70th Explorers Garrison: Forums

i know im a ways off on this, but im wanting to make molds and cast my war machine. now, bear with me, ive trooped my vader and im starting to hate fiberglass's wieght. when i was on the NHRA top fuel circut, we used a carbon fiber body on the race car. ultra light and extreamly strong. i was thinking of casting the suit in carbon fiber.... it would be lighter and stronger. however... i do not have any experiance in casting it. is it similar to fiberglass? if we hurt the car body, we sent it back to the caster. any help, tips, info on carbon fiber casting would be welcome.

and yes, im well aware of its costs. id rather have a higher investment and a longer lasting suit.

so... after reading a ton of materials.. ive found out i will need (for best results) to build an autoclave oven and a vacuum bag. the bag is easiest to buy, the autoclave is something i can definitly fabricate. but how well it will work is another thing.... stay tuned kids...

If this works, this bucket should be virtually indestructable. I would imagine sanding would be a chore with this as the fibers would be a mess...not to mention itchy as all get out. Make sure to bundle up and do in an open space prior to any bucket prep.

This should be fun to see come together. Good luck.

definitely interested carbon fiber the way to go. i was always amazed at how light the funny car bodies were these days, of course once an engine pops up in flames!

judge_hellfast wrote:If this works, this bucket should be virtually indestructable.

thats what i want, indestructable. no more worring if a kid is gonna crush your shin armor when he hugs you! and your right tim! they are ultra light! it only takes three people to pick up a funny car body, two can do it, but the third guy is there for stability! im looking into what will be involved in building an autoclave oven. if the autoclave works, we may open up a carbon fiber armory here! more to come soon i hope!

as for itchyness, i know! before the team, i worked at frieghtliner cutting holes in the fiberglass cabs for wires. it sucks, and i hate that feeling!

(btw, if anyone knows someone that is getting rid of a few ovens, lmk!)

more good news!!!! (life is good!) ok, here we go. it seems i will need prepreg carbon fiber cloth tape, a vacuum bag, oven or autoclave.
ive been talking to a few carbon fiber casters and reading every thing i can..... here is what i gather from talking to them.

now, there are 3 ways of casting carbon, autoclaved, vac bagging, and resin casting.

resin casting is just like fiberglass. this is pointless with carbon fiber. you will gain the streangth, but you wont loose the weight... so lets skip this option

next up is the good ol vac bagging. with the vac bagging, you will need a vacuum bag, stronger molds, pre-preg carbon fiber tape, and an oven. now, apply your relise agent, you lay the tape down in a pattern you like in the mold (male or female) and vac bag the item. then draw a good vacuum on it (around 30" HG). this puts your part at 1 atmosphere (or 14psi atmospheric pressure at sea level) and put your item into an oven for a number of hours at a low temp to allow your pre-preg resin to flow and distribute itself. then you up the temp of the oven to the cure temp of the fiber. tada! compleated part.

lastly, the autoclave. you will need every thing from the vac bagging method, exept the oven (because you have an autoclave!). same process really, the differance is that the autoclave method is you put the part at 5 atmospheres (70-80 psi) and this eliminates more air bubbles.

the autoclave method (from what ive been told and read) only increases streangth by 2-3% over vac bagging/oven process and air bubbles are reduced to 1/8th of a percent. the vac bagging/oven method has air bubbles around 1/4 of a percent or less. i really doubt 2-3% would affect the armors streangth that greatly. thus, if i go this route, i will not be doing the autoclave meathod. i feel if i build a big enough oven, and a vac bag table to slide in and out, i should get the high streangth i want with the ultra low weight. after all, im not building a plane! basicly im worried about the autoclave turning into a giant bomb if i fail to make it hold this pressure(70 psi)

confused yet? what does every one think?

sounds good with the vac bag method, the university here used to have classes in carbon fiber laying or advanced aircraft building technics where they taught you how to work with the stuff. now i wish i had taken it, they did away with the A&P 2 year degree so away went the class. that would be killer to do, the only question is would you make the initial buck meaning sculpt the entire helmet from the raw your self or "ahem" cheat?

thats the next hurdle i need to find out about before i continue my cheating with the pep build. i need to find out about what materials make the best molds to use with carbon. im sure a fiberglass master would be destroyed due to the high temps of the oven..... thats a bummer about the class. that would have been sweet. heck, it might be worth seeing if there are any classes for carbon fiber in this area. im going to reach out to the race car casters again tomarrow and see if they can shed some light on mold materials.... stay tuned!

i have some materials that you can have i discussed them with andy if you want to try that method let me know and i will send them your way!
as a thought you might contact a A&P school or shop in your area to see if they could help you out with the first one, with the use of their oven or tech support, you never know where you will find a star wars fan, it might be a teacher or business owner.

ive been calling everyone and everyplace i can think of.... the search continues... heck i even called jerry bickel race cars and jerry haas (they both sell pro stock dragsters) here in st. louis and they get their bodys from a caster in ohio. did find a place here, I-70 auto body, but they cast it like they cast fiberglass. not the process i need....... oh well. stay tuned kids!