Carbon fiber ?

[Kaz the Minotaur]

Has anyone thought about using carbon fiber to make replacement parts? Like the shock towers? You can get all different thicknesses of carbon fiber on Ebay.

 

[Sprint 77]

Another good thought get back with us as you get some done.

 

[Kaz the Minotaur]

Yeah. Someone else on another 5th. scale forum thought of doing that.


What other flat parts would be good for this? You can cut it with a jig saw can't you? I suppose a dremel cut off wheel would work also. That would be harder though.

 

[pipeous]

I am lucky, I have a friend that makes carbon sheets locally and buy/trade him for sheets often and make a lot of parts. I made my FG servo plate from carbon recently... carbon mmmm


getting carbon thick enough for these towers wwould be tough though. I watched how carbon is made and it's really quite easy to make. All you need are a couple sheets of thick glass to press the stuff, auto resin, carbon sheets, mold release wax and a little spur type tool for releasing the air bubbles. Gentleman is retired and used to make full size and rc boats from fibreglass. I took some carbon over to him and we found rolls of carbon sheets at the plastics store locally.

 

[Kaz the Minotaur]

I've seen carbon fiber 7 and, I believe, 9 mm thick on Ebay. Thats probably close to the thickness of the shock towers.


I suppose potential things to make out of carbon are the shock towers, hinge pin braces, and throttle servo plate.

 

[RampageHopUps]

I think there are 2 guys working on it already. At least they now have the trucks and are doing some prototypes.

 

[BOOTS]

i make carbon products for 5th scale, personally carbon is not a good option for this section. carbon is best used for bling rather than structurual properties.


take for example top plates and tower braces for baja, on impact they break where as alloy flex's.

 

[Jersey El]

What about a carbon frame with aluminum brace like vantage frames?

 

[DemonRC]

If somebody doesn't start making beefy front/rear braces or machined out bling bling shock towers I might end up getting a CNC router and CNC mill this fall and make some myself. I've been needing to get those anyways for projects non-car related.

 

[LongShank]

i have been making my own 3mm and 4mm carbon chassis' for my 1/8 cars for the past year. the shock towers on the ramp are 6mm. you could definitely make some out of carbon as well as many other parts. i use my dremel to make alot of parts out of carbon but have also used real CAD design and a CNC and they look nicer but CNC-ing carbon is a pain in the ass. be prepared for a lot of trial and error...or research. carbon eats bits for breakfast!