TooBusy wrote:CF if expensive compared to glass. Cut your teeth on glass first and save a whole lot of $$$
carbon fiber is much more expensive than fiberglass but the benefits of carbon fiber stretches a mile long...
I was thinking of doing the frame out of carbon fiber because of the following:
1)
Read the following off the internet:
1 inch 3 ply tube 127% stronger than 1 inch mild steel tube
1 inch 4 ply tube 161% stronger than 1 inch mild steel tube
1 inch 5 ply tube 203% stronger than 1 inch mild steel tube
1 inch 6 ply tube 243% stronger than 1 inch mild steel tube
.............................................................................................
So from reading that building structure components from it is incredibly strong...
2)
Read on a go cart racing forum that a guy who builds go cart frames for a living decided to dabble into carbon fiber and this was the results:
1.5 ID inch steel tube frame is 33.1 lbs
1.5 OD inch carbon fiber frame turned out to 19.2 lbs
He said he used the same jig he uses for the steel frames...
The way he built his was he used a 1.5 inch steel bar that he wrapped with 2 layers of paper... He said he used the paper you buy at home depot for painting.. then he wrapped 4 layers of carbon fiber around while painting the surface resin while he wrapped it.
The reason he had to use painters paper as the first 2 layers was because when he tried to make it on the bare metal rod he couldnt get it off once it was cured... the paper shrinks slightly allowing the carbon fiber to slide off.. The ones that gave him trouble he said he would drop them in a vat of water allowing the paper to soak in water then the paper would tear as you pulled the carbon fiber off..
Then when he made the frame he used carbon fiber epoxy to glue the straight peaces together.. kinda like welding.. once he had the frame made up in the jig he wrap the entire frame with carbon fiber ribbon to covering up all the cut ends.
On the locations that mounting peaces needed he used aluminum peaces and epoxied them to the frame and then wrapped over the peaces with carbon fiber ribbon to build it into the frame as a solid peace.
3) no need to paint... All the years i had sport bikes the most annoying part was paint and maintaining the paint from wear, scratches, and environment causing corrosion on aluminum parts and such... with the carbon fiber frame makes rust a thing of the past and the look of carbon fiber is beautiful. so no need to paint it so you save hundreds on prep and paint or powder coating..which in turn reduces the cost of the frame cost slightly...
4) power to weight benefit...
If 33.1lbs was reduced by roughly 42% to make a 19.2lb frame..
if a normal frame is roughly 80lbs... if it reduced it by 42% also that would put the frame at 46.4lbs
then when you do the body plates and floor in carbon fiber then the weight is kept low possibly makeing a fully bodied frame closer to the origional frame weight of 80lbs instead of 150ish pounds..saving you weight...
