the stuff’s awe inspiring kind of like a 22nd century Roy Power’s mini-dragon. Like re-building Steve Austin with new parts better parts…
BTW what exactly is Carbon tow?
and how do you use it…
Whew… okay, I was just getting mine from fiberglasssupply…
I don’t need more then 2 feet anyways.
Quote:
the stuff’s awe inspiring kind of like a 22nd century Roy Power’s mini-dragon. Like re-building Steve Austin with new parts better parts…
BTW what exactly is Carbon tow?
and how do you use it…
carbon tow is basicly single carbon threads to form a cord of about 500 individual threads. There is no binder at all, just loose threads. they usually come bundled together in a spool. Most people dont use the stuff because it is hard to work with. The threads easily get tangled and it is hard to handle. HOWEVER… with a little practice, the stuff is amazing and very cheap. For instance, I used the tow in between plies of veneer (check out attatched pic surf18). I superglue the tow to a plywood frame in HIGH TENSION. When you compress the veneer while gluing the plies together, the threads flatten out to neglegable thickness and dont bulge through the veneer, even with thick bundles of threads. The tow can be used to secure joints, if you wrap it around a joint a few times and put a drop of thin viscocity super glue on it, the material you are joining will break before the joint comes close to breaking. Super glue wicks right through the fiber to make a super strong fillet at a joint. I used it to secure the top of each carbon rod double arch to the bottom of the sub-stringer, origionaly the tow was wrapped all the way around the stringer, but I sanded the top off because it wasn’t necessary and I needed to make the top deck smooth for the skin to attach(see attached pic surf13). Another great way to use it is to cut off 8 ft at a time, clamp one end in a vise and the other in a drill. I thin 15 min epoxy with 50% alcohol. Then I brush the mixture onto the tow. Then I wind it up in the drill (about 150 turns) while keeping as much tension as possible. Meanwhile all of the resin is squeezed out of the tow. I wipe this off with a paper towel. This just leaves just enough resin to make a round rope that is VERY flexible and easy to work with. I use this in the ribs from rail to rail to take care of all the tension inside the framework from the carbon arches and domed deck (you can see the rope that I formed on the inside of the ribs in pic surf13, it looks like carbon rod).
all in all, its great stuff, and a 12ft roll is only $5.00
The bundle in the 12ft roll is so thick that I have to split it up four ways to make a total of 48ft.
CA GLUE (super-glue) IS THE BEST STUFF ON EARTH!!! I SWEAR BY IT!! FUCK YOU GORRILLA GLUE. CA can hold wings on a 6 pound airplane while pulling 15 G’s, it can hold the engine on the same airplane while pulling 7 lbs of thrust and spinning at 15000 rpm AND producing all kinds of crazy vibration while simultaineously pulling 15 G’s. the airplane will last for years with out any cracks or fatigue. However it is quite rare that airplanes last that long due to non structural failures (engine, radio and control systems) and pilot error.
CA ACTS AS A WELDED JOINT FOR COMPOSITE MATERIALS AND BALSA WOOD!!! if it gets on my fingers, I have fun picking it off. The bottle comes with a long pointed wick so its easy to get in tight areas, It dries in seconds so you dont have to worry about it running. And if it does run, I just spray a little CA kicker on it, and the stuff INSTANTLY HARDENS!!
Remember that CA works by whicking into the material. If the material is not porous enough, it will not work. CA is bad on thick rough plywoods and some plastics. CA is best with balsa, carbon, kevlar, fiberglass, high quality aircraft grade plywoods, porous plastics, mylar, slik, and skin.
HOWEVER… when laying down fabric of any kind, I prefer to use epoxy because the slower curing time alows full saturation of the fabric, and prevents it from becoming too brittle.
Tip: to easily cut through carbon and kevlar fabrics, run a narrow bead of thin CA allong the area which needs to be cut. The CA will cause the fabric in that area to become very brittle and it will easily cut with scissors. Best of all, the fabric wont unravel because the edges are sealed with glue.
having said this…
would this make a good material to attach your glasson fins to your board instead of the classic fiberglass rope build up?
I like it this
it is definitely a neuron generator for me now as I think where it can be used in a standard build out…
Thanks
Quote:
having said this…
would this make a good material to attach your glasson fins to your board instead of the classic fiberglass rope build up?
I like it this
it is definitely a neuron generator for me now as I think where it can be used in a standard build out…
Thanks
potentially… I would use thick CA and glass fibers. HOWEVER, CA is brittle when it dries and it DISSOLVES FOAM. PLUS you cant form a fillet out of it and it is hard to sand. I would probably stick to using resin to attach fins.
Epoxy+tow to bind
epoxy+Qcell build up over to fair down
should work
The epoxied tow rope made with a drill would work too…
all you would need is a little tow rope at the joint for reinforcement versus the build ugly build up and multi glass overlay we usually do.
FINALLY I got some fins in the mail!!! I installed the boxes in the board. here are the pics. I built balsa boxes to mount into the frame. The Futures boxes will be glued in after the first ply of veneer. The second ply of veneer will cover the boxes so I dont have ugly white boxes haning out. I should have bought black ones. I might soak them in some Rit dye to turn them black.
I started making molds for futures fins. Here is a pic of the set up. Im casting the mold for the first fin, in the pic Im waiting for the resin to dry. The other mold is shown before casting the resin. I hope to end up with a wood box full of resin with an exact negative futures fin mold with the locks and everything. Notice the sheet of wax paper so I can remove the two halves. The screw in the top suspends the origional plastic futures fin in the mold while the resin is drying. I will then cast a wood carbon composite fin to match the board. Hopefully it will drop right into the futures boxes.
I love the high tech way of holding the molds together…
Bang a nail into it!!!
Coming along well…
Hicksy, I actually had heavy weights holding it down but I took them off to take the pic. That is not a nail. Its a screw. It goes into the fin to hold it above the resin pool.
Here is the pic of the mold after pulling it apart. I have some filling work to do with micro baloons around the edges and the cover, but the fin part came out perfect. you can see the indentations to lock the fin in the fin box. I will have a pic tonight of the completed mold. Im sure that the mold for the next fin will come out much better now that I have some practice!!
Every morning when i get into work I log on to sways to check the status of this post. This is becoming addicting, so I have decided that you are not allowed to take a break on building this board and you must continue to post a step atleast once a day. If not, I might go into withdrawl and be forced to do actual work at work, and not peruse the forum. Furthermore, when you are done with this board, you need to commence a more complicated project and post that also. But in reality, keep up the good work and I cant wait to see the finished project.
I was just thinking how cool a monocote bottom would be on a similar frame, not very practical for wear, but it would probably hold as long as you didn’t hit anything, and it would way next to nothing, plus it would be semitransparent to show the frame structure,
Jeff
Here is a pic of the completed futures fin mold. I filled all the air bubbles with epoxy+microballoons and sanded flat. Then I wet sanded the whole mold to make a nice smooth surface. The next pic shows how the veneer and carbon will fit in the mold (no resin yet). There are 2 pieces of veneer on the other side of the carbon so both sides look identical. They will be sandwitched with 3/4 oz glass cloth in the mold.
here is a pic of the whole sandwich drying. I hope to get a nice fin in a few hours.
I added support for my back foot now that the fins are in. Its a balsa channel with a carbon rod arch.
Im working on the board all day today, Im periodicly watching the views count on this thread pile up but Im not getting any feed-back… Come on guys, I love feed-back Positive, Negetive, Neutral whatever, lay it on me!!!
I dont know why I got white fins and boxes. In this next pic I am dying the boxes black, Then I might Dye them brown or tan. I dye them black first so I dont get a lighter shade of brown then what I want. Hopefully I can get them to match the wood pretty well even though only a small part will be visable. I just would hate to have white plastic on the bottom of the board!!
I glassed the inside of the sub-deck. Once it is almost dry I will flip it over and lay it on the board. I am going to waterproof the inside of the frame first.
Looks nice, watching this thing come together has been great.
Jeff