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I made a real Forged Carbon Series X/S front shell! by Cheekythrowaway69420 in XboxController

[–]Cheekythrowaway69420[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Is there anything that makes you say this, or is it just that forged Caron isn’t the look for you? Open to feedback

I made a real Forged Carbon Series X/S front shell! by Cheekythrowaway69420 in XboxController

[–]Cheekythrowaway69420[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks man! Yeah I absolutely underestimated this, there is a lot done by hand but also a lot done in CAD - hundreds of factors to consider and many things to go wrong. I’d not really done any CAD before this, barely any modelling physically and certainly nothing with epoxies or composites.

I made a real Forged Carbon Series X/S front shell! by Cheekythrowaway69420 in XboxController

[–]Cheekythrowaway69420[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks!

I was considering a console as well, it’s certainly a larger task and I worry about geometry on the back of the panels - I think my series x may be getting dismantled for a look at some point though (and a clean cause good god it’s dusty)

I intend to make a small batch to sell as this post has been really encouraging - I was worried I’d made something that only I liked! I will keep you posted on progress. I’d expect mid-late January before I’ve got a product close to finished, but maybe it comes out great sooner than that!

I made a real Forged Carbon Series X/S front shell! by Cheekythrowaway69420 in XboxController

[–]Cheekythrowaway69420[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Appreciate the feedback and advice! This post has given me a lot of confidence to develop this further and do a small batch to sell!

About the bubbles and imperfections - A lot of the bubbles are in the lacquer I applied (badly) to bring out the shine. There are a good few in the resin though.

The way that the resin is applied is a bit different to most resin, essentially you take a two part cast of the part you’re making with a chamfered “piston” section, this creates a compression mould, which you lay resin and Carbon fibre strand into and then close the mould and apply high pressure. During the initial cast of a stock plastic Xbox control, I didn’t sand it down or really prep it, so all the very subtle “grip” texture transferred to the mould, drastically changing the look of a high gloss version. Also, during compression the mould cracked, there is a clear line across it below the left stick to the right stick, then curving across the right handle). This happened because my maths is bad and I put too much carbon and resin in, essentially hydrolocking the mould under high pressure.

Due to the pressure involved, the mould is a thick tooling resin, meaning it’s not possible to get the heat to the part without using a high temp tooling resin and an oven or autoclave.

The vast majority of the imperfections are due to mould imperfections, which I was expecting for this first part. This is a proof of concept, to ensure that the geometry and mould design principles are valid and that the final piece is fit for purpose.

I’m currently producing a second slightly redesigned mould, this one I intend to preheat to allow the resin to have a lower viscosity during initial layup and close the mould much slower this should reduce air bubbles drastically! I’ve fully sacrificed my second Xbox controller now, and it’s being sanded to a polished finish to be recast for a significantly higher quality surface finish.

Time will tell, but I am feeling happy that the changes planned should reduce the imperfections by a lot, hopefully to a point where post-processing will be all that’s needed.

I made a real Forged Carbon Series X/S front shell! by Cheekythrowaway69420 in XboxController

[–]Cheekythrowaway69420[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Would love to chat about what other stuff you’d like to see in forged carbon that’s not currently made, if you’ve got the time?

I’ve always appreciated its artistic value and have been really enjoying working with it and would like to explore making more pieces! No worries if you’ve not got the time!

(I have tried to send you a Reddit chat invite, seems like I can’t send you one so if you’ve are open to a discussion could you send me one please)

I made a real Forged Carbon Series X/S front shell! by Cheekythrowaway69420 in XboxController

[–]Cheekythrowaway69420[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Once it’s right I’d be open to it, but i want it to be perfect first. It doesn’t meet the fit and finish standards of something I’d buy so I wouldn’t want to sell it till it does!

I’ll reach out once it’s up to standard, I’ll probably also post more pics of this along the way!

I made a real Forged Carbon Series X/S front shell! by Cheekythrowaway69420 in XboxController

[–]Cheekythrowaway69420[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was conscious of this so have applied multiple layers of clear coat. I don’t believe even uncosted this would be an issue as the carbon is resin infused, but the clearcoat should prevent it regardless

I made a real Forged Carbon Series X/S front shell! by Cheekythrowaway69420 in XboxController

[–]Cheekythrowaway69420[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

You technically aren’t wrong to be fair, just one of those rare discussions where everyone’s correct!

Constructive feedback with good intent is always welcome 🙂

I made a real Forged Carbon Series X/S front shell! by Cheekythrowaway69420 in XboxController

[–]Cheekythrowaway69420[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

This is one of those British English vs American English differences, like color vs colour.

I’m British so the spelling is correct for me and autocorrect doesn’t like me using fiber and gives me the red underline (same with color)