Kz1000 Carbon Fiber Fuel Tank

no link but here is a pic.



leon

That aluminium tank is pretty frickin sweet Leon! As far as my lowly (in comparison) carbon fiber tank goes, I was able to make some real progress; albeit small. I did get my 2 main work benches clean and clear of everything except a few composite supplies and tools. Today, I managed to finish prepping the tank mounts.

Tonight I'll work on the clay bed to support the parts while I laminate the mold. Due to the small but numerous bubbles that surfaced in my tail mold, I am going to try a stepped approach to this mold. I'm going to mix the surface layer with a fast hardener and graphite, apply it and let it set up. Then while it's still tacky, I'll mix more resin with slow hardener and proceed with the reinforcement. Hopefully, that'll do the trick. If not, its back to the drawing board!

hey don't be knocking that awesome job you did on the carbon tank. The aluminum is nice but I'm way more impressed with the carbon.

bring on the laminate porn :woohoo: !


leon

Thank you Nelson, Leon, for the kind words. I fell asleep the other night after the kids got put down, so no progress that night :dry: Last night the wife and I went out to a new local Irish pub for a well deserved evening of fun :woohoo: This morning after copious amounts of water, I set out a couple pounds of clay on my tailgate (thank you Leon) to warm it up and make it easier to work. Then I set about making a clay bed for the tank mounts to set in for a one piece mold. After I was done, it looks like this:

Next I will spray it with a few coats of PVA and then get to mixing the first batch of epoxy

OK, first coat of epoxy resin with 30% graphite added

Once it kicks, I'll mix a batch of slower resin and start adding layers of fiberglass

Are you vacuum bagging these parts?

This is the mold for the tank mounts Josh, not the actual mounts. I thought about vacuum bagging the mold, but I didn't want to take a chance deforming my magnificent little clay bed :laugh:

porchev914 wrote:

This is the mold for the tank mounts, not the actual mounts. I thought about vacuum bagging the mold, but I didn't want to take a chance deforming my magnificent little clay bed :laugh:

Yeah, stupid me. I'm trying to skip a whole step, aren't I. Maybe the pain meds haven't worn off yet.

Ohhhh, damn, I forgot about your trip to the oral surgeon! I remember my last trip when I had 2 impacted wisdom teeth removed.....when I woke up I felt like I had been hit in the mouth with a baseball bat :blink:

Here is my new mold as laminated

Tomorrow morning we'll see how this mold turned out. Fingers crossed :whistle:

They should turn out ok!