Fun With Carbon Fiber

[ebrabaek]

Originally Posted by xradipo

Any of you have try to make a carbon-klevar fuel tank?
I would like to made a small side fuel tank for my bike, 2/3 liters.
I'm a little bit scared on the attachement point tank/rear frame.
How this attachement point have to be done on the tank?
Have got any tested/trusted solution?
Thanks
X

Carbon Fiber is not affected by either Gas, or ethanol. Kevlar unfortunately can be. As far as fuel coatings.... Rather than needing to make a protective barrier, Just make the inside two to four layers with this....

http://www.ebay.com/itm/EPOXY-RESIN-...item484603f45c

I use this in gas app's. Then use what ever other resin systems you want on the outer layers.

[therivermonster]

Originally Posted by ebrabaek

Carbon Fiber is not affected by either Gas, or ethanol. Kevlar unfortunately can be. As far as fuel coatings.... Rather than needing to make a protective barrier, Just make the inside two to four layers with this....

http://www.ebay.com/itm/EPOXY-RESIN-...item484603f45c

I use this in gas app's. Then use what ever other resin systems you want on the outer layers.

Hey Earling! It's been a little while, eh? I was following the 800GS beak extension build, but it kin of fizzled out. Are you moving forward with that project? Any new projects coming up?

Thanks for that link! Poly Products really does it all, don't they?

[beechum1]

~50USD per tank... wow. Gotta be a better more local solution....

[ebrabaek]

Originally Posted by therivermonster

Hey Earling! It's been a little while, eh? I was following the 800GS beak extension build, but it kin of fizzled out. Are you moving forward with that project? Any new projects coming up?

Thanks for that link! Poly Products really does it all, don't they?

Yeppers.....
Several other projects are cooking right now. Posted a new video.... " winterization of polymers"... Links to my you tube channel is on my CF FB page.... High Desert Carbon Works. The beak is still going to happen, I just have too many projects at this time. You might find the video interesting though....

[therivermonster]

Originally Posted by ebrabaek

Yeppers.....
Several other projects are cooking right now. Posted a new video.... " winterization of polymers"... Links to my you tube channel is on my CF FB page.... High Desert Carbon Works. The beak is still going to happen, I just have too many projects at this time. You might find the video interesting though....

Winterization of composites, eh? That does sound interesting. I'll be sure to check it out tonight.

[therivermonster]

I have gotten a lot of work done on the X650 chain guard. It has been quite a part to layup, but I'm surprised how well it turned out. The mold has worked flawlessly as well.

So far I have pulled the part from the mold, rough trimmed the part, did the fine sanding up to the trim lines, casted the front bolt mount, sanded the parting line smooth, and applied an epoxy re-coat. Tonight I'll do the fine sanding on the epoxy finish coating, and apply clear UV coat. The last step will be to wet sand and polish the clear. It should end up pretty fancy; maybe too fancy for a BMW. More like one of those fancy parts that you would find on a KLR probably.

Here's the catch. The guard is a Christmas gift for inmate adventureerik, so I won't be posting any pics of the part until after the 22nd which is when he will receive it. No worries though. After that date, I'll post lots of pics of the finished part on the bench, as well as on the bike.

Stay tuned.

[ebrabaek]

Originally Posted by therivermonster

Winterization of composites, eh? That does sound interesting. I'll be sure to check it out tonight.

Pour yourself some good brew and watch.... Nothing fancy, but a few tricks in there....

http://www.facebook.com/pages/High-D...6297979?ref=hl

[sama3033]

Originally Posted by xradipo

Any of you have try to make a carbon-klevar fuel tank?
I would like to made a small side fuel tank for my bike, 2/3 liters.
I'm a little bit scared on the attachement point tank/rear frame.
How this attachement point have to be done on the tank?
Have got any tested/trusted solution?
Thanks
X

Xrap

I found this thread on a different forum by Tygaboy (he's on Youtube as well) - when I do my tanks next year I'm going to follow his lead. It's a well done piece and detailed as all get-go, just the way I like it.

http://bayarearidersforum.com/forums...d.php?t=145975

[ben2go]

Originally Posted by sama3033

Xrap

I found this thread on a different forum by Tygaboy (he's on Youtube as well) - when I do my tanks next year I'm going to follow his lead. It's a well done piece and detailed as all get-go, just the way I like it.

http://bayarearidersforum.com/forums...d.php?t=145975

BARF

[xradipo]

Originally Posted by sama3033

Xrap

I found this thread on a different forum by Tygaboy (he's on Youtube as well) - when I do my tanks next year I'm going to follow his lead. It's a well done piece and detailed as all get-go, just the way I like it.

http://bayarearidersforum.com/forums...d.php?t=145975

Hi Sama,
thank you.
The thread you post is interesting, but doesn't solve my doubt.

Thanks.
X.

[therivermonster]

I mentioned in an earlier post that I would withhold pics of the finished chain guard until it was presented as a Christmas gift, but I just can't restrain myself.

Here is a sneak peak of the chain guard. I'll post the finishing steps of the build after Christmas.

[JimVonBaden]

Very nice! YOu have come a long way!

Jim

[100mpg]

It looks great! Are you going to branch out into music video production next?

Originally Posted by therivermonster

I mentioned in an earlier post that I would withhold pics of the finished chain guard until it was presented as a Christmas gift, but I just can't restrain myself.

Here is a sneak peak of the chain guard. I'll post the finishing steps of the build after Christmas.

[therivermonster]

Originally Posted by JimVonBaden

Very nice! YOu have come a long way!

Jim

Thanks, Jim! This part has been a challenge, but I have learned so much. I think that it turned out pretty good.

Originally Posted by 100mpg

It looks great! Are you going to branch out into music video production next?

Thanks you! Hopefully it looks good on the bike.

I think that I'll stick with the CF videos for now.

[therivermonster]

I gave Erik the chain guard at our little Christmas party yesterday and I think that he really likes it. It looks great on the bike as well.


Now for the finishing process as promised.

After pulling the part from the mold, I trimmed the the part, and then gave it a good sanding with 80 grit paper to smooth it out a bit. You'll notice the gaping hole in the part where the screw is supposed to hold it to the swing arm. We'll deal with this in the next steps.


With the molding process that I used for this part, it wasn't possible to mold the front and back structure of the bolt hole at the same time, which is where the next steps come in.

I placed the trimmed part back onto the mold. The focus is on the mold structure where the bolt goes. We have to build up the back part of this structure.


First, we use this little water bottle cap as a mandrel to create a little cylinder of aluminum foil.


Next, we secure our aluminum cylinder over the carbon bolt hole. The aluminum structure acts as a form that allows us to build up the back side structure.


I chopped up some left over carbon and mixed it with epoxy in order to create an epoxy based solid that is still reinforced with carbon fibers. The epoxy on its own would crack and break much more eaisly.


Next I filled the aluminum form with the epoxy carbon mixture and allowed it to cure. After the mixture cured, I ground the back side structure down to match the structure on the original part. Then I simply drilled the hole in the middle to allow the mounting bolt to pass through.


You'll notice the built up bolt structure in the following pic.

Now finishing begins. I sanded the part with 220 grit paper to get it fairly smooth.


A thin layer of epoxy was then applied in order to fill any small pinholes. This was left to cure under the heat lamps.


The part was then sanded again with 220 and sprayed with clear coat. The clear coat was then sanded with 800, 1000, 1500, and 2000 grit wet paper. The resulting surface is very smooth, but still looks flat.


Next I used buffing compound followed by polish to bring out the sheen of the clear coat. Carbon fiber looks very cool when it is shiney.

The part is finished.












Of course we use carbon fiber to make parts for a reason, right? We want a stronger part while saving weight all at the same time.

The original part weighs in at 135 grams.


The new carbon fiber part weighs in at 99 grams for a total weight savings of 36 grams, or 27% of the total part weight.


This is not a lot of weight savings compared to the total weight of the motorcycle overall, but if you can imagine having many components made out of carbon, you could have a much lighter machine if it weighed 27% less.

You gotta love that carbon!

Next up is a set of hand guard ferrings to protect inmate Zoomzu's sensitive hands from the wind. This project will be a ground up project all from scratch. We'll be building the plugs, molds, and laying up the parts. If the composites gods are shining on us, we may even use resin infusion to make the final parts.

Stay tuned!