is carbon fiber difficult?

I

InfantryMyers

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Oct 25, 2011
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im wanting to start working with carbon fiber i was just wondering how it differs from making handles out of G10 and if i need to do anything specifically different with it
 
The dust chews your lungs up pretty effectively. Years and years ago my dad brought a load home from work. There was a lot of preaching about not playing with the stuff :)
 
Also wear gloves and long sleeves... Otherwise you'll be itching for days.
 
its actually very easy to work with and unless your sanding a CF hood or 1/4 pannel for a car, your not gonna need to worry all that much about needing that much protection. just wear safty glasses and a dust mask and you'll be fine.
 
Charlie Mike said:
Also wear gloves and long sleeves... Otherwise you'll be itching for days.
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eh not really. Its more for mat fiberglass which will do that or the raw fiber but you'll have to be rubbing in to your skin to get the itch with CF. once you glass it with epoxy, it doesnt really itch that much.

just remember to use gloves when your playing with epoxy to make it faster and easier to clean up.
 
Also the chemicals in fiberglass/composite resins are irritants with a cumulative buildup in your system. So try to get the resin on you as little as possible if you don't want to develop an allergy to the stuff. The kind of resin you use will depend on the needs of the task you have in mind for the finished product. Fortunately there are lots of guides online that deal with all of this.
 
If you are going to work with a lot of CF invest in a respirator with P100 filters. These will protect you more than a dust mask and feels better on your face. 3M is the most comfortable and most hardware stores sells them, but North and Wilson are great too. I own all three brands. They come in different sizes. Do an internet search on how to fit test.
 
I'm assuming you are buying cured carbon/epoxy sheets and not the prepreg or dry cloth.

The big concern with carbon fiber is dust control. The second is not delaminating the sheet when you are grinding or drilling it. Carbon fiber dust is conductive, so it can wreak havoc on any electronics that it gets into. If it get's onto your skin it'll itch like crazy. If it get's into your lungs or eyes it's a different matter.

http://www.2spi.com/catalog/msds/msds11431.html

The guys who grind this stuff professionally work in a dust control booth, wear Tyvek coveralls taped at the wrist to impermeable gloves, and respirators. They use air powered tools with diamond cutting and grinding wheels, and spade, dagger, or spiral flute drill bits

I don't know how much you're planning on doing, but as a minimum get a respirator (99 or 100 series), and disposabe gloves. If it's a significant amount add in a Tyvek smock or jacket, and some sort of dust control. The dust control can be a shop vac hose taped next to your work or a fancier dust control table. I don't know if the normal vac filter will catch all the dust, so try to vent it outside.
 
"Chronic effects: A review of the literature does not show obvious long
term hazard."

that's what my dad was told about asbestos :lol:
 
I hope you don't mind me piggybacking onto your thread.

What about making a set of scales out of blanks? So it would just be a little cutting, drilling and sanding. Basically just cover up, wear a respirator, goggles, and ventilate?
 
We like to keep General Knife Discussion free for talking about knives. I moved this to Shop Talk.
 
like everyone said the biggest thing is that carbon fibers are very strong, so when you sand it it just cuts off little bit of the fibers so you will get micro fibers stuck in you skin (or your lungs) if you are not careful. and since it doesnt degrade it can be a problem in your lungs, but on your skin it is just an irritant for a couple days. it sands better than micarta and works better than G10. great stuff. just dont overheat it when you grind it or it will burn the resin out and you will be left with unsupported carbon strands which leaves a rough and "prickly" surface. also.. i dont know if you care, but most Carbon fiber resin is UV sensitive, so it will yellow with age. if you want to keep the blue-gray color instead of the yellow gray look you will need to protect it with some UV protected clear, which is available at most hardware or automotive stores.

just my $0.02

good luck!
~Chris
 
BA_Colt said:
If you are going to work with *ANY CF, G10, micarta, steel, wood, etc* invest in a respirator with P100 filters. These will protect you more than a dust mask and feels better on your face. 3M is the most comfortable and most hardware stores sells them, but North and Wilson are great too. I own all three brands. They come in different sizes. Do an internet search on how to fit test.
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Absolutely. (*sorry for editing your quote, but I feel that strongly about it.) Dust-masks are worse than useless. They provide nothing but $.50 worth of false security. They do nothing to protect you from the things that will actually kill you 20 or 30 years from now. A 3M respirator like BA mentioned will set you back less than $20, with cartridges. :thumbup:
 
Any material or process that produces dust is NOT OK to breathe. Anything that contains unpleasant chemicals (and micarta does) is NOT OK to breathe. The basic rule of thumb is, if you can see it, taste it or smell it, wear a respirator... and if you can't see, smell or taste it, it will just take longer to destroy your lungs.

Respirators are inexpensive. Lungs are irreplaceable.
 
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