Very interesting video, but the fabrication of carbon fibre parts hardly was disclosed in detail. I didn't grasp how you arranged bonding two shells! Very interesting!
@@krazed0451 I am very well awared of all approaches towards fabrication of any type of plastic fiber parts. But didn't get a clue how authors did bonding of two shells. I know how to do it, in reality. But for the sake of tutorial purposes how they did those works! I do watch all videos with mere accuracy, but sometimes coaches barely disclose all secrets!
I have been watching this channel for over a decade. Never built anything out CF but its still one of my favorite channels and the video I click to watch fist on my subscriptions page.
These videos are what every company should be doing in terms of demoing their products. I've been watching your stuff ever since I discovered this channel. I do not have a need for making my own CF molds and parts at this point in time but there may come a time in the future when that need arises and you can be sure I'll be shopping here.
Thanks very much, that’s great feedback and tells us we’re getting it right. I’m sure you can imagine how much work goes into these videos and we often wonder how much interest there will be in these quite technical specialisms but it doesn’t seem to put everyone off!
@@easycompositestv As someone who's made a few TH-cam videos myself and working on more, I know it's not easy making videos like this. Very time consuming especially at the quality you guys deliver at and it is appreciated. Keep doing what you're doing! =)
Hey man, just started uni and I think I am going to work with the composites section of the formula student team thanks to you guys! Either that or the FEA/optimization of structures section.
We strongly encourage you to do so. We just hired a brilliant graduate engineer to join our team, one of the things that stood out for us was his involvement with his university FS team. We wish you all the best with it 😀.
Superb as usual Paul ; ) Even though I now live in France, I still order my materials from you. Very professional and helpful company. Highly recommended. TURK
Thanks for the comment and the continued business. Good job we opened our Netherlands subsidiary! Hopefully you still get great service from there to France 😀.
I’ve been watching your channel for years and really enjoy the content if like many, I will likely never make any composite parts. But if ever I do, I know where to start! Thanks as always for sharing.
I suppose it's a bonus if the casual viewer finds our content engaging as well as those looking for more technical instructional guides. Thanks for watching.
Not sure why, but you are the best Brit. presenter on TH-cam. Most of the Brits. sound like they are eating their bangers and mash. Why are some Brits extremely well spoken while so many others leave the average Yank wondering what language is being mangled.
Haha, well, we hope you enjoy it. This one's pretty niche content, tackling a fairly technical subject. We often wonder how much wider appeal some of these more detailed subjects will have but hopefully there's enough to hold people's interest! Let us know :)
@@easycompositestvThe videos serve as a great way to transition new composites users to the industry and your product. Haas Automation has done a similar education content to educate its users and drive sales. Please continue. Very few working in composites and we need more.
@@easycompositestv The edge cases are excellent to understand more of the strengths and weaknesses of the process. It's niche...but it quickly explains how 'if I wanted to make my own molds I would need to consider thermal expansion, and whether the mold would survive the curing process'. Basic projects might not need this level of rigour, but knowing where that line in the sand is really helps decide on a process.
Finally! I was looking for this kind of video, for my thesis. Your mould design video was extremely helpful in designing the split moulds, now this gives me a more enhanced understanding of how this can be done! It would be of great help if you can do some split mould videos in future. Thanks!
@@UKBUILT Victor is also one-off. Wish you good luck, with your one off- vehicle. I wonder, one day, we can observe such a masterpiece in reality. I do want to see it! Hope, you conceived all tips and tricks of fiber plastic technologies!
@@Abrora77 Hey, yeah I like the Aston martin Victor 👍 all of my planned builds are all rear engine at the moment 🤔 Although I would love a Mercedes C126 sec 🤫 they keep going up in value. I hope so too 😆 I have worked with composites for a few years but it still it can get messy 😂 Thanks for your support 😎👍
This is another fine piece of work. And, thanks for selling the bushings. Composites fabrication requires a wide range of unique tools and techniques, and you guys seem to be uniquely focused on getting your customers successfully through the entire process to final result. I do agree with some of the other commenters, however, that a brief glimpse of the final part production (with, I assume, internal vacuum bags) would have been good, along with a link in the corner to your video showing how it's actually done. I believe that was the video in which you produced a carbon fiber bicycle frame -- shot over something like a year!
Hi Ian, Thanks for your comments. We have covered the process of laminating complex parts like this in a number of other videos and wanted this to me a more focused concise video and we are conscious about repeating content. We'll make note of it for future videos that you guys like to see the more of the processes followed through.
@@easycompositestv Paul rowing on the lake last year = follow through! Honestly, your videos are so so good, I think we like just watching you have fun.
Love the video! Could you do one video about how to clean all the elements used in order to creat fiber carbon pieces (brushes, air guns...), all this things that are not seen on camera. Also how to optimize all the materials in order to be the most efficient in terms of production costs. Thanks!
Another hypnotizing video, thank you EC! Will you also be showing how you made the internal bladder for molding the part that was made, or whatever other secret you used to make a semi-hollow part in a closed 2-part mold?
Quality as per usual guys . Just be careful using a mains grinder on carbon fibre everyone , I’ve had a few ‘ tingles’ when the dust gets sucked into the gubbins . Still alive ,,,,, I just blow it out regularly. 😵💫😃
I love your videos so much - I have learned a lot from you guys! If I may, just two quick questions: 1. Regarding the difference in CTE between the tooling prepregs and the epoxy plug: From your experience - Does the plug expand uniformly in all directions (so an increase in mould size can be accurately predicted and removed via plug scaling)? 2. The flanges: Do they help in eliminating warping on larger moulds through the perimeter they create around the mould? Thank you so much as usual!
Thanks for the comment Kevin, glad to hear that you find the videos useful. The tooling board has very low CTE but yes, any expansion/contraction would be uniform. Flanges certainly can help to stiffen up moulds, anything where the profile changes direction with a corner will add rigidity. Think how a piece of paper with corrugated folds is much stiffer than a flat sheet.
Always great videos. For molds for making multiple parts I have wondered if it wouldn't be great to make the mold from solid steel and polish it to optical finish. Presumably dimensionally extremely precise and eternal tool life and produce optical finish parts without post processing. It shouldn't be particularly costly to mill out a mold of this size. You could have two molds that fit so well together that you can't see the seam.
Metal moulds are quite common in the industry, especially for higher volume applications. You would still likely have a small amount of flash to trim off the finished part, either with metal moulds or composite based moulds. However, flashing is quick and easy to remove.
Absolutely, core materials are something that we want to cover soon, it's quite a complex topic but hopefully we will be able to make it 'easy'! thanks for taking the time to comment!
Having done 3 videos now about forged carbon fibre, and with so many other topics to cover, it might be a little while before we revisit forged carbon again but if we have a new take on it, or some new materials or processes that improve working with it then it could happen. Directly 3D printed prepreg moulds is definitely something we plan to cover in a future tutorial :)
@@easycompositestv for low temps like that (for a mould) u could even try to use petg-cf (first 65*C cure) - yet i tested peek/pekk (with carbon fibre too) etc for high temps and they can work too , straight up to 150*C before much issues
When I worked in composites we used nylon dowels for joining patterns and moulds, so they didn't need release agent. I kinda miss working with the stuff... I'd probably give it a go again tbh. I'll have to re-polish my CV...
Nylon would be a great option for bushes if the moulds were used at room temperature. For these high temp moulds, designed for processing prepregs, a metal bush is required.
As always great video, now please follow-up with making the part :) another video, core materials, honeycomb etc. I think foilboard front wing would be cool (mold, split tooling core material, loads of information to cover). An in depth video wanted, this 15 quick tutorial is cool, but don't be affraid to make one that's like an hour!
I'm amazed that the prepreg takes the surface of the pattern so seamlessly! Oh i think your subtitle service might not have technical writing skills, i think they wrote "maximum surface temperature" instead of "service temperature".
Hi, thanks for another excellent video! Would you be willing to show us how to do mold-less resin infusion directly over on a 3D printed core? I mean 3D printing the core of the required part, sealing it, wrapping it in layers of fabric, stacking the consumables, and finally infusing. While this method does not produce a smooth surface finish, it can be a great technique when doing one-off designs or prototyping, and making a mold is too time and cost prohibitive. We would really love to find out how to do it properly.
Hi Justinas, Overlaminating with a mouldess technique is probably best just using a hand laminating technique as we show in our mouldess construction tutorial th-cam.com/video/0Yaggj16S08/w-d-xo.html The problem with introducing infusion to a former like this is that it creates issues with core stability, core porosity, difficulty in laying up the fabric and also tends to distort the fibres as the vacuum is drawn. For anything which doesn't warrant a mould then we find this method is sufficient and can still produce good quality prototype parts.
@@easycompositestv Appreciate your response! Thing is, hand layup results in a higher weight and can be difficult to lay, bag and vacuum in time for very large parts (where splitting the layup into sections is not an option), even with the slowest epoxy hardeners, whereas resin infusion is a much more relaxed process and can result in significantly lower weights. I have built several parts this way, and the final result was very much acceptable. However, issues you mentioned are indeed valid, which is why I was hoping you might offer some advice on how to work around them and minimize their effect, particularly on properly sealing the core without adding excess weight, the arrangement of infusion and vacuum lines all around the part, and supporting the part during infusion in a way that doesn't result in surface imprints or "choking" the resin flow.
Hi Steve, in that section, we’re sanding down the CFRP that sticks up around the mould bushes after the alignment pin has been removed. As we grind the reinforcement down to the bush, the sparks are just the grinder finding the steel bush. They’re case hardened steel though so a touch from a sanding disc doesn’t really touch them 👍.
Great video, question : don't you run a risk of distorting the mould putting it under full vacuum on the first curing cycle relying on the epoxy board to maintain the shape without twisting?
I’m trying to make a carbon hydrofoil wing with supplies from your site. The top and bottom surface are both very critical to be precise, so I have a top and bottom mold. I plan to have 4mm walls of carbon top and bottom (many layers). The wing is only ~14mm thick at the widest. How would you suggest getting the pressure on the carbon? Getting a bag inside for pressure is not easy because it’s so small and there are not ports to the outside world, although I could add one if required. Can you use expanding foam for pressure? How precise can you make the thickness with a piston molded part (like the forged carbon example on a previous vid)?
Depending on the exact shape, you may be able to use the tubular bagging films and as long as you have enough excess, when you pull the vacuum, the bag will pull against the detail. For very tight features that are impossible to get in by hand, it can be possible to use some silicone type materials to act as an intensifier to help in those areas.
For a simple U shape, a simple one piece mould would generally work. More complex shapes or where insufficient draught angle exists for easy release, may benefit from a two piece mould.
I didn't quite get how you laminated those inserts. That seems a bit more involved to me than it appears to be to you who knows the procedure. Maybe you could make another video on how to laminate small features like that properly? That would be a great help.
The laminating around the bushes was done just as shown in the video. There is nothing more complex to it, as the pre-preg laminate will lock into the features on the bush.
Yes we show this technique in a few of our videos , the split mould for complex tubes is one th-cam.com/video/bBbOUDDJv4Q/w-d-xo.html The air box is another with a slightly different shape th-cam.com/video/cQ1Q4XmItN0/w-d-xo.html
3:40 carbon fiber shutters? You guys are showing off at this point! 😁 Kidding. On a serious note, can the same clamping bushes be used on the part itself? Say, that drone thing you've produced needs such a feature to attach parts on every corner. I remember you've done this in a tutorial once, but is there more to know than simply insert them into the carbon material real tight?
Haha, point taken on the carbon shutters but, as we manufacture sheet on large scale, it’s a material we have more of than most things, plus we know it can take the temp and it’s reliable to release from! As to your question, there would be no reason you couldn’t use these bushes in the component itself, other than that they’re designed for quite a thick laminate. Although it’s not unheard of, a carbon part with 4mm+ laminate would be unusual, on smaller parts at least and so in most cases you’d probably better with a small block of aluminium or similar, which can be drilled (and tapped if necessary). It’s straightforward to embed something like this within the laminate.
Hi Paul, Love your videos, been watching for years. I am based in South Africa so unfortunately not easy (certain products can't airfreight) or cost effective to get materials from Easy Composites :(. I make prepreg carbon fibre electric guitars... have seen that the latest bicycle technology for moulding is EPS moulding. Very little info available on this...would love to see you do a video on this? Cheers Roger
The amount of machines and tools used for this part ashamed my little garage-workshop 😢 p.s. video request: connecting carbon fiber tubes/parts and aluminium cnc machined parts with your Vm100 vudu glue
Hi William, we have looked at expanding range of prepregs and are constantly assessing what we stock based on demand. It may be something we look at again if it becomes viable for us to do so and certainly isn't out of the question.
We have covered something similar in our bonnet making series where we add a gelcoat to the surface of the mould th-cam.com/video/YWbGx_BJVvM/w-d-xo.html
hey im working on a new gaming mouse I really want to make out of carbon fiber. is there anywhere I could reach out to you to talk about it if your ok with it? Id just love some input if you think its possible at all or if I'm just wasting my time. I've been watching your videos forever and have made a number of carbon fiber parts following your tutorials and they are absolutely amazing.
No, the sealer is just to close the porosity of the board. For a non-porous surface, like aluminium, you would only need the CR1 chemical release agent.
quick question, so i bought carbon fiber sheet and i want to make forged carbon fiber flakes can i just cut that sheet to make forged carbon? Sounds stupid but i just wanna make sure i wont mess up anything 😅
I have a good question and challenge. I need to make a two part mold for a helicopter cyclic and collective. I only have a short window to try these when the aircrafts are in the hanger for a 750 or 1500hour maintenance. I am not allowed to disasable them to make the moulds and I will have to do that inside the cockpit without making a mess or having the risk of damaging and compromising other components, painel or avionics. Any ideas how I could try tacking this challenge? Would you be able to make tutorial for a similar application of complex ergonomic mould inside a small and narrow cabin without putting other expensive parts at risk? 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
With all those strict rules, a finite time frame and a safety critical application, and without having seen the component myself, I think that one possible solution which would definitely be safe and non-destructive would be to 3D scan the original component. You could then use this mesh to CAD the component, and then design the tooling in CAD off the component. There are some good videos around on 3D scanning and reverse engineering CAD from meshes. After that you could follow the steps from our earlier video on. CAD tooling, and this one.
@@easycompositestv i thought about 3d scanning too but gave up after looking up the prices. I will try my best to take measurements with the tools i need and try my best to make as close as possible
@@bluntzera8238 Creality Raptor is comparatively inexpensive and the blue laser mode is what may provide the best outcome for this use, from what i heard. They also have much cheaper models which lack the laser mode, even very cheap ones. Also look around, you may be able to rent a professional 3D scanner in your region rather than purchase it. iPhone Pro has Lidar which has been used for 3D scanning. Perhaps your friends can loan you one. Kinect (Xbox 360 accessory) has also been used for 3D scanning, and it can be connected to a laptop computer with an adapter, but the resolution is extremely coarse. I think it will be pretty much unable to capture these controls altogether due to frustum/focus limits. A used one usually goes for $10 though. Finally there is photogrammetry, you can do this with any camera that has low distortion. The reconstruction comes out dimensionless and needs to be scaled to a datum, and can also come out somewhat warped. It has been a very long time since i experimented with photogrammetry, 20 years actually, when i studied multiple view imaging, so i don't know what's up to date and can't give much fresh advice, and i haven't done any 3D scanning at all. You may want to find or build yourself stand-in objects to experiment and see that you're getting the outcome you wanted, something that imitates the materials and protrusions, and do this in similar lighting to what you will have. Low reflectivity surfaces, high-gloss surfaces and high amount of incident light can interfere with the data acquisition. Self-disappearing 3D scanning spray can be used to prepare the surfaces, which turns them matte light-grey. Some scanners need removable datum marker stickers. I do have some extra fallback thoughts.
i do have a question and it's been months since i asked here and on your website as well but still no answer, but hopefully i get one here. for preparing the mould you used S120 Board Sealer which where im from we dont have access to it, is there anything else i can use instead ? i always run into problems when preparing the surface because of it and my mould always have alignment issues when i use a coating resin. i 3d print my pattern then sand it, clean it, use coating resin, wet sanding, then continue layup process to make the mould, but in the end my two separate moulds never fit together because of that coating resin which still i have no alternative for it, i really appreciate if you can help me on this one.
Sorry if your previous message has been missed. The advantage of S120 is that it's a very low viscosity so the build up on the surface is minimal. Additionally, when applied to a porous surface such as the tooling board the liquid it taken up into the board, hence it being required in the first place. A resin coating onto a non porous material will always add some thickness to the surface. You could try to account for this with your modeling and offset the faces slightly to allow for a resin coating.
Does the mold release always have to be manually brushed on for application? Are there obvious reasons why it can't or shouldn't be sprayed on to the molds and parts?
It is wiped on using a lint free cloth. With its solvent based nature, we would not recommend spraying and there is no performance benefit to doing so.
It really depends on the method you are looking to use to process the materials. For higher volume production, resin infusion or propreg will be a more appropriate option but will require a slightly different set up to process.
@@ayudhghosh1978 This will depend on the processing and which material you are using. If you are resin infusing then you will require a vacuum pump such as our EC4. If you are using a prepreg material then you will also need a composites curing oven like the OV301. You can find both of these on our website.
Is there anyway an at home enthusiast could create carbon fiber motorcycle fairings without a large expense, Obviously forged with a press would be easiest since I don’t have an industrial oven
Oven processing is only needed for prepreg curing. You can use methods such as wet lay up, vacuum bagging and resin infusion - all done at room temperature without the need for high temp moulds and processing.
Every time I see this I want to find an excuse to make a bunch of carbon fiber ...anything...I love making stuff, I love making bespoke widgets...but nothing I can think of ever needs composites. I want to change that.
wake up babe, Easy Composites dropped a new video!
man the level of free info in these is so good, always super accurate with everything.
Thanks, comments like these really do make it worth all of the hard work and time which goes into making these videos.
I will probably never work with carbon fiber, but I just love these videos
That's fine by us! Thanks for watching :)
Very interesting video, but the fabrication of carbon fibre parts hardly was disclosed in detail. I didn't grasp how you arranged bonding two shells! Very interesting!
Clean, nice diction. Easy to follow process that shows steps in detail. Great production work.
In short, perfect adutaiment. I dunno if that's a word.
@@Abrora77The carbon part fabrication in split moulds has been covered in previous videos 🙂
@@krazed0451 I am very well awared of all approaches towards fabrication of any type of plastic fiber parts. But didn't get a clue how authors did bonding of two shells. I know how to do it, in reality. But for the sake of tutorial purposes how they did those works! I do watch all videos with mere accuracy, but sometimes coaches barely disclose all secrets!
I have been watching this channel for over a decade. Never built anything out CF but its still one of my favorite channels and the video I click to watch fist on my subscriptions page.
Thanks for staying with us for all these years, there's plenty of things that we watch too, just for the interest!
These videos are what every company should be doing in terms of demoing their products. I've been watching your stuff ever since I discovered this channel. I do not have a need for making my own CF molds and parts at this point in time but there may come a time in the future when that need arises and you can be sure I'll be shopping here.
Thanks very much, that’s great feedback and tells us we’re getting it right. I’m sure you can imagine how much work goes into these videos and we often wonder how much interest there will be in these quite technical specialisms but it doesn’t seem to put everyone off!
@@easycompositestv As someone who's made a few TH-cam videos myself and working on more, I know it's not easy making videos like this. Very time consuming especially at the quality you guys deliver at and it is appreciated.
Keep doing what you're doing! =)
I really, really like that you put the ply information and graphic in your videos. That’s fantastic.👏🏻
Hey man, just started uni and I think I am going to work with the composites section of the formula student team thanks to you guys! Either that or the FEA/optimization of structures section.
We strongly encourage you to do so. We just hired a brilliant graduate engineer to join our team, one of the things that stood out for us was his involvement with his university FS team. We wish you all the best with it 😀.
Superb as usual Paul ; )
Even though I now live in France, I still order my materials from you.
Very professional and helpful company. Highly recommended.
TURK
Thanks for the comment and the continued business. Good job we opened our Netherlands subsidiary! Hopefully you still get great service from there to France 😀.
I’ve been watching your channel for years and really enjoy the content if like many, I will likely never make any composite parts.
But if ever I do, I know where to start!
Thanks as always for sharing.
I'm here for the same reasons my friend. If I ever need something like this I will definitely hire professionals like this team.
I suppose it's a bonus if the casual viewer finds our content engaging as well as those looking for more technical instructional guides. Thanks for watching.
Every time you publish a new video it's like Christmas.
Not sure why, but you are the best Brit. presenter on TH-cam. Most of the Brits. sound like they are eating their bangers and mash. Why are some Brits extremely well spoken while so many others leave the average Yank wondering what language is being mangled.
cant get enough of these videos
i gasped out loud when i saw you posted a new video
Haha, well, we hope you enjoy it. This one's pretty niche content, tackling a fairly technical subject. We often wonder how much wider appeal some of these more detailed subjects will have but hopefully there's enough to hold people's interest! Let us know :)
@@easycompositestvThe videos serve as a great way to transition new composites users to the industry and your product. Haas Automation has done a similar education content to educate its users and drive sales. Please continue. Very few working in composites and we need more.
@@easycompositestv The edge cases are excellent to understand more of the strengths and weaknesses of the process. It's niche...but it quickly explains how 'if I wanted to make my own molds I would need to consider thermal expansion, and whether the mold would survive the curing process'. Basic projects might not need this level of rigour, but knowing where that line in the sand is really helps decide on a process.
Same here😅 their videos are so good, I won't pollute my mind by watching 'others' online lol
@@easycompositestvI just loved learning how to incorporate the 'hard' points/threaded studds etc.😅 thanks to the Author for another great video 👍
been looking for those dowels for ever, thanks!
Ahh, great, and yes, they're not the easiest things to get hold of. You'll find them on our site, please get in touch if you have any questions.
Finally! I was looking for this kind of video, for my thesis. Your mould design video was extremely helpful in designing the split moulds, now this gives me a more enhanced understanding of how this can be done! It would be of great help if you can do some split mould videos in future. Thanks!
Thanks Harsha, we'll make note of it. Best of luck with your thesis.
Thank you; would be very interesting a video showing the process of using that mold to realize the drone body.
The part was made using our XC110, cured out of autoclave using a vacuum bag. We will likely be featuring the part in a future video.
Ahhhh Paul! We all get so happy when you release a new video!
Nice 👍 I'd love to use prepreg one day 😍
I am using your moldless carbon method to make my V12 supercar body😎
@@UKBUILT Are you building Aston Martin Victor replica?:)
@@Abrora77Hey, I am building a one-off rear engine supercar that I designed myself. I am using the OG zonda V12 engine 😎
@@UKBUILT Victor is also one-off. Wish you good luck, with your one off- vehicle. I wonder, one day, we can observe such a masterpiece in reality. I do want to see it! Hope, you conceived all tips and tricks of fiber plastic technologies!
@@Abrora77 Hey, yeah I like the Aston martin Victor 👍 all of my planned builds are all rear engine at the moment 🤔 Although I would love a Mercedes C126 sec 🤫 they keep going up in value.
I hope so too 😆 I have worked with composites for a few years but it still it can get messy 😂
Thanks for your support 😎👍
This is another fine piece of work. And, thanks for selling the bushings. Composites fabrication requires a wide range of unique tools and techniques, and you guys seem to be uniquely focused on getting your customers successfully through the entire process to final result.
I do agree with some of the other commenters, however, that a brief glimpse of the final part production (with, I assume, internal vacuum bags) would have been good, along with a link in the corner to your video showing how it's actually done. I believe that was the video in which you produced a carbon fiber bicycle frame -- shot over something like a year!
Hi Ian,
Thanks for your comments. We have covered the process of laminating complex parts like this in a number of other videos and wanted this to me a more focused concise video and we are conscious about repeating content. We'll make note of it for future videos that you guys like to see the more of the processes followed through.
@@easycompositestv Paul rowing on the lake last year = follow through!
Honestly, your videos are so so good, I think we like just watching you have fun.
Cleaner than a surgical theatre.
Amazing as usual
Thanks for watching.... As usual!
Another absolutely top quality video to match top quality products nice one fellas!
Much appreciated!
Love the video! Could you do one video about how to clean all the elements used in order to creat fiber carbon pieces (brushes, air guns...), all this things that are not seen on camera. Also how to optimize all the materials in order to be the most efficient in terms of production costs. Thanks!
Another hypnotizing video, thank you EC! Will you also be showing how you made the internal bladder for molding the part that was made, or whatever other secret you used to make a semi-hollow part in a closed 2-part mold?
The part was made using our XC110, cured out of autoclave using a vacuum bag. We will likely be featuring the part in a future video.
@@easycompositestv ❤
Quality as per usual guys . Just be careful using a mains grinder on carbon fibre everyone , I’ve had a few ‘ tingles’ when the dust gets sucked into the gubbins . Still alive ,,,,, I just blow it out regularly. 😵💫😃
Dudes like making things and are interested in objects, chicks are interested in people.
I love these videos. Idk why, but they appeal to me.
Cracking video as normal.
Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment!
HEY GUYS, PAULS BACK!!
I love your videos so much - I have learned a lot from you guys!
If I may, just two quick questions:
1. Regarding the difference in CTE between the tooling prepregs and the epoxy plug: From your experience - Does the plug expand uniformly in all directions (so an increase in mould size can be accurately predicted and removed via plug scaling)?
2. The flanges: Do they help in eliminating warping on larger moulds through the perimeter they create around the mould?
Thank you so much as usual!
Thanks for the comment Kevin, glad to hear that you find the videos useful.
The tooling board has very low CTE but yes, any expansion/contraction would be uniform.
Flanges certainly can help to stiffen up moulds, anything where the profile changes direction with a corner will add rigidity. Think how a piece of paper with corrugated folds is much stiffer than a flat sheet.
@@easycompositestv Thank you so much for your answers, they are always super helpful!
Always great videos. For molds for making multiple parts I have wondered if it wouldn't be great to make the mold from solid steel and polish it to optical finish. Presumably dimensionally extremely precise and eternal tool life and produce optical finish parts without post processing. It shouldn't be particularly costly to mill out a mold of this size. You could have two molds that fit so well together that you can't see the seam.
Metal moulds are quite common in the industry, especially for higher volume applications. You would still likely have a small amount of flash to trim off the finished part, either with metal moulds or composite based moulds. However, flashing is quick and easy to remove.
Hey could you maybe do a tutorial about making more complex sandwich structures. For example for the manufacturing of racecar monocoques?
Absolutely, core materials are something that we want to cover soon, it's quite a complex topic but hopefully we will be able to make it 'easy'! thanks for taking the time to comment!
@@easycompositestv Yes, please 🙏
Could you poste more about forged carbon fiber? And how to produce moulds for prepreg from 3d print?
Having done 3 videos now about forged carbon fibre, and with so many other topics to cover, it might be a little while before we revisit forged carbon again but if we have a new take on it, or some new materials or processes that improve working with it then it could happen. Directly 3D printed prepreg moulds is definitely something we plan to cover in a future tutorial :)
@@easycompositestv for low temps like that (for a mould) u could even try to use petg-cf (first 65*C cure) - yet i tested peek/pekk (with carbon fibre too) etc for high temps and they can work too , straight up to 150*C before much issues
I normally use bullet casings as fabric/leather hole punch. It works great at whatever caliber you need.
When I worked in composites we used nylon dowels for joining patterns and moulds, so they didn't need release agent. I kinda miss working with the stuff... I'd probably give it a go again tbh. I'll have to re-polish my CV...
Nylon would be a great option for bushes if the moulds were used at room temperature. For these high temp moulds, designed for processing prepregs, a metal bush is required.
As always great video, now please follow-up with making the part :) another video, core materials, honeycomb etc. I think foilboard front wing would be cool (mold, split tooling core material, loads of information to cover). An in depth video wanted, this 15 quick tutorial is cool, but don't be affraid to make one that's like an hour!
Core materials will likely be a topic we cover in a future video.
Thanks for the lecture!
Thanks for allowing us to lecture to you!
you guys are the best
I'm amazed that the prepreg takes the surface of the pattern so seamlessly!
Oh i think your subtitle service might not have technical writing skills, i think they wrote "maximum surface temperature" instead of "service temperature".
Yes the resin rich tooling prepreg works very well at surface replication.
Ahh that's the TH-cam software i'm afraid.
Interesting : thank you!
You're welcome; thanks for the feedback.
Hi, thanks for another excellent video! Would you be willing to show us how to do mold-less resin infusion directly over on a 3D printed core? I mean 3D printing the core of the required part, sealing it, wrapping it in layers of fabric, stacking the consumables, and finally infusing. While this method does not produce a smooth surface finish, it can be a great technique when doing one-off designs or prototyping, and making a mold is too time and cost prohibitive. We would really love to find out how to do it properly.
Hi Justinas,
Overlaminating with a mouldess technique is probably best just using a hand laminating technique as we show in our mouldess construction tutorial th-cam.com/video/0Yaggj16S08/w-d-xo.html
The problem with introducing infusion to a former like this is that it creates issues with core stability, core porosity, difficulty in laying up the fabric and also tends to distort the fibres as the vacuum is drawn. For anything which doesn't warrant a mould then we find this method is sufficient and can still produce good quality prototype parts.
@@easycompositestv Appreciate your response! Thing is, hand layup results in a higher weight and can be difficult to lay, bag and vacuum in time for very large parts (where splitting the layup into sections is not an option), even with the slowest epoxy hardeners, whereas resin infusion is a much more relaxed process and can result in significantly lower weights. I have built several parts this way, and the final result was very much acceptable. However, issues you mentioned are indeed valid, which is why I was hoping you might offer some advice on how to work around them and minimize their effect, particularly on properly sealing the core without adding excess weight, the arrangement of infusion and vacuum lines all around the part, and supporting the part during infusion in a way that doesn't result in surface imprints or "choking" the resin flow.
Amazing to what is possible, with the right tools.
Seeing sparks flying off is new.
Are you braking through to steel?
🇦🇺🤜🏼🤛🏼🍀😎☮️☮️
Hi Steve, in that section, we’re sanding down the CFRP that sticks up around the mould bushes after the alignment pin has been removed. As we grind the reinforcement down to the bush, the sparks are just the grinder finding the steel bush. They’re case hardened steel though so a touch from a sanding disc doesn’t really touch them 👍.
Magnifique 😊
Great video, question : don't you run a risk of distorting the mould putting it under full vacuum on the first curing cycle relying on the epoxy board to maintain the shape without twisting?
No as putting it under vacuum does not distort the model board.
nice.havent even touched carbon fiber,but plan to.
I’m trying to make a carbon hydrofoil wing with supplies from your site. The top and bottom surface are both very critical to be precise, so I have a top and bottom mold. I plan to have 4mm walls of carbon top and bottom (many layers). The wing is only ~14mm thick at the widest. How would you suggest getting the pressure on the carbon? Getting a bag inside for pressure is not easy because it’s so small and there are not ports to the outside world, although I could add one if required. Can you use expanding foam for pressure? How precise can you make the thickness with a piston molded part (like the forged carbon example on a previous vid)?
Depending on the exact shape, you may be able to use the tubular bagging films and as long as you have enough excess, when you pull the vacuum, the bag will pull against the detail. For very tight features that are impossible to get in by hand, it can be possible to use some silicone type materials to act as an intensifier to help in those areas.
Would be cool to see how you would make a U shape carbon product like a chain guide for a motorcycle
For a simple U shape, a simple one piece mould would generally work. More complex shapes or where insufficient draught angle exists for easy release, may benefit from a two piece mould.
I didn't quite get how you laminated those inserts. That seems a bit more involved to me than it appears to be to you who knows the procedure. Maybe you could make another video on how to laminate small features like that properly? That would be a great help.
The laminating around the bushes was done just as shown in the video. There is nothing more complex to it, as the pre-preg laminate will lock into the features on the bush.
never understod how you vacuum a hollow part. Do you show that in any video?
Yes we show this technique in a few of our videos , the split mould for complex tubes is one th-cam.com/video/bBbOUDDJv4Q/w-d-xo.html
The air box is another with a slightly different shape th-cam.com/video/cQ1Q4XmItN0/w-d-xo.html
I wonder if plaster of Paris would make a good mould making material? Probably worth a polished finish layer of epoxy for the actual mould surface.
Plaster of paris isn't really accurate or stable enough of a substrate for use as a composite pattern or mould so we wouldn't recommend it.
3:40 carbon fiber shutters? You guys are showing off at this point! 😁 Kidding. On a serious note, can the same clamping bushes be used on the part itself? Say, that drone thing you've produced needs such a feature to attach parts on every corner. I remember you've done this in a tutorial once, but is there more to know than simply insert them into the carbon material real tight?
Haha, point taken on the carbon shutters but, as we manufacture sheet on large scale, it’s a material we have more of than most things, plus we know it can take the temp and it’s reliable to release from!
As to your question, there would be no reason you couldn’t use these bushes in the component itself, other than that they’re designed for quite a thick laminate. Although it’s not unheard of, a carbon part with 4mm+ laminate would be unusual, on smaller parts at least and so in most cases you’d probably better with a small block of aluminium or similar, which can be drilled (and tapped if necessary). It’s straightforward to embed something like this within the laminate.
@@easycompositestv Got it, thank you! 👌
That's was unexpected, but nice
Yeah we knew this was getting into the more specialist end of TH-cam, but glad you enjoyed it!
Made right here in Stoke-On-Trent?!? I never knew Easy Composites were based there. Come on you Potters!!!
Yes we're an oatcake fueled organisation!
Hi Paul, Love your videos, been watching for years. I am based in South Africa so unfortunately not easy (certain products can't airfreight) or cost effective to get materials from Easy Composites :(. I make prepreg carbon fibre electric guitars... have seen that the latest bicycle technology for moulding is EPS moulding. Very little info available on this...would love to see you do a video on this? Cheers Roger
Hi Roger, thanks for your comment. It's certainly something we can put on the list for consideration.
The amount of machines and tools used for this part ashamed my little garage-workshop 😢
p.s. video request: connecting carbon fiber tubes/parts and aluminium cnc machined parts with your Vm100 vudu glue
Great suggestion!
Do you ever plan to offer kevlar/hybrid prepregs?
Hi William, we have looked at expanding range of prepregs and are constantly assessing what we stock based on demand. It may be something we look at again if it becomes viable for us to do so and certainly isn't out of the question.
can this method build the seats? such like the racer seat used in the car or the ergonomics backrest of the chair.
Sure this would be quite a typical tooling method for seats (assuming that they needed a split mould) thanks for watching!
Is it possible for you guys to cover a paint-in-mould type of a project?
We have covered something similar in our bonnet making series where we add a gelcoat to the surface of the mould th-cam.com/video/YWbGx_BJVvM/w-d-xo.html
hey im working on a new gaming mouse I really want to make out of carbon fiber. is there anywhere I could reach out to you to talk about it if your ok with it? Id just love some input if you think its possible at all or if I'm just wasting my time. I've been watching your videos forever and have made a number of carbon fiber parts following your tutorials and they are absolutely amazing.
Hi Max, you can email our technical team who will be happy to help offer some advice. technical@easycomposites.com
awesome)
For the chemical mold release, do i need the sealer as well as the mold release for aluminium?
No, the sealer is just to close the porosity of the board. For a non-porous surface, like aluminium, you would only need the CR1 chemical release agent.
@@easycompositestv thankyou
quick question, so i bought carbon fiber sheet and i want to make forged carbon fiber flakes can i just cut that sheet to make forged carbon? Sounds stupid but i just wanna make sure i wont mess up anything 😅
Yes, you can cut the carbon sheets into small pieces to produce a short strand reinforcement for making forged carbon mouldings.
Paul when are you going to open a new course!?
You can register for notifications and updates on training courses via the website www.easycomposites.co.uk/training-courses
I have a good question and challenge. I need to make a two part mold for a helicopter cyclic and collective.
I only have a short window to try these when the aircrafts are in the hanger for a 750 or 1500hour maintenance.
I am not allowed to disasable them to make the moulds and I will have to do that inside the cockpit without making a mess or having the risk of damaging and compromising other components, painel or avionics.
Any ideas how I could try tacking this challenge? Would you be able to make tutorial for a similar application of complex ergonomic mould inside a small and narrow cabin without putting other expensive parts at risk? 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
With all those strict rules, a finite time frame and a safety critical application, and without having seen the component myself, I think that one possible solution which would definitely be safe and non-destructive would be to 3D scan the original component. You could then use this mesh to CAD the component, and then design the tooling in CAD off the component. There are some good videos around on 3D scanning and reverse engineering CAD from meshes. After that you could follow the steps from our earlier video on. CAD tooling, and this one.
@@easycompositestv i thought about 3d scanning too but gave up after looking up the prices.
I will try my best to take measurements with the tools i need and try my best to make as close as possible
@@bluntzera8238 Creality Raptor is comparatively inexpensive and the blue laser mode is what may provide the best outcome for this use, from what i heard. They also have much cheaper models which lack the laser mode, even very cheap ones.
Also look around, you may be able to rent a professional 3D scanner in your region rather than purchase it.
iPhone Pro has Lidar which has been used for 3D scanning. Perhaps your friends can loan you one.
Kinect (Xbox 360 accessory) has also been used for 3D scanning, and it can be connected to a laptop computer with an adapter, but the resolution is extremely coarse. I think it will be pretty much unable to capture these controls altogether due to frustum/focus limits. A used one usually goes for $10 though.
Finally there is photogrammetry, you can do this with any camera that has low distortion. The reconstruction comes out dimensionless and needs to be scaled to a datum, and can also come out somewhat warped.
It has been a very long time since i experimented with photogrammetry, 20 years actually, when i studied multiple view imaging, so i don't know what's up to date and can't give much fresh advice, and i haven't done any 3D scanning at all.
You may want to find or build yourself stand-in objects to experiment and see that you're getting the outcome you wanted, something that imitates the materials and protrusions, and do this in similar lighting to what you will have. Low reflectivity surfaces, high-gloss surfaces and high amount of incident light can interfere with the data acquisition. Self-disappearing 3D scanning spray can be used to prepare the surfaces, which turns them matte light-grey. Some scanners need removable datum marker stickers.
I do have some extra fallback thoughts.
i do have a question and it's been months since i asked here and on your website as well but still no answer, but hopefully i get one here. for preparing the mould you used S120 Board Sealer which where im from we dont have access to it, is there anything else i can use instead ?
i always run into problems when preparing the surface because of it and my mould always have alignment issues when i use a coating resin.
i 3d print my pattern then sand it, clean it, use coating resin, wet sanding, then continue layup process to make the mould, but in the end my two separate moulds never fit together because of that coating resin which still i have no alternative for it, i really appreciate if you can help me on this one.
Sorry if your previous message has been missed.
The advantage of S120 is that it's a very low viscosity so the build up on the surface is minimal. Additionally, when applied to a porous surface such as the tooling board the liquid it taken up into the board, hence it being required in the first place. A resin coating onto a non porous material will always add some thickness to the surface. You could try to account for this with your modeling and offset the faces slightly to allow for a resin coating.
Does the mold release always have to be manually brushed on for application? Are there obvious reasons why it can't or shouldn't be sprayed on to the molds and parts?
It is wiped on using a lint free cloth. With its solvent based nature, we would not recommend spraying and there is no performance benefit to doing so.
@@easycompositestv That makes sense. I knew it was something obvious. I really enjoy these videos. I've pinnacled at 3D printing as a hobby.
Those parts are awesome but requires ton of work.
super
For hemp or flax fibre for mass production which machines are required?
It really depends on the method you are looking to use to process the materials. For higher volume production, resin infusion or propreg will be a more appropriate option but will require a slightly different set up to process.
@easycompositestv name of machines?
@@ayudhghosh1978 This will depend on the processing and which material you are using. If you are resin infusing then you will require a vacuum pump such as our EC4. If you are using a prepreg material then you will also need a composites curing oven like the OV301. You can find both of these on our website.
@@easycompositestv prepreg in the past you said press for composites
@@easycompositestv for car panels manufacturing?
Is there anyway an at home enthusiast could create carbon fiber motorcycle fairings without a large expense,
Obviously forged with a press would be easiest since I don’t have an industrial oven
Oven processing is only needed for prepreg curing. You can use methods such as wet lay up, vacuum bagging and resin infusion - all done at room temperature without the need for high temp moulds and processing.
I may have been more interested in the oven than the mold itself
Well that’s fine by us, we make the oven 😀
Do we get to see the drone? 😅
The rest of the assembly might feature in a future video so keep an eye out for it in our upcoming videos.
Every time I see this I want to find an excuse to make a bunch of carbon fiber ...anything...I love making stuff, I love making bespoke widgets...but nothing I can think of ever needs composites. I want to change that.
How frustrating. I know what you mean. A solution to a problem I don't have!
is this x8 skywalker?
Not quite, but credit for spotting the similarity! It's very similar but a little smaller and much faster!
@@easycompositestv where can we get the step files? i want to built that from carbon fiber. Can we purchase it?
@@farkhodkhikmatov4738 It's not available at this point but it may be something which we branch out into in the future.
How to contact?😊
If you're looking to place an order you can email sales@easycomposites.com
👍🇺🇸
Vim mais rápido do que viciado atrás de crack.....
Φτιάξτε ένα ψαρεντουφεκο
It's not the first time we've been asked... We'll look into it, thanks for watching!
@@easycompositestv❤
first time i leave xvid**s so fast