Carbon Fibre tub chassis

[paul01ews]

Hi,

I know this maybe asking alot but could some one please tell me the process, stages and pit falls of trying a DIY tub chassis?:woot:

Only asking as there seems to be a few floating around on here!


Paul.:)

[kwik]

you can buy carbon fibre mouldning sets. mix the gel together, coat the carbon fibre sheet and layer it on, theres videos on youtube on how to do it.

search around youtube and get names of products and methods

[J_WOODY]

maybe i'm one of the people this question was aimed at,
your first biggest obsticle will be making the mould. I'm now on my third set of moulds, and on each of the tubs i've done so far i've changed the way i do them,(trial + error) for my first 2, i made the main mould, and then made the outer parts to the mould, on my latest x-6 mould i'm changing the method again.
The actuall laying up of the carbon fibre is the easy part of the whole project, and this process takes about 20 mins max, (theres loads of online tutorials for this).
The next problem you would encounter is cutting the finished piece to your dimensions, not to difficult itself , but if you get it wrong the tub is scrap, this also goes for drilling the holes in the chassis. I've made a drilling template that sits inside the finished tub, so that each tub turns out the same as the previous one, if you've got access to cnc mill, this will make life a lot easier (i've not)
Rebelrc on this site seems to be making very high quality tubs, so maybe he could share a bit of info on how hes making his moulds and from what materials
hope this is of some help if you go ahead and attempt a tub. If you have any questions pm me and i will try and help you in any way i can, obviously i'm not going to give all my methods away on a public forum,

Jay:)

[paul01ews]

Thanks Jay,

I will be in touch when i have finished some of the flat carbon parts i have been planning for my fleet .

Paul.:)

[OldTimer]

Follow this linky (http://www.mashie.org/guides/cfbalsa01.html) its gives you a good idea, just replace the balsa with more cf cloth :thumbsup: and if you sandwich between glass i think rather than the polyester film, or wrap the film around the glass, this will give a very good finish.

Also CFS (http://www.cfsnet.co.uk/) is a good place to get the epoxy and cf fabric from, and they have good service.

Hoep that helps.

[Rebelrc]

Machine them from big blocks of ali....not realy for the d.i.y.er