doing something like this, butt it was a neat process to watch

Possibly rough up the surface of the clear coat then buff it with a rubbing compound/polish application to get it smoother?

What if you tried using a 2-piece “sandwich?” Could use clamps to provide even pressure

I did this a lot for model plane parts .first off all just stop sanding the molds .heavy coat of pva and good .sanding the carbon is faster sn easier then danding the mold . If you dont have vaccum focus on forged carbon parts .rings are a good thing to start on .

Why not printer an inner and outer mold? Just giver the inner mold plenty of relief/clearance for the thickens of the material, resin and other fabric.

Great video! For the final step I would use a 2K Clear Coat. Definitely use a respirator when using 2K Clear.