Making micarta

C

cgdavid

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Sep 12, 2005
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Seen a few references people made to home-made micarta. My searches come up with way too much info of nothing at all. Could someone please what is ment by home-made micarta? How is it done?

Thanks..Curt

Something I thought about trying is to take two colors of heavy paper - black and gray for instance. Cut them in strips about 1-1/2" wide and saturate them in 24hour epoxy. lay some waxed paper on a very flat, level surface and start laying the saturated paper strips on top of each other. laying them down like you would gluing sheet material with contact glue working the bubbles out. Finally, lay a layer of waxed paper over the stack then a block of wood topped of by a bunch of weight. The whole assembly could be clamped if this process started out with a peice of wood.

Also thought about stacking a bunch of strips of fiberglass screen in a form, pouring epoxy in the mould and compress - may be interesting or may totaly suck.
 
I don't remember the process that was being used, but I seem to remember a couple threads where people were making canvas micarta and it looked pretty cool. You might try searching for that. Unfortunately the search mechanism here seems to be really hit or miss. I can get nothing for three days and then get hits for the exact same search the next day... or get hits for two searches and then nothing for the rest of the day. I think luck is usually better using advanced search.
 
I've done it with good results. I use woodworking epoxy (West System) but there are also polyester resins available that others (like Ariel Salaverria) have used to good effect.

The process is pretty simple. You need whatever kind of resin you plan to use (probably more than you think), many squares/rectangles of the fabric you want to use (or woven fiberglass, or kevlar reinforcing tape, whatever), some way paper or sheet plastic, some kind of rigid plates to squash it all between, and some kind of clamping gear (I've used 1"-thick steel plates and a bunch of c-clamps because it's what I have, but you could probably get away with a vise and some less-massive plate of some kind.

1. Place the first plate on a flat surface and cover it with the wax paper or sheet plastic.
2. Mix up your epoxy/resin/whatever.
3. Lay one piece of fabric on the plate.
4. Pour some resin on the fabric and spread it around. In my experience, you should use just enough resin to soak that layer.
5. Lay another piece of fabric over the epoxy.
6. Repeat 4 & 5 until you're out of fabric or think you've got the thickness you want.
7. Place another piece of wax paper/plastic over it all
9. Place the second plate on top of everything and clamp it up. Try to keep the pressure even all over.
10. Epoxy takes a while to cure when it's in thin layers, so it's best to put the whole mess somewhere warm and leave it for at least 36 hours. I find the longer I leave it, the harder it is. I have a piece I left over a weekend and it's nice and hard. Another piece that I left overnight is a little spongier.
11. When it's had time to cure, you should be able to unclamp it, remove the plates, and peel off the wax paper (plastic is even easier). Bingo! Homebrew micarta.

Notes:
The great thing about this method is the control you have over the color and texture of your material. By alternating denim and tan cotton duck, I got this:

hkr_skinner.jpg


Ariel Salaverria has gone even further and made damascus-y patterns by pressing objects (like beans and dry lentils) into the top layer and then grinding them off. Check it out.

Previously I used woodworking epoxy, which is fairly viscous. I'm not positive it penetrates the fabric completely. Next time, I think I'm going to try a thin fiberglassing epoxy instead. I'm also concerned about air bubbles, so I want to try either vacuum bagging it or pressing it the way I've described here and sticking it in some kind of vacuum vessel like they use for stabilizing wood. But that's advanced stuff and you'll get nice results without all that.

Good luck! Let me know if you have more questions.

-Allin
 
i attened an education not long ago at place where they made carbon fibreparts and similar stuff

they used an aluminium plate and an agent that helps the epoxy release.
then layers of preimpregnated sheets, one in each direction (in sets of 4 for best strengt, one in the N direction one E one S one W, well u get it) if u just put the sheets at random the part will come out warped.

and on top of that plate with all those layers they put a sheet of plastic with 4 hoseconnectors (one in each corner but not where the part being manufactured was) which they taped shut around the edges of the plate so they could suck all the air out to prevent bubbles

when the vaccum process was done they put the plate in an autoclave and baked it at around 200-250 °C for a couple of hours if im not misstaking, cant remember under what pressure.
 
Was getting dressed this morning and started to put on apair of jeans that I got some epoxy on. Found a new life for old jeans in knife handles :D Anyway, I'll put together some test pieces and let you all know how it comes out....

Thanks...Curt
 
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