Hello all, new to the boards here and already somewhat overwhelmed but very excited as well!
I have shaped and glassed a surfboard before (came out interesting to say the least…) but I am looking into creating a carbon fiber/kevlar hybrid board. The cloth is interwoven as I am sure many of you know, and I was curious as to whether or not anyone has some experience with this and what the results were. I have thought of some of the possible positives and negatives of the cloth but I am interested to hear some other opinions. If you guys have any advice/experiences or can point me in the right direction that would be great. Thanks
Welcome Surferbum…There’s an interview on Myspace with Dave Rastovich (Dave Rastovich interview with AC Lawrence) where he’s talking about his carbon fibre boards he has from Dick Van Straalen.
He says the only board he has of this kind that he has broken was a carbon fibre/kevlar mix.
Other boards are all straight carbon fibre and no doubt have had their share of lips axe them.
There’s a few threads on carbon fibre and or kevlar in the archives so run a search and that should keep you busy.
composite envisions has some cool stuff. even holographic carbon fiber. Maybe you could shape the worlds most expensive board. I think some of the glass runs like $99.00 for a 12" x 24" piece.
I've done quite a lot with kevlar, kevlar glass and carbon kevlar hybrids. Biggest word of advice DO NOT TRY TO SAND THEM!! The kevlar is actually a type of plastic (unlike glass and carbon) and goes fluffy when sanded and WILL NEVER GO TRULY SMOOTH.
Best thing to do is put a layer of glass on top (or masses of resin). Then you can sand away happily without touching the kevlar. Kevlar is poor in compression (deck usually) so there must be enough glass and carbon to take all expected compression poads. In tension it can hardly be beaten.
We did a snowboard in Carbon/kevlar hybrid. Looked very cool.
Yeah, done the wet sanding thing as well. It was a bit better but still not like the finish one gets on mineral fibres. Also Kevlar does adsorb water over time, not really an issue here but might be if one leaves dings unrepaired. OMG must repair dings, sand that area, gone fluffy, wet sand it, water one the repair area, have to let it dry, ah, soddit just cover the whole area in resin and put the board on Ebay!!
Don't use Carbon/Kevlar 50/50 cloth unles you know just exactly what you're getting into, way too much hassle to deal with getting a finished job. Use straight carbon if you must but I'd think S glass would be a sufficient cloth upgrade to move your experience up from regular E glass.