Best Carbon Fiber Sheets

[MikeVi]

Hey guys, I am an engineer in a cabinet shop and run a CNC. I'm going to buy a carbon fiber bit and attempt to cut my own carbon fiber pieces for personal pieces and see if I can start fabbing my own stuff.

Just wondering where I should look for premium carbon fiber? DragonPlate obviously comes up first but I'm just wondering if there is somewhere else I should look too. Thanks for the help!

[Robbob]

Dragon (while yes good) is expensive.

What size material, thickness?

Best advice I can give is read descriptions carefully. Stay away from anything that mentions fiberglass - top layer carbon fiber - laminates.

McMaster has good 1.5 and 3mm stuff
Dlux has said he has 1.5 sheets
ACP Composites
Penguin RC

Also watch their description for finishes, some are only glossed or matted on one side and the other is rough for bonding.

[C*H*U*D]

Also understand how to machine carbon fiber safely. What you breathe in, never comes out.

[MikeVi]

Thanks for the advice. I haven't worked with carbon fiber yet so I appreciate the tips. Our CNC is enclosed and vacuumed so I won't breathe it in directly.

And thanks Rob for the advice. I wasn't sure if they had to mention the side being finished gloss or matte. So rule of thumb is if it doesn't say, its rough?

[MikeVi]

Any recommendation on routing bits? I saw this one and I figured it would be enough to get detail and drill holes. Am I thinking wrong? I know this handles differently than wood so I was just going to experiment if I didn't get your guys' help.

Sorry, I meant to point the link to the 1/8" diameter bit.

[Robbob]

Yup thats what you want for bits.

[MikeVi]

So how do you go about ordering finished sheets from McMaster?

I'm looking at this item and it's saying Smooth side, but Plain back which I'm guessing is for bonding.

[The Violator]

https://www.mcmaster.com/#catalog/123/3688/=15xjp24


1/16" -0.004" to +0.004" Checked 8181K14 57.37 8181K34 105.95
1/8" -0.006" to +0.006" Checked 8181K16 95.00 8181K36 175.00


This is what hundreds of comp cars are made out of.

[ROWDY RACING]

Originally Posted by The Violator

This is what hundreds of comp cars are made out of.

The good ones at least.

[MikeVi]

Awesome, thats good to know. I'm going to buy some cheaper sheets first to experiment with.

[roksloski]

My experience with Dragon Plate Was CRAP........

they cut some stuff for a friend, cutting was great but CF was Crap.....
a lot of filler... in their cf... and was supposed the good stuff

[MikeVi]

So, cut my first set today to test. Came out nice but still want to tweak it.



And another design, the Sheriff



edit: just realized i took a picture of the backside of the cf... derp.

[MikeVi]

I'm getting a bit of chatter marks on some of my cuts. Is this from speed? Its weird. Its mostly on my outside cut outs, not so much on the inside cuts. Any ideas?

[Robbob]

Originally Posted by MikeVi

I'm getting a bit of chatter marks on some of my cuts. Is this from speed? Its weird. Its mostly on my outside cut outs, not so much on the inside cuts. Any ideas?

Settings ... RPM, Feed, Depth ??

[MikeVi]

RPM on the CNC is 18,000. Depth of my cuts is 2mm. Feed rate varies. I'm unsure what feed rate I should be using.

[Robbob]

Originally Posted by MikeVi

RPM on the CNC is 18,000. Depth of my cuts is 2mm. Feed rate varies. I'm unsure what feed rate I should be using.

Hmmm similar to me, I usually run around the 4ipm for feed @24,000. My depth varies though, some stuff Ill go .05'' (1.5mm) deep passes and other stuff Ill just drop right through.

I noticed you have left some tabs on the wheel .... is that how youre keeping the wheel face down? Caught my eye right away, I would think its gonna chatter right there because of that. But you might be feeding it to fast also.

Another thing you can try is freezing the panels. Holmes told me about that couple years ago when I started up and its helped on a few different suppliers Ive used. Noticed your panels were small and not glossed on the back side (i think). Every time Ive cut that stuff I always had a problem with clean edges, I called it dirty cf lol. Maybe you can play with that too if you noticed hairy edges.

[MikeVi]

Do you creep on to your finish cuts? I read offsetting 1/64" and then coming back around might help. Also, I might try to make the cut in 2 passes as well, I'm just so used to working with wood, I didn't think 2mm would be a lot.

I ordered some 1mm diameter bits as well to try to get some more detail, have you tried this before?

Your feed is a lot slower than I've been doing. I'll make sure to get closer to yours, especially with a slower RPM.

And yeah, I got a Blemished Gloss/Matte sheet to test all this on first. Curious where you guys get your two sided finished from. McMasters says Plain backing and the place I got it, all there's is like mine unless its ridiculously expensive.

[MikeVi]

Actually, looks like ACP has gloss/gloss 1.5mm for a good price

Wow, ACP is like 10 minutes from my work. Awesome!

[Robbob]

Originally Posted by MikeVi

Do you creep on to your finish cuts? I read offsetting 1/64" and then coming back around might help. Also, I might try to make the cut in 2 passes as well, I'm just so used to working with wood, I didn't think 2mm would be a lot.

I ordered some 1mm diameter bits as well to try to get some more detail, have you tried this before?

Your feed is a lot slower than I've been doing. I'll make sure to get closer to yours, especially with a slower RPM.

And yeah, I got a Blemished Gloss/Matte sheet to test all this on first. Curious where you guys get your two sided finished from. McMasters says Plain backing and the place I got it, all there's is like mine unless its ridiculously expensive.

Fast RPM, max it out.

When I drop through full cut I run around 3.50ipm, not much different but most is usually around 4-4.50ipm for my normal 2mm stuff. It seems to keep the bit cooler. Bits get warm it tends to cook the cf edge.

I dont do any finish cuts though. No offset .... run it through with vaccuum sucking the dust and a little air blow on it. Keep the cut clear, dust keeps the heat in. It took a while (and lots of scraps) to get happy with my cutting but 2 years now doing it and Im happy with it. Of course first thing I always do when looking at other peoples cf is check out their edges lmao.

Originally Posted by MikeVi

Actually, looks like ACP has gloss/gloss 1.5mm for a good price

Wow, ACP is like 10 minutes from my work. Awesome!

Thats real nice and convenient.

[Hal]

I do some metal machining and sometimes when we get "chatter" marks we will do the cutting feed in the opposite direction. One would be called conventional the other would be called "climb" milling. In climb milling the cutter is moving along like a tire rolls. In conventional milling it moves spinning against feed direction. It will always help to use coolant, in this case a small amount of air on the cutter would work. I have never cut CF but we do something similar... phenolic. It is like fiberglass or CF but uses wood or textile as the fiber. Good luck.