Cuttng your own Carbon fiber pieces

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jon2

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I am debating whether to buy replacement pieces for my LST or cut them out and have a few to have as back up. Both my top plates on the LST are getting worn. To buy the pieces are about 27 bux. Not sure if anyone has done it but I think I would save a heck of lot more by just buying a sheet with the spec width and just cut it out myself.

The questions I have are:

How do you cut Carbon fiber without having it shred?

Is there a certain type Carbon fiber to buy?

anyone?
 
I just use a diamond bit, and go real slow.
 
jon2 said:
How do you cut Carbon fiber without having it shred?

Nice and easy using a high speed cutting wheel, the more rpms the better.
 
What I did once was cut out the piece a little larger then needed with a coping saw. then used a dremmel with a sanding drum to bring it down to size. after all that I coted the edges with CA to keep them from fraying.
 
bustedgears said:
I just use a diamond bit, and go real slow.

I second that. I've done a couple custom CF pieces myself and have had the best results with a Dremel and a diamond bit. CF will dull most types of cutting tools relatively easily. Diamond is a great choice.
 
Make sure you wear goggles bro... CF likes to fly when being cut, and hurts 10 times worse than CCA in the eye...
 
And wear a mask. That CF dust can't be good for ya.
 
I have recently made a few carbon fiber pieces for my crawler project. I used a diamond cut off disc to get it close to where I wanted it, then I used a sanding drum on my dremel set as high as the dremmel will go, and sanded the edges down. It worked great! What thickness carbon fiber sheet are you going with? That stuff aint as cheap as you think its gonna be, for real carbon fiber I think you are going to be surprised what a decent size sheet will cost you. Definately use eye protection and a mask, this is no joke, this stuff will have fine abrasive irritating powder on everything, and the last place you want it is in your eyes or lungs.
 
I use a dremel router table with a carbide strait bit / sanding drum. After its cut to size I use a 1/4 round dremel router bit to finish all the edges. It rounds off the edges perfectly so they dont chip. Then I CA them.

The 1/4 round is a great tip to use on any CF part.

Not only is CA dust nasty, it causes cancer.
 
Use tape on both sides you want to cut....it helps reduce the fine stuff and the splintering....

as most already said I do slightly larger cuts and sand down/ seal w/ CA glue....don't get cheap CF either...the more dense the weave and layers makes it easier to shape too...the cheap stuff just disintigrates sometimes....
 
Well its going to be 2.5 mm thick. I want to get a nice sheet to make a few and then possibly make another main chassis plate. Who knows what the diff between cheap and quality Crabon FIber?Heck I thought Carbon Fiber was Carbon fiber.
 
dangit Jon, you're givin me the itch to start fabbin some shock towers. I still got some 3mm CF leftover I been wanting to use. too bad I don't have time for that sort of project. I'll keep it in mind though. Thanks for getting my gears turning! :thumbup:
 
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