Project - Carbon Fiber
Centre Console for the Samba. My First attempt at making something from Carbonfibre
and Fibreglass.
I knew roughly what i wanted to
achieve with this project. The plan was for a centre consol for the Samba
to mount aux switches, relays and fuses where there would be accessible to
the driver and navigator within the cars cockpit.
First
thing was to create a cardboard mockup to test positioning and the best shape.
This was then used to model the design on a 3D CAD package to experiment with
the layout of the components and to produce a wooden 'plug' to produce a fibreglass
mould.
The
3D CAD model was mainly being used to visualise the finished console. When components
are modeled dimentionally accurately, the best arrangement and layout of the
said components can be worked out before drilling and cutting the finished carbon
console.
The
'plug' was made from MDF and some offcuts of soft wood. The surface finish of
this was important to the finish of the final product, but i didn't realise
how important! If i made another i would certainly be spending more time making
the plug as perfect as possible.
The
finished 'plug' was spray painted with lacquer for a smooth gloss finish and
then painted with a PVA based mould release agent.
My
first messy attempt at fibreglassing. I think i used far too much resin and
mixed too much in one go. I since learnt i should have used a gell coat to produce
a better surface finish
CFS
Fiberglass Supplies - www.cfsnet.co.uk
Second
experiment was to make a flat sheet of carbon fiber with a good surface finish,
still using 3 layers of carbon fabric.
Carbon fibre fan mount
for my PC
Used to provide fan clearance
inside my PC for a very powerful Delta 60mm fan used to cool the interior
of my Shuttle SN41G2.
