Is there something I should know about before cutting carbon?
-Wis (aka Laurent)
_/ if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it! _
Seawind
Wear a respirator. Wear gloves. Protect your eyes as well.
Go slow. Be prepared to frequently change or sharpen blades, whatever the cutting instrument might be.
Regards, mcg
Wis,
Are you talking about cutting a cured part, or the cloth?
<hr noshade size=“1”><font size=“1”>Moderator
-Dan
Sherman Yachts</font id=“size1”>
cured part
Huh, wear a respirator? isnt it a bit over-kill??, mask, glasses, thats all ok, gloves, I hate to work with them…but could make an effort…btw, its a 1/8" inch thick plate
-Wis (aka Laurent)
<font size=“1”>_/ if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it! _</font id=“size1”>
Seawind
MicroMagic #JPN 01
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<blockquote id=“quote”><font size=“1” face=“Verdana, Arial, Helvetica” id=“quote”>quote:<hr height=“1” noshade id=“quote”>Huh, wear a respirator? isnt it a bit over-kill??,<hr height=“1” noshade id=“quote”></blockquote id=“quote”></font id=“quote”>
Their your lungs, You can cut the stuff naked if you want to.
I would listen to this advice if I were you.
Carbon dust in your lungs does not go away. It is nasty stuff and can lead to all sorts of health problems.
Peter R.
www.climatemodels.com
Visit www.climatemodels.com
Carbon dust is lethal. Consider it to be on par with Cyanide gas, just not as fast acting.
you will die from it. If you are cutting a spar, ok…if you are going to be working with it for more than a couple of seconds (i.e. snip- done) you better watch it.
Fighter Pilot rule #3 Respect the Threat.[B)]
Okay we have done the safety bit, so what comes next? I want to work on some Waliki Boom blanks and I need to know about cutting and drilling? As you know these blank booms are not cheap and I need to get it right, first up. Whats the gen?
I use pultruded carbon fiber tubes that I pick up from a kite supply store for booms and masts. To cut them I first wrap them tightly with masking tape. Usually 3 or 4 layers does a good job, I then use a Dremel with a cut-off disc to cut them. This produces a dice clean cut with no tear-out.
Basically I have been told that to cut carbon you always want to use abrasive cutting tools. I know some of the r/c monster truck guys use cnc routers to mill carbon plates, but the cutting head is moving at 15k rpm +, and at that speed its almost like using abrasive tools.
<hr noshade size=“1”><font size=“1”>Moderator
-Dan
Sherman Yachts</font id=“size1”>
wis wear the mask.
like peter said. you can work naked. but just think what you are taking into your body. i dont work with the resperator. even if i am just cutting foam with a band saw. you can not take your health too seroius. the reason i say this is because of doug badgley. a real great guy. but after 20 years in the bussiness. he cant do more than 3 hours standing. he carries oxygen with him.
now with the carbon. i would tape out you pattern with masking tape. both sides , then like dan said . use a dremel tool ( BUT) dont rush it. i dont have alot of experinece working with carbon. but the time i did. you just brush along the side of it. and the edge will cut you. slow and carefull.
hope this helps
cougar
long live the cup and cris dickson
Thanks for the tip…I WILL use a mask, gloves and glasses (learned my lesson before), and I will work outside! I cant do better…
cheers
-Wis (aka Laurent)
<font size=“1”>_/ if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it! _</font id=“size1”>
Seawind
MicroMagic #JPN 01
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Right lads, we put paper tape before we cut. What principles do we have for drilling?
High speed, slow feed and sharp drills. Tape is a good idea, as you can’t centerpunch carbon to keep drill from wandering about. Use multiple drills for increasing hole size. Don’t try to do a 3/8 hole in small stock in one pass. Use a backing support plate (wood?) to prevent rip-out. Carbide tip drills if possible/affordable. If you have a drill vise I recommend using it to hold the stock.
Dick Lemke
F-48 #US-06
MultiONE #US-06
Class 3 Landyacht #US-196
Minnesota, USA
Its not the carbon in the dust, but the resin. Epoxy never leaves the body. Anyway, I find it easier to cut something under water so that the dust can be flushed down the sewer.
- HJ
“Expertice is gained trough mistakes. However repeating
same mistake is not learning but stupidity.”
Well I went and got the Dremel, the mask, the gloves and the glasses. I spoke to the bloke in the DIY store who gave me a drill bit and said it was as “good as” a carbon one for sharpness.
I used the paper tape method and wrapped it around the Main Boom where I wanted to dremel out the slot for the Vang Knurled wheel cut-out 4mmx 6mm. Marked the paper tape with a pencil. Then I got cold feet and had to think about it for a while. Finally did it. It wasn’t bad , just some fine little burrs inside the boom. The drilling of holes was something different. The drill kept going blunt and it started to turn into a disaster. I should have insisted on a carbon type drill and I will need some practice first on some scrap material, for drilling. A mistake is hard to cover up on the main boom.
many thanks to all,
it worked out well…of course this is just a test before making the servo tray for my MM…
Was wearing:
-mask
-safety glasses
-worked outside
I was very surprised with the dust…WOW…everywhere
anyway there you go:
-Wis (aka Laurent)
<font size=“1”>_/ if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it! _</font id=“size1”>
Seawind
MicroMagic #JPN 01
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dansherman said…“Basically I have been told that to cut carbon you always want to use abrasive cutting tools. I know some of the r/c monster truck guys use cnc routers to mill carbon plates, but the cutting head is moving at 15k rpm +, and at that speed its almost like using abrasive tools”.
My friend has an archery shop and he uses a 3" cut-off (abrasive) disc as part of a jig with rollers which holds the arrow shafts, slowly spinning them with his fingers as they make contact with the disc.
Just thought I’d add a different approach to locating line tie-down locations to carbon booms. First a warning, drilling pultruded spars will cut the the fibers, segmenting their integrity, and weaken the spar. Those drill holes can also become seed points for catastrophic “unzipping” (cracking of the spar under load). Plus, if your drill hole is in the wrong spot you are less likely to take the whole rig apart to relocate the hole correctly.
I don’t drill my tie-down location points, I tie them on. I first tie a bowline to the desired size for a particular function using dacron sheet line, then I use clove hitches to attach the bowline to the spar. A touch of crazy glue seals the knot in place.
If the location of the tie-down is not quite right simply cut the clove hitches and remove the old tie-down and put a new one in the right place. You can use a little acetone or nail polish remover to dissolve any left over crazy glue. Its really simple once you get the hang of tying the knots, and you don’t have spars riddled with holes. I’ve been using this system for over ten years and I haven’t had a spar fail or a knot rip open on any of my rigs.