Using Carbon Fibre

[paul67]

Just a thought I have noticed in some factorys making parts out or carbon fibre they vac the air out, has anybody thought of using 1 of those vac units that are advertised on the tv for clothes could they be used to do the same job.
paul67

[ProStreet R/T]

Uhhh i'm failing to see the nature of your question here... Are you wanting to make carbon panels and such at home? Have you researched the numerous different types of carbon available? What would you want to build out of it?

btw, no it would never work, not nearly strong enough and just entertaining the thought tells me you should refrain from playing with carbon fiber in general. Carbon isn't something easily molded at home, usually requiring a large oven/furnace to cure and so forth.

[Blown353]

Cheapest and easiest vacuum pump at home is to gut an old refridgerator.

You can make perfectly acceptable "cosmetic only" carbon parts at home via resin infusion using a room temp or low-temp curing 2-part resin and a vacuum pump. Buy the dry fiber, pick a resin, and go at it. If you do a search on google for "DIY Carbon Fiber" you will find tons of excellent resources.

Making structural carbon fiber parts however is an entirely different matter best left to experts with the know-how and facilities to do it properly. I'm a mechanical engineer who works in aerospace and deals with fiberglass/kevlar/quartz/spectra/carbon/etc composites on a daily basis, so I'm not shooting from the hip here. It's an art form in and of itself that requires some big dollar machinery and know-how. It's not like buying a chunk of metal and machining it, there are a LOT of pitfalls and opportunities to build catastrophic failures into the end product.

And back to your original question, no, a home vacuum cleaner will not draw a "deep" enough vacuum for acceptable results. Ideally you want to be pulling >26 in/hg for acceptable surface finish and void content results in a resin-infused system, and the better the vacuum, the better.

Troy

[paul67]

No structural parts it things like matting over a centre concul, dash panel , stuff just for show, will do a google search thanks.
paul 67

[astroracer]

Just be aware that carbon/kevlar/graphite composites are extremely nasty things to be breathing. You do not want to be inhaling any of the sanding, cutting or grinding dust.
I had looked into making some parts for my truck a few tears ago and decided to stay away from this stuff. If you want to invest in a full body suit forced air respirator you would be well protected but it just wasn't worth it to me... Fiber glass is bad enough but this stuff will tear you up if you aren't careful.
Mark