The Carbon Fiber Project

[dave0]

I truly hesitate to post this here as there are so many great craftsmen but thought I could provide a few chuckles for you all at my lack of skills. It was really a project I wanted to do after it got buried into my brain and went ahead with it despite many thoughts against doing it. Sometimes being stubborn is a handicap but one does learn a thing or two! It is still a work in progress. Yes, I usually do work with wood for this type of project but as the writeup explains I had a lot of cloth on hand and well...one thing led to another and......

http://scooter-bangortoportland.blog...r-project.html

dougd

 

[Jim Dodd]

Doug

I'm always up for a new adventure, and this looks like one to me ! Thanks !

Years ago watching a film on canoe repair in the wild. I watched a milk jug melted, for use as a patch on a canoe. I'm not sure how well it would stick. And never tried it.

Another quick repair I saw on a film was a Styrofoam cup melted in gasoline, to make an adhesive. They might have used White gas. All Styrofoam is not the same. But I found this an interesting experiment.

gain thanks.

Jim

 

[dave0]

Jim, the thought of the type of foam I used came into question. According to the article I read in Expoy Works the foam was melted out with acetone. I am guessing one type of foam is better for this application vs what I used. It's all a crap shoot, usually the way my projects work! ;-) Always a learning curve which is good. My list of what doesn't work is a heck of a lot longer then what does work!

dougd

 

[Murat V]

I like the idea of using those ubiquitous office supply boxes to make a wannigan. Hope you'll keep at it and share your finished project...might be the only carbon fiber wannigan out there!

 

[Alan Gage]

Fun project, Doug. I've always wondered how the lost foam technique would work out. Glad you experimented first before just diving in. I'm interested to see how the cardboard core works out. I tried cardboard for a core a couple times before but had problems with it buckling at the corrugations. That was just using lightweight fiberglass though, carbon will be much stiffer of course.

I don't really have a desire for a wannigan but have thought making one from carbon fiber would be fun. I'd be tempted to go with 1/4" or 3/8" building foam that comes in sheets, probably laminating each piece with carbon fiber and then gluing it all together. Should be lightweight, stiff, and insulated to boot.

Are you going to leave the outside black or paint it a lighter color so your cheese doesn't melt?

Alan

 

[Bothwell Voyageur]

Maybe you could use a plastic garbage can as a mold? Should pop right off the polythene.

Unless you are doing this to save weight it seems there are a number of "hi-tech wanigans on the market already that are strong and watertight. You'll be making a carbon fiber barrel next!

Interesting project though and trying not to breath the fumes from the acetone must have been fun!

 

[Jim Dodd]

For the weight and cost of those Blue Barrel rigs with harnesses, I think a Wanigan sounds like a great idea !

My Kevlar hull, with the pink foam core, talks to me a lot, and I don't like what I'm hearing! Every time I put a little stress on the keel, It sounds like a bowl of Rice Krispies ! One of these days, I'm pulling Pinky, and replacing her with my silent friend, WRC !

Properly constructed a wanigan could add flotation, be made into a table, and if insulated, keep those beverages cool !
I'm talking myself into one all ready !

Jim

 

[Canotrouge]

I really like the idea to!! My Wanigan is water tight, probably not as good as a barrel, but petty close so flotation for sure. I wonder if you could use some thing like Divinycell foam core to laminate the carbon on or any rigid thin foam core.... I think it would be the way to go. Maybe even some core mat the stuff they use in picture framing, it is thin, rigid, light....

 

[dave0]

This is strictly for my pots, pans, coffee pot, etc. No food is going in this so I'm leaving it black. It won't be 100% water tight but that's ok. I did think about using foam but after the acetone test opted for the box. So far it is rigid enough and am thinking once I have the outside coated in a layer of CF it should be stiff enough. I probably could have bought something that would have fit the bill but having all that CF sitting around was just bugging me! Using the Super 7 to minimize the fraying seems to work pretty well as that was driving me nuts!

 

[Alan Gage]

Sounds like the exterior bottom will be dynel only? I'd worry a little about weakness on such a thin and flat surface without carbon in the mix too. I wouldn't be worried about the bottom layer breaking out but rather setting it down on an uneven surface and something denting/creasing the laminate. Maybe one layer of carbon with Dynel over that for abrasion resistance?

When I was starting to laminate foam (regular building foam, 2lb/cu. ft) with carbon last winter I found with just one layer of 5.7oz. carbon I could press hard with a fingertip and still feel the sponginess of the foam. Two layers added enough strength that I couldn't. If that really means anything or not I don't know, I'm still new at this, but I doubled up the layers on anything (like decks) that might take a knock or two.

I like the adhesive spray trick. Those unraveling ends can be maddening. On most of my projects I let the cloth run long and trim it off with a razor blade knife when green (best method) or a bandsaw if it's setup hard. Carbon is heck on bandsaw blades though.

Alan

 

[dave0]

Alan, I will be coating the outside of the box as well. I do plan on using CF on the exterior and adding another layer of it over the Dynel on the inside. I'm guessing this will make it pretty sturdy. I just put the last layer on the inside this evening. Little by little! After I'm done with all the cloth work I do plan on adding a final coat of resin to cover up any mistakes the best I can. Believe me there are plenty of mistakes, I'm not very gifted with working with cloth!

 

[dave0]

I'm still trying to get this thing done so did some more work on it. Here's from my write up. Look for November 20th entry for today's work.

http://scooter-bangortoportland.blogspot.com/2015/11/the-carbon-fiber-project.html

What I have noticed is the sagging of the cardboard,not to significant but one can notice. My mistakes with cloth are fewer but they are there. I will have to address them afterwards. I know this is a kind of stupid project but once I get into something like this I learn so much. I could site how many different ways I could have laid the cloth different to make the use of materials less as well as resin. Live and learn!