Kz1000 Carbon Fiber Fuel Tank

Why thank you Leon. I can say now that I'm not too crazy on the pearl..... where the resin pooled a little, it looks like pockets of milky resin, and anywhere alse you can't tell. That would probably change a little if I clear coated the part, so I will reserve final judgement for a later date, or try the pearl on a sidecover too. On this mold I wasn't as concerned about appearance, so I sanded the mold with 600 grit and left it. So the corresponding parts I make have a kinda matte finish. Also, I think I would use a couple more layers of fabric on the part. It turned out much thinner than I thought it would, but it is also LIGHT. It weighs in at a whopping 13.2oz That sounds like alot, but for the size of the part, it feels like a feather. This is my first piece toward making my carbon fiber fuel tank, enjoy! :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:

I expect the tank top to weigh at least twice as much as the bottom, but even then, the raw tank may weigh in at around 3 lbs.... :whistle:

That looks good enough for a tank bottom. Could you mix the pearl in your first coat of clear when you shoot it? Then follow up with some straight clear for subsequent coats.

Having never done anything like this, I'm surprised how much of the mold texture actually comes through to the fabric (specifically the square towards the back of the tank). I still don't think I can fully understand the process without watching someone actually do it...guess I'm off to Youtube.

Here is a pic that shows the pearl resin pooling in the tighter radius corners.

I was pleased that the fabric conformed very well to the mold and I was using single pieces of fabric. That indicates that I will be able to use single pieces of cloth on the tank top piece so the weave will be uninterupted.

Josh, I think that that would be the best way to go. I though that if I incorporated the pearl in the resin it would work the same, but I suppose not :ohmy: Experiment and learn

DoubleD, EVERY aspect of the mold gets imparted to the piece being molded. Every scratch, every dip, every pinhole, every imperfection is reflected in the laminated part. That is why mold quality is of paramount importance, ESPECIALLY a piece that is designed to show the fabric weave. The square you speak of is the rear tank mount. It is a secondary patch of steel spot welded to the main underside panel to reinforce the rear mount. I took off the mount, but I left the reinforcing steel patch there because it hase locating pins for the rear mount. The patch however had a small gap, and if that gap were to fill with resin, it would have locked the mold to the tank (not my idea of fun times) so I filleted the gap around the steel panel with modeling clay. So the texture you are looking at was imparted by the modeling clay, and I was too lazy to sand it all smooth :blush: Look at me, getting lazy :S

Very cool.

sproing!

porchev914 wrote:

DoubleD, EVERY aspect of the mold gets imparted to the piece being molded. Every scratch, every dip, every pinhole, every imperfection is reflected in the laminated part. That is why mold quality is of paramount importance, ESPECIALLY a piece that is designed to show the fabric weave. The square you speak of is the rear tank mount. It is a secondary patch of steel spot welded to the main underside panel to reinforce the rear mount. I took off the mount, but I left the reinforcing steel patch there because it hase locating pins for the rear mount. The patch however had a small gap, and if that gap were to fill with resin, it would have locked the mold to the tank (not my idea of fun times) so I filleted the gap around the steel panel with modeling clay. So the texture you are looking at was imparted by the modeling clay, and I was too lazy to sand it all smooth :blush: Look at me, getting lazy :S

This is why molding equipment and specifically the molds themselves are soo expensive. There is a TON of finishing work to removing tooling marks from machined molds. As porchev says, if its on the mold, then it's on every part out of the mold. I wind up machining small plastic parts almost daily because the batch size is not big enough to justify the expense of molding. Some of those batches are for 5000 pieces, and that still isn't enough.

I can see why high production quality molds are soooooooo expensive. It would take a guy a few months to make a set start to finish. :whistle:

I was curious how much weight I had in "casting flash", so I trimmed the tank bottom piece fairly close to the seam line and re-weighed it. 11.2 oz......I'm going to measure the flange on the carbon piece and see if it's half of the thickness of the tank seam. If it's thin enough, I'll increase the layers of the entire laminate to 5. If not, I'll increase the layers over most of the piece, just not the seam areas.
The trimmed part-

Do you have a weight goal for your bike or just as low as possible with what you have?

No Josh, no weight goal. I'm just trying to keep track of everything thats added, subtracted or modified with the hope that the bike will be lighter in the end. I'm not sure what my bike actually weighed in wet, stock, but I know it was well in the 500lb range. The lower in the range the better, she's a heavy bitch :pinch:

when i was younger...i liked to trim off extra brackets and swap for lighter parts....seems...like a waste of time these days to try and trim 50-75 lbs off of the bike...

porchev914 wrote:

Why thank you Leon. I can say now that I'm not too crazy on the pearl..... where the resin pooled a little, it looks like pockets of milky resin, and anywhere alse you can't tell. That would probably change a little if I clear coated the part, so I will reserve final judgement for a later date, or try the pearl on a sidecover too. On this mold I wasn't as concerned about appearance, so I sanded the mold with 600 grit and left it. So the corresponding parts I make have a kinda matte finish. Also, I think I would use a couple more layers of fabric on the part. It turned out much thinner than I thought it would, but it is also LIGHT. It weighs in at a whopping 13.2oz That sounds like alot, but for the size of the part, it feels like a feather. This is my first piece toward making my carbon fiber fuel tank, enjoy! :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:

I expect the tank top to weigh at least twice as much as the bottom, but even then, the raw tank may weigh in at around 3 lbs.... :whistle:

Sorry dude!! I just had to change my Undies after seeing that Sweet tank bottom! Great work man!!