How-To: Make rigid carbon fiber tubes

Epoxyworks is a free magazine published biannually, and archived online, by Michigan’s Gougeon Brothers, Inc., who use it to promote their West System brand of epoxy resins, which I have not used and have no stake in, but it’s chock full of tutorials, tips, and techniques for working with composite materials that could probably be “de-branded” and used with whomever’s products you prefer. Shown here are photos from one article that caught my eye (PDF), by J.R. Watson, showing how to form straight and curved rigid composite tubes in carbon fiber, kevlar, fiberglass, or other braided material by laying the composite up over a mold made from split foam pipe insulation. It also covers techniques for joining the finished rigid tubing sections. [Thanks, Alan Dove!]

From the pages of MAKE:

John Wanberg showed us how to make a carbon fiber composite iPod case back in MAKE 9.

More:

3 Responses to How-To: Make rigid carbon fiber tubes

Joshua A.C. Newman on March 18th, 2010 at 2:04 pm said:

Gougeon Brothers epoxies, actually, are pretty hard to beat. They’re used in all sorts of composites, like commercial boats and aircraft. Their pump system makes measuring easy and their one resin can be used with a number of catalysts for different effects and cure times.

They make a bunch of additives, like cabosil and microlight filler, but I don’t know if they’re particularly better than other brands (though I’ve heard that their microballoons are finer than many that are used for other purposes).

I don’t have any stake in them, either, but I’ve used their stuff quite a bit for building model sailplanes and found it to be very high quality.

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http://david.rysdam.org/blog/ on March 23rd, 2010 at 5:43 am said:

1) How expensive is this compared to copper?
2) Are the tubes air-tight?
3) How about heat resistance and conduction?

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Robert Keller on March 21st, 2013 at 10:08 pm said:

I am currently in the learning stages of making a drag bike frame completly of carbon fiber.all information for this project would be greatly appreciated.

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