Carbon fiber tips?

I've never played with carbon fiber before, because, you know, GRM. 

But somehow I find myself with more scrap carbon than scrap aluminum, so I'm planning to bring this rendering of a dash into the world tomorrow. 

Any tips for cutting this stuff? I know it's bad for you, so I'm planning to do it outside. Does it drill with normal drill bits? Can I cut it with a cutoff wheel? Anything else I'm missing? Does it chip?

And does anybody want to bet whether or not it's actually lighter than aluminum by the time it's all said and done?

Thanks!

I spent years as a composites trimmer for the aerospace Industry.

Respirators and well ventilated areas only. good eye protection. Unfinished edges are like razors and will cut to the bone. One of the first jobs we did out of the autoclave was called delethalizing and it was simply blunting that hard edge. If you get any splinters, they WILL get infected if you don't remove them.

Regular drills will work, you can also use Dreamers, they work a little better, if you can find them.

To prevent blowout, sandwich your workplace between two pieces of scrap material.

For cutting we used to use a diamond carbide cutoff wheel on a 3 inch due grinder.

Carbide hole saws will work too.

The bulk of the trimming we did was with high RPM hand routers with 1/4 inch carbide burrs.

This stuff sucks to work with. It's not as bad as Kevlar, but it's way worse than fiberglass.

And nobody calls it Carbon Fibre until they're trying to sell it to you. Until then it's just graphite.

When sanding the finished edges just use 80 grit alum/ox sand paper on a block or folded over itself.

Scotch Brite pads can work too, but keep your leather gloves on. The open cell nature of scotch brite can snag little splinters and shove them right up into your hands.

I imagine an oscillating multi tool would work well. It's great on fiberglass, although I've only ever used a dremel with a cutoff wheel on carbon, which also worked well

It's fun to play with but not when it "bites back". Go aluminum and save yourself the cursing when, not if, you get a splinter in your finger. Oh, and it stinks too when cutting and drilling into it. The weight savings isn't worth it in my life.

gixxeropa said:

I imagine an oscillating multi tool would work well. It's great on fiberglass, although I've only ever used a dremel with a cutoff wheel on carbon, which also worked well

Yes an oscillating tool will work and reduce the amount of dust created. We used an actual bone saw/cast saw for trimming carbon on wind tunnel models. Anything carbide tipped/bladed will work. High speed steel will work, but cutting edges will dull quickly.

Do watch for those splinters and sharp edges.

One thing to really keep in mind is you are working with a material that has a lot of plastic/epoxy in it, but the carbon is a very good conductor. Watch out for inadvertent grounds/shorts with your wiring.

Your design looks like it's built up from a few pieces. Make sure to sand the mating edges/faces if you are going to epoxy them together. Otherwise rivets or screws will work fine, but add more weight than boded parts.

Another question, for a multitool or other saw, would a carbide metal cutting blade work best or maybe more of a wood cutting/general purpose blade?

I do a lot of carbon fiber repair work. I start off with fiberglass and then add a little black pigment. Much easier to work with and cheaper.

Cutting actual CF I use a whizwheel mostly. It works fine and doesn't leave a burr or anything.
 

Thanks for the advice, everybody! I'll post the results ASAP.

I feel like with most hobbyist automotive applications, fiberglass or aluminum gets you 80% there with 20% of the effort and cost. I don't understand the modern obsession with carbon fiber on racecars. It doesn't even look cool (to me).

In this application, aluminum would suffice. You will not notice 42 grams of weight or whatever on your racecar. And sendcutsend would do a nice job with those bent flanges and anodizing. 

Oh, I completely agree, and this project is purely because I'm running low on aluminum--but I've had this carbon scrap in my shed for years now. If all goes well, I'll make a dash without having to leave my property or give SendCutSend money, and I'll clear out some storage space. Bonus points if it looks cool or is any lighter (it won't be once the hardware is factored in).

In reply to Tom Suddard :

How are you going to make the bends? Or is this just the front panel?

Here's my plan. Aluminum brackets, carbon-fiber panel. 

Success!

Dang, that looks great! Also the googly eyes on the CNC router are still funny no matter how many times I see them. 

Holy cow that looks amazing. Tell me about those fancy bending dies you have in your vice. 

Thanks guys!
 

https://a.co/d/eFZB4DH
Those are just a cheap set of bending dies from Amazon--$36 and you too could bend sheetmetal. 

What was the final weight??

14.3 oz. Could have been lighter, but I decided to leave the aluminum sides intact for now--easier to mount extra stuff, Go-Pros, etc. 

In reply to Tom Suddard :

Oof...I missed the pic cause I was too busy looking at the rear brackets! Lol

Gosh dang that's cool!

Also, there's a seller out of VA that sells CF made at their plant for pretty cheap on ebay

I got a 4x36" piece for about 20 bucks shipped? It was shockingly cheap, I felt.

Tell me about the button switches? Are they lit up? How do you tell what works what?

Just in it for the look? Paint the object black or very dark gunmetal. Lay a drawer liner over the object. Spray paint the liner/object with lighter silver. A-day! Instant 'carbon fibre.

Appleseed said:

Just in it for the look? Paint the object black or very dark gunmetal. Lay a drawer liner over the object. Spray paint the liner/object with lighter silver. A-day! Instant 'carbon fibre.

Or get some vinyl wrap off Amazon.

I worked in high performance composites over a decade. Most of the retail stuff is junk, even back then most of the commercial, and a lot of the very popular product (made by the company that bought us) was junk, and manufactured for looks as the main priority. It's not carbon fiber, but a carbon fiber composite. You're basically working with plastic with some fiber in it. The other part of the composite being a thermoset plastic that holds it all together. It could be epoxy, but it could be polyester, the same stuff you would use to do body work.

Process it like it's plastic.