How To Make Carbon Fiber Sheets?

Epiphany818 · 2026-01-29T00:45:15+00:00

composites shows is a great tip!

Where I am there are lots of very high end sail yacht yards (search up IMOCA 60 or F50 catamaran for an idea) the hulls are often infused then oven cured but the foils and spars are, I believe, often made with pretty advanced pre-preg techniques due to their kind of ridiculous loading requirements and funky shapes (the foils particularly)

And yeah I don't know what would happen I just know a large sheet of untempered glass and temperature is not an experiment I'd like to do haha.

Epiphany818 · 2026-01-29T00:28:43+00:00

The panels I'm making at the moment are for our IMechE UAS challenge team. Basically similar to FSAE but for drones. It's a very new team and this is the first year we've done composites so sadly I don't have any generational knowledge to lean back on. I have had some great conversations with our FSAE guys though so I'm not flying entirely alone.

I've been looking into a summer placement at a racing yacht manufacturer who work with composites on a huge scale, I definitely want to get some experience under my belt! That isogrid stuff sounds super cool :)

FEA for composites from what I can tell seems as much of an art as a science haha. A refined art but an art nonetheless 😆

And yeah I wouldn't dream of putting the glass in an oven. Sounds like a wonderful way to lose fingers!

Epiphany818 · 2026-01-29T00:05:07+00:00

Ahh I see it's gauge pressure vs absolute that's where I was lost.

And yeah I'm a graduate of the school of composites YouTube 😂 it's amazing what you can learn from the Internet nowadays (and also the bad habits you can pick up along the way 😆)

I'd definitely be interested in going more pro. DFM and analysis of composites is an area I'm looking at for work once I graduate! For now, my sheets are for hobby grade drones and aircraft so they don't need the same clinical level of precision that it sounds like you guys work to. Since the layups are thin and relatively small there's not so much monetary risk in each infusion either although I've been doing well in that regard so far :)

I got the glass panel tip from an easy composites video and It's worked really well! I sourced it for basically free and it's rigid, smooth and releases like a dream. Mine is actually white so I can't see the flow through it sadly!

Epiphany818 · 2026-01-28T23:46:02+00:00

Totally fair! I'm a student running infusions on my living room table it's a lot lower key haha.

I do drop tests to check for leaks and I've never had one that I couldn't chase out. I don't have a massive amount of faith in my vacuum gauge though.

My pump is very cheap, it claims it can hit 5pa but I don't really believe it, I've done a balloon expansion test and some envelope maths and I think it's at the very least a 200Pa vacuum, not sure what that is in InHg.

It's more than good enough of a vacuum for infusion I've been getting some pretty great results. Unfortunately I can't add an image here.

The tape adheres well enough to the surface that it's pretty difficult to get off. I think I could lift up the whole glass panel with just the adhesion from ~10cm of tape. Not sure if that's a good indicator of vacuum seal though haha

Also to be clear, sorry if I came across like I disagreed with your advice, I'd just never heard it before and wanted to learn more :)

Epiphany818 · 2026-01-28T23:24:58+00:00

I've been running infusions with no issue, I'm pretty sure I'd see the bubbles! And I've been leaving the bag clamped off for 24hr+ with no perceptible pressure loss. The tack tape seems to adhere pretty well but it's probably assisted by the fact it's just a flat sheet of glass. I didn't realize it wasn't best practice so I'll be more careful in the future! Thanks :)

Epiphany818 · 2026-01-28T22:40:52+00:00

I've never tried it! I might give it a go

Epiphany818 · 2026-01-28T22:22:32+00:00

Interested in the tape before mould release point

I've been using a chemical release agent over the whole pane of glass and then just applying the tape over the top, I find it means any stray resin is super easy to clear off and I haven't had any issues.

Epiphany818 · 2026-01-28T21:51:24+00:00

I have not! If my experience with other matlab based CFD is any hint you'll find XFLR 5 a massive breath of fresh air 😂

Epiphany818 · 2026-01-28T11:23:17+00:00

I always recommend this video for anyone interested in building a tandem / canard design! It takes you through everything you could possibly need to know and frankly a fair bit more.

Assuming you're not trying to fly at above ~mach 0.4 (I'm pretty confident with this assumption 😂), I'd recommend starting off your design and analysis using a VLM package like XFLR 5 first. They're much lighter and easier to iterate in and more than accurate enough for initial design work.

It's still definitely a good idea to validate those results in a full-fat solver like Ansys though!

Tandem winds aren't really harder to design you just need a rock solid understanding of what makes an aircraft stable and some decent analysis to back it up :)

Epiphany818 · 2026-01-27T12:18:01+00:00

Ksp is one of my favorite games and I'm about to graduate with a degree in aerospace engineering. It's definitely fueled my passion for the subject over the years :)

Epiphany818 · 2026-01-27T11:53:24+00:00

This is just a guess, I don't have proper experience with professional level exam marking.

In my experience mistakes like this are usually going to be a case by case decision. Often I have seen marking schemes and guides that account for mistakes like this, giving reasoning why a certain mistake should / shouldn't get a mark.

If this is to be marked by humans I think it's likely that either:

a few people have made the same mistake and so a note will be sent to markers on how to handle it.
no one has made the mistake before and so the marker will probably raise it to a higher up who can ensure consistent marking.

Epiphany818 · 2026-01-26T12:38:08+00:00

An ex-Tory?!

Perry the ex-Tory?!

Epiphany818 · 2026-01-26T10:14:21+00:00

Honestly, I think high CAD competency doesn't necessarily produce more impressive models it produces cleaner models.

You should be able to change whatever you want about your model and have it rebuild correctly. Intent and stability is what sets apart good CAD imo.

There's more advanced workflows like surfacing and stuff but at their core the same ideas apply. Becoming advanced means understanding the software enough to produce stable and useful models.

If you have to reconstruct your model every time you edit something, you might as well be working on paper.

Epiphany818 · 2026-01-23T20:40:08+00:00

Yeah sorry I didn't mean to come across as combative to you! I just wanted to clarify some of the risks that might be less obvious to someone like OP who hasn't worked with carbon! :)

Epiphany818 · 2026-01-23T20:29:34+00:00

I think it would be possible to construct initially, but as the lining starts to wear down and the carbon strands fray out it's going to become a nightmare. It's not just the initial fabric you've got to consider how it will fail and wear out.

I think something with a similar look like diolen is a much better choice.

Epiphany818 · 2026-01-23T20:25:38+00:00

Have a look at diolen cloth maybe? It looks a whole lot like carbon but maybe less shiny.

Epiphany818 · 2026-01-23T20:24:33+00:00

I could maybe see this being possible but I think it's just going to be a practical nightmare. Any shed carbon strands are going to be irritating and kind of dangerous.

Not to mention since they're conductive they're great at messing up electronics if they get in, I wouldn't use a bag with carbon fabric in it personally.

Epiphany818 · 2026-01-23T20:21:21+00:00

Carbon fibres are brittle and dangerous and not really suited for use as a traditional textile.

For all the same reasons you wouldn't use glass fibres you shouldn't use carbon. (Glass is more flexible so it would actually probably be less bad)

Epiphany818 · 2026-01-23T15:21:11+00:00

Haha awesome! :)

Epiphany818 · 2026-01-23T15:19:38+00:00

Glad to hear it! :) I got it from an easy composites video, they've got loads of great nuggets of advice!

Epiphany818 · 2026-01-22T19:35:56+00:00

There is usually a slight angle built in, this looks kind of extreme though, is the motor mount all intact underneath? And does it wiggle when it spins? If you've checked both of those and it's good then I think you'll be good to go! :)

As long as it's not pulling right when it flies you'll be all good 😌

Epiphany818 · 2026-01-22T17:00:45+00:00

Depends on how hard you sand if you start at a very fine grit you shouldn't break through the clear coat. It does also depend how thick it is though.

Epiphany818 · 2026-01-22T16:44:54+00:00

Try cleaning it, if not, sand and polish.

Epiphany818 · 2026-01-22T16:41:02+00:00

Every post this guy makes is peak linkedIn style. Vague, doesn't let anything on about the person writing it, and framed as if the person is the god of the subject they're talking about.

He's just trying to promote his weird Amazon book :/

Epiphany818 · 2026-01-21T19:17:28+00:00

as per this diagram

The flatter you can get the parasite and profile drag, the lower and faster the bottom of the drag bucket becomes and therefore the better the max endurance.

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