I have access to some free carbon fiber cloth through a friend’s dad and I’m thinking about using it on the bottom of a 9’6" longboard I’m about to shape. I think the cloth is in the 8 oz range and I’m not sure about what kind of weave. I love the look of carbon fiber cloth and I figure strength would be an added bonus as well. But, I don’t know if it will be hard to work with or what kind of resin I would have to use. Anybody out there tried this or know if it would work or even be a good idea?
A few things to remember about carbon fiber. #1 it can be very hard to cut, it will destroy what ever you use to cut it. #2 If you get the fibers on you clothes throw them away because if you wash them with other clothes it will get in all of them. (Tvek Suit) #3 Always wear a mask and gloves when using carbon. #4 The 8oz carbon is super strong and stiff your board would have very little to no flex, but the bottom would be bullet proof. #5 whatever you do don’t sand into the carbon this stuff is super fine, very dangerous particals. #6 You can use whatever resin system you want but I would use epoxy. Good Luck Stay Solid
As Soulshine said, use epoxy!! If you use polyester you will have to encapsulate the carbon with the resin, excess weight. With a quality epoxy you will use a lot less resin and get much better adhesion to the carbon, higher strength properties. I would lean towards a toughened epoxy to help prevent micro cracks from progessing upon impact damage. Sluggo
Sluggo, So, let me get this straight because I’ve only done polyester before. I would put the epoxy on the blank and just “glue” the carbon onto it? Then would I just hotcoat over the raw top surface of the carbon or something? Also, this is going to be more of a retro noserider type board rather than hi performance, so is weight critical? Any clarifications greatly appreciated.
Soulshine, Do I want flex in my longboard? It seems to me that stiff would be be better because it would not deform under loading.
You would laminate with the the epoxy, you can really squeegee out a lot of the excess resin. With polyester you need to really saturate (encapsulate) the carbon fiber Polyester doesn’t bond as well to the carbon as epoxy. Sluggo
I just finished a board with the entire interior being CF… I used the CF on the inside, instead of 1/8" plywood for the physical advantages CF has… Cutting it with scissors was no different than cutting s-glass… The fibers didn’t stain my clothes… A mask is always a good idea, but I didn’t use gloves on the raw CF cloth… I did a little sanding of the CF, and it does get messy…Black dust…Kind of like a pencil lead all sanded to powder… Epoxy is the only way to go… Paul 
Using carbon is not unlike using fiberglass. I never found it difficult to cut or work with and with Epoxy you can get it light and super strong. Carbon comes out in a laminate double the strength of regular fiberglass cloth. In other words one layer of 6 oz. carbon is equal to two layers of 6 oz. glass. Use it this way and you’ll be successful. It is black so if you have a problem with that you’ll have to paint over it. Paul, bitchen!!
The carbon doesn’t stain the clothes it gets in the fibers of your clothes and stays there. Yes epoxy is the resin of choice and 8oz carbon is really tuff on scissors. Like Greg said twice the strenght of the same oz in glass.