Haha, thanks Øyvind, we do our best to keep the content interesting for everyone, whether they're using our products or not. But, of course, we have to pay for this production somehow :)
The timing of this video seems like it's meant for me! I've started manufacturing headlight kits, as seen on my channel, for Corvettes. I'm going to be doing composite parts next and wanted to incorporate printing heavily, into the process. This is what I needed to see...all good in theory, but perfect for what I'm doing. Man....good stuff!
I like how you printed the mold vertically, in what might be considered the non-obvious way, minimizing the presentation of the layer lines along those gentle slopes. Very clever. Dammit, all your videos are amazing.
Thanks a lot. RE the print orientation; correct, the contour steps are less pronounced in the vertical orientation and for FDM, print speed is pretty-much unaffected by the orientation. Glad you're enjoying the content :)
I had a 3D printed plug made for my Racing Model Sailboats. Approximately 1 meter long. It was a precision mold that was lazer checked and reworked until it was close to perfect. Then I had a mold made. The mold is perfect as well. This process really worked well for me.
Eh it was my goal from day one when I started to watch your videos. I am so happy to have the privilege to watch this video to learn more about do and don't. Tx very much.
Thank you Adam, we appreciate your confidence and trust. Looking forward to hearing how you get on and helping out if you need us. All the best with it.
Easy Composites is doing a great job with these videos. I prefer buying EC simply because I know they will perform as shown in the videos. There are cheaper options but they don't have the tutorials. Thank you for producing these extensive and comprehensible videos. The cost is not as low as I'd like, but we are dealing with a relatively new technology, and with the videos i make less mistakes, thus the cost goes down. Best regards, Leo
glad youtube has some valuable stuff like this.. and great people who are willing to share their knowledge (even if they are promoting certain products)
Hi Loui, thanks for your feedback. Of course it's the sales of our products that allow us to make these videos but we always try to provide general information that's useful to everyone. Often in composites the real trick is to make sure you're using the right products and know that they will work. Our products are definitely not the only products that *could* work but they are the only one's that we can guarantee *will* work, and that can be invaluable : )
Nothing beats a properly sanded and polished ABS print (PLA resists sanding like crazy...always use water when sanding and a proper small desk lamp so you see the shape of how's your sanding going). If you can afford a large fdm you can afford one of the new large SLA printers. It's such a joy to sand and polish SLA resin prints to perfection.
We did plenty of detailed testing on various filaments and surface processing. For a proper composites moulding process you need to be coating a 3D print in something that can be finished to a high standard and which will take a reliable release agent. Our results were that for FDM prints, epoxy coating was the way to go. On that basis, it really doesn't matter whether the plastic sands and finishes well because that's not what you'll be sanding and finishing; it's more important that the print material is dimensionally stable. SLA printers do give a nice finish for sure but you still need a reliable coating and release agent if you want to take composites moulds off the prints.
Nice video, well done. Right now I make a carbon fiber part (end cover for the muffler) for my KTM motorbike. My son have a own 3D printer and have made with him a negativ mould for me. After preparation this mould (sanding and filling) we will make the end cover with 5 layers of carbon fibre. New for me is the posibility to coating the mold / pattern directly with resin for a even surface. I will test this in future on a new project. Thanks for this information.
Our pleasure. Your project sounds much more like the next 3D printing video we're doing where we use the 3D print as the female mould (not as a male pattern).
Matthieu, always a pleasure to get your feedback; I would think with your product design background this would be right up your street! Maybe Dynamism will check out your RUclips channel and following ;)
I'm in love with this. I had created silicone rubber molds with 3d printed parts before. I will now try brushing the parts with epoxy before molding.Thanks for sharing.
You're very welcome. Certainly it can be a very useful process to take silicone moulds off of 3D printed parts in order to duplicate parts as resin castings and in fact using a coating epoxy like XCR can be a good way to improve the finish before taking the silicone mould off.
as always what an amazing video, I tried to make some 3d printed parts before but always I had a problem with it while vacuuming and your video gave me the perfect solution, so thank you so so much for all your videos for teaching people like me to learn how to work with composite materials, easy composite is the best composite company in the world
The first time I've got interested in 3D printing was in 2003. Back then only the big R&D labs at Pratt and Witney or Textron could justify the investment to have one. Fifteen years later we can see that giant steps have been done to make it available for the masses.
Great content! One of my favourite channels here! I made a wet-lay carbon fiber part straight off the 3dprinted mold in a room temp vacuum bag. It had a shallow curve (so lots of sparse layer lines to grab on to), but a with a few applications of mold release the part popped off super easily. Mold side surface is not visible and cf laid up almost to 2mm so the top layer was all good and ready for finishing after light sanding. The small pump in your store rocks btw! Supereasy and quiet
Thanks for the feedback, that's all really interesting and good to hear. That's pretty much exactly what we'll be doing in the next video although we debated using a vacuum bag and in the end decided to show simplest possible version; just an open hand layup. Send us some pics of your project, we'd love to see and share!
Absolutely it does. 3D prints on their own have their applications for sure but a lot more exciting opportunities open up when you combine with the properties of materials like carbon fibre.
One more amazing knowledge sharing video. I watched on easycomposite website. Direct purchasing option to the materials used is much appreciated. Thanks!!
Wow this is an awesome video! E3D are experimenting with a toolchanger and a milling tool. So you 3D print a few layers, than mill them smooth to perfect accuracy, them 3D print some more etc. It would be interesting to see if you could use that to produce a nearly finished part than only needs a bit of spray coat and polishing to make the mold. Theoretically even that could be automated with a tool changing 3D printer by having some kind of polishing tool bit.
I have been just looking at these videos and every time i'm wishing that i could figure out some project that i could buy that stuff. Also these videos help to lower the blood pressure, because of their calm pace. =D
If the print material is ABS then you can chemically smooth it with acetone. If you want to get real fancy you can make a vapor smooth chamber by heating acetone in a big pot. This is how the Stratasys vapor smooth station works, but they use different chemicals. I'm sure there are tons of videos of DIY setups on youtube. But it works really well and gives a great surface finish.
Hi Juan, absolutely. Well, we're filming it at the moment, it's a very quick process and so should be quicker to put together than most of our tutorials (including this one), stay tuned over the next couple of weeks.
But man you guys make it look so easy and it's kinda not. There's a lot of little details in the process that if you mess up on just one detail...the whole product goes to the trash. I've had to watch so many videos to get the whole picture of how to make carbon fiber.
Hi Branden, yes, perhaps we should have mentioned acetone vapour, it's certainly an option for improving the surface of ABS prints but not really the right solution for this type of process (part distortion, how to get a release etc.). Also, heating acetone is not really a process that we'd encourage a casual viewer to engage in!
Hi Nick, for sure. We're already filming the next part in this '3D printing in composites' series which is where we 3D print the mould directly, wax it up and hand laminate a carbon fibre part into it, all in, using zero fancy kit, vacuums or ovens. Whole process, a few hours from start to finish. I've rather spoilt it a bit now but look out for that video in the next week or two.
Hi Rolf, We're filming it at the moment, it's a very quick process and so should be quicker to put together than most of our tutorials (including this one), stay tuned over the next couple of weeks :)
Such cool videos for us DIY'ers/makers! For my projects, (guitar making) I'd love to see a video on how to make some small CF rods, solid, square or rectangular, maybe 1/4" square section and 18" long, for use as braces and stiffeners. Just mentioning it in case you're looking for video ideas. 😎
Thanks for the comment and suggestion. Quite honestly, for carbon fibre rods you're much better off just buying them. They're cheap to buy and readily available in a huge range of shapes and sizes. In industry they're made on a full-scale pultrusion line. This is just not something you can replicate at home. You'd be able to bodge something by pulling tow through a resin bath and then trying to shape the section you need but there's not really much point. If you've not done so already, check our website for a huge range of carbon fibre pultrusions.
@@easycompositestv, Thanks for the reply. I didn't realize rods would be tougher to DIY. I guess if I want to DIY something, I can experiment with L or U section molded braces instead. In fact, there might be (acoustic) advantages to doing that.
The finished product is superior in quality and the pattern obtained is interesting, but the costs for this method add up quickly when you consider all of the products necessary to complete the process.
Its benefits add up if you already have access to 3D printing (yours or a friends) as a lot of the cost would be paying to have a model board or foam CNC cut as an outsourced project.
Well, thanks for bearing with us. We have another 3 3D printing videos in the pipeline so hopefully you'll gte a good breadth of knowledge on the subject very soon.
Since you mention making a mold, would you have any interest in doing 3D washout molding? PVA filament is readily available and prints similar to PLA, and dissolves in hot water. Similar to lost foam, but way cleaner. Reinforment could be laid directly onto the mold and would be applicable to hand layup, infusion and pre-preg as the glass transition temp is below an initial pre-peeg cure temp. I dont think anybody has done a video yet on this method.
This is actually the first of a several part 3D printing / Carbon fiber series. We may have something in the works like what you have mentioned so be sure to subscribe to Easy Composites for those follow up videos ;)
@@dynamism6990 definitely subscribed. This particular process is of interest. I was at a trade show a few years ago and a company had a fancy sand 3d printer that they used for this exact purpose. The ability to make complex piping and other captured objects seemed very intriguing. Coupled with a very low mold cost, its something I'm planning on pursuing myself.
Such an informative video, thanks for posting this up! Do you mind sharing some tips to achieve better surface flatness as I saw there are still a few uneven surface. Keep up the good work!
Tip for very large molds and patterns from 3D printer : print a hollow shell and fill with Smooth On Foam-It 10 SLOW. Speeds up the print, less warpage, very solid mold. Done 5-parts molds from a CR10 MAX printer this way within a week.
@@dynamism6990 Absolutely, or the bare minimum to stabilize the shell. I have found that for large print, infill increases warpage (and time) by an inacceptable amount. I print with a 1mm nozzle and Volcano block to increase speed. You just need to find the proper shell thickness (I do 3mm) to avoid bulging when pouring the foam.
Really cool stuff. I've been interested in making parts for my Sprites and Midget, for example bonnet or boot lid, or even bumpers or wings. They're much larger than these example prints but 3d printers are rapidly approaching the size of those components, and of course machining the mold out of foam with a CNC has been possible for years, and can use the same methods. Ah, someday a bonnet. But within a year I hope to play with this method to make two very specific parts, a little tear drop shaped lump that fits under the taillights where a piece of a bumper used to go, and "bumperettes" which are bean-shaped bumpers that take the place of a full width steel bumper on these little cars. Both of those products are well within the range of an inexpensive 3d printer and both designs lend themselves to this modeling method. Thanks for the tutorial, you make it look simple, though obviously it's not that simple.
Thank you for your comment, these all sound like great ideas for components. Realistically, I think it will still be a while (or maybe never) before 3D printing will be the most viable process for larger (bonnet scale) mouldings but for smaller parts, such as those you describe, it's a great way in. For your bonnet, check out our (rather old but still accurate) bonnet making tutorial - unless you're making a custom shaped bonnet, you'll more than likely be taking moulds off your original part and this would be the way to do it. Look forward to hearing how you get on :)
"i dont know shit about 3d printing"... Yeah but your post process is smooth has ice and there is no video about that on 3d printing channel. Good job !
Have you guys done any videos that go more in depth with material properties and how that impacts the design process of a part? Things like not only fiber direction in relation to strength, but also things like electrical sensitivity of components that might be inside the composite part. This drone would be an excellent example of that. I assume that the carbon fiber could cause electrical interference with any radio transmission from inside the shell, requiring an external antenna, for example. That sort of thing. Or maybe you know of some good resources that may already be covering that level of detail and depth.
We haven't done anything on RF shielding but it's quite straight forward. Carbon blocks RF so, yes, this drone has external receivers, one for the video and one for the control, they're post mounted. Switching the reinforcement to any synthetic material like polyester, Diolen, Dyneema, Spectra etc or glass (particularly S-glass) would solve that problem and would have been a good choice for at least some parts of these shell components. To be honest, the video was more about the process of 3D print > mould > component, rather than the material choice for the component itself. In other cases, the RF shielding of carbon can be desirable.
Hi Jason, I wouldn't aim for a percentage reduction in the size of your prints because this could lead you to making larger parts that are several millimetres smaller than you want them to be. The coating itself only adds around 0.5mm and so the better approach would be to design the part 0.5mm smaller (in all directions) than you want it to be.
Found this video on the quest to make ceramic molds from a 3d printer. Pretty Familiar with the mold making part itself. Only hitch was the lattice surfaces on 3d printed objects making mechanical locks. The epoxy coating method might solve that issue! Only I wonder how it might react with pottery plaster.🤔 Thank you sir!
Hi Landon Pal, epoxy is a very tough and resistant surface. There would be no problem at all using some kind of ceramic material on the epoxy surface. I'm not sure what material you're planning to use but the use of some release agent known to work with your ceramic material would be recommended.
@@easycompositestv Well the steps are similar to your method . 3D printed object - mold made from object - ceramic object made from mold. The mold for ceramics is plaster (no release agent needed). That is the part I'm curious about, is how that plaster might react with or absorb anything that its being poured over to make a mold. Strange things leeching into the clay can ruin the finished product. Ill have to do a little research on the epoxy, could be no worry at all.
Yes, we did want to do that but production time was already way over on this video after we had a million problems filming the time lapses! If anyone wants a pile of random drone she’ll patterns you know who to ask. We’ll try to get some shots or video of it to share.
I had the idea to make a pour mold to make a violin from epoxy resin. (I'm thinking 3 pieces for the body and neck) Just for fun mostly, I don't play but want to learn. Looking into it I see that a few people have made carbon fiber violins, and there's a company that does it. I also saw that a company made a glass violin as a gimmick, that would have used a mold too, though it would likely have been a more complicated injection sort of thing. I'm an engineering grad and pretty good with solidworks. Haven't made any molds yet, but I will. Kinda have to after videos like this.
Why not to use SLA printer and leave behind all the hustle of sanding and preparing that FDM product? Naturally with SLA there will be some sanding but with 0.0025mm resolution much less of it! I know the size of the mould could be a reason but otherwise I would like to hear your opinion!
FDM printers are a fair bit cheaper and generally offer larger build volumes. SLA 3D printers will work here for smaller applications unless you're lucky enough to have the new Formlabs 3L. That said, there will be less post-processing like you mentioned.
I believe your videos are the absolute best for all newbies like me. I have watched every single one at least once. I want to make a coolant reservoir tank out of cf for AutoX my car (1983 Porsche 944). Wondering if you have done any, or can share some tips or if it is not something you would recommend? Thanks
Not something we have tried, but you will need a high temp resin as coolant can sometimes get to 120C plus and design it strong enough to take the pressure as coolant systems are pressurised. Generally if an OEM plastic tank can be used, it would be much easier and not much heavier.
Hello Easy Composites. Can you maybe show a video on how to make a mold to replicate a very rusty item? I’m restoring an old wheelbarrow and the tub is badly rusted, holes in places, so I want to make a carbon fibre version instead. The metal is very thin so sanding is not ideal, but I don’t know how to protect it or treat the surface so that the fibreglass mold will not adhere to the rust or cause more damage. Thank you 😊
We don't recommend it as most ovens lack accurate temperature control necessary for good pre-preg curing. Also most are not capable of being programmed to follow a cure cycle.
![Seungmin "그렇게, 천천히, 우리(As we are)" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/kAzmhLHePqU/mqdefault.jpg)
The part is so light it was practically floating when he released it in the air. Nice!
Best kind of ads, the ones you're really eager to watch!
And with the added bonus of learning something cool!
Haha, thanks Øyvind, we do our best to keep the content interesting for everyone, whether they're using our products or not. But, of course, we have to pay for this production somehow :)
You @@easycompositestv g
this is currently my favorite youtube channel. i don't even work with composites... yet.
Thanks Jellomello; you've got great taste ; )
The timing of this video seems like it's meant for me! I've started manufacturing headlight kits, as seen on my channel, for Corvettes. I'm going to be doing composite parts next and wanted to incorporate printing heavily, into the process. This is what I needed to see...all good in theory, but perfect for what I'm doing. Man....good stuff!
That's great to hear, we hope this helps your project. Look forward to seeing how you get on on your channel :)
Your videos are just so... classy. It is pleasing to see professionals do their job.
Thank you, that's appreciated.
I cannot believe that right after I get into 3D printing and carbon fibre laminating, incredible content like this comes out! AMAZING WORK!
The planets are aligning!
I like how you printed the mold vertically, in what might be considered the non-obvious way, minimizing the presentation of the layer lines along those gentle slopes. Very clever. Dammit, all your videos are amazing.
Thanks a lot. RE the print orientation; correct, the contour steps are less pronounced in the vertical orientation and for FDM, print speed is pretty-much unaffected by the orientation. Glad you're enjoying the content :)
I had a 3D printed plug made for my Racing Model Sailboats. Approximately 1 meter long. It was a precision mold that was lazer checked and reworked until it was close to perfect. Then I had a mold made. The mold is perfect as well. This process really worked well for me.
Eh it was my goal from day one when I started to watch your videos. I am so happy to have the privilege to watch this video to learn more about do and don't. Tx very much.
Thanks François, it's our pleasure to be providing this content.
Went and bought the materials mid-video, you sir, are a hero!
Thank you Adam, we appreciate your confidence and trust. Looking forward to hearing how you get on and helping out if you need us. All the best with it.
Easy Composites is doing a great job with these videos. I prefer buying EC simply because I know they will perform as shown in the videos.
There are cheaper options but they don't have the tutorials.
Thank you for producing these extensive and comprehensible videos. The cost is not as low as I'd like, but we are dealing with a relatively new technology, and with the videos i make less mistakes, thus the cost goes down.
Best regards,
Leo
Dude, this was incredible!!! And the other one without oven!!! It's perfect!!!
Wow that shot at 5:44 is so satisfying! Great video and great product!
glad youtube has some valuable stuff like this.. and great people who are willing to share their knowledge (even if they are promoting certain products)
Hi Loui, thanks for your feedback. Of course it's the sales of our products that allow us to make these videos but we always try to provide general information that's useful to everyone. Often in composites the real trick is to make sure you're using the right products and know that they will work. Our products are definitely not the only products that *could* work but they are the only one's that we can guarantee *will* work, and that can be invaluable : )
Nothing beats a properly sanded and polished ABS print (PLA resists sanding like crazy...always use water when sanding and a proper small desk lamp so you see the shape of how's your sanding going). If you can afford a large fdm you can afford one of the new large SLA printers. It's such a joy to sand and polish SLA resin prints to perfection.
We did plenty of detailed testing on various filaments and surface processing. For a proper composites moulding process you need to be coating a 3D print in something that can be finished to a high standard and which will take a reliable release agent. Our results were that for FDM prints, epoxy coating was the way to go. On that basis, it really doesn't matter whether the plastic sands and finishes well because that's not what you'll be sanding and finishing; it's more important that the print material is dimensionally stable. SLA printers do give a nice finish for sure but you still need a reliable coating and release agent if you want to take composites moulds off the prints.
This channel is pure gold, very professional.
I was waiting for this video for SOOOOO LONG
Well, I hope you enjoy it. If you're following the process for real then don't forget to watch the full length version on our website.
We need more !! 🤍🤍
@@easycompositestv Ya damn right I enjoyed it!
Me too
me too :)
Nice video, well done.
Right now I make a carbon fiber part (end cover for the muffler) for my KTM motorbike.
My son have a own 3D printer and have made with him a negativ mould for me.
After preparation this mould (sanding and filling) we will make the end cover with 5 layers of carbon fibre.
New for me is the posibility to coating the mold / pattern directly with resin for a even surface. I will test this in future on a new project. Thanks for this information.
Our pleasure. Your project sounds much more like the next 3D printing video we're doing where we use the 3D print as the female mould (not as a male pattern).
Very well put together overview! You guys do fantastic work!
Thanks DarkAero; we respect your work and it's great to get kudos from you.
I haven't seen your channel for a bit. Your videos are as high quality as I remember. Really incredible productions.
Thanks Steve, we appreciate it.
This is a very good addition to the video library. Good technique.
Thank you Alan, appreciate your feedback.
great video once again! Worst thing of watching this video is that I now have an urge to buy a 3D printer :D
We know the feeling :) Just let us know if you need any help.
Matthieu, always a pleasure to get your feedback; I would think with your product design background this would be right up your street! Maybe Dynamism will check out your RUclips channel and following ;)
I'm in love with this. I had created silicone rubber molds with 3d printed parts before. I will now try brushing the parts with epoxy before molding.Thanks for sharing.
You're very welcome. Certainly it can be a very useful process to take silicone moulds off of 3D printed parts in order to duplicate parts as resin castings and in fact using a coating epoxy like XCR can be a good way to improve the finish before taking the silicone mould off.
Where online are you getting your 3D print files to make the molds
as always what an amazing video, I tried to make some 3d printed parts before but always I had a problem with it while vacuuming and your video gave me the perfect solution, so thank you so so much for all your videos for teaching people like me to learn how to work with composite materials, easy composite is the best composite company in the world
Hi Amir, well, that's praise indeed. I'm glad this information has helped you and wish you all the best with your project.
@@easycompositestv thank you so much, mad respect for you all !!!
Finally!!! Like always, straight forward, simple and very clear.
Thanks Andres; yes, this one's been in the pipeline for a while, it's good to get it out there.
Lots of thanks for this very infotaining video! Immediately I realized the mistakes I made. Thank you. Keep up this fantastic work.
Thanks for you feedback, glad this was helpful.
The first time I've got interested in 3D printing was in 2003. Back then only the big R&D labs at Pratt and Witney or Textron could justify the investment to have one. Fifteen years later we can see that giant steps have been done to make it available for the masses.
Where can I get the files for the 3D print modes
Man this opens up so many possibilities
Excellent work! I'm learning a lot from you! I hope soon I'll be able to make my first carbon fiber piece!
cheers
You’re welcome, glad to hear our content is useful to you. Good luck with your first project.
@@easycompositestv Your content is awesome! Very well done and educative! Thank you sir ;)
Great content! One of my favourite channels here! I made a wet-lay carbon fiber part straight off the 3dprinted mold in a room temp vacuum bag. It had a shallow curve (so lots of sparse layer lines to grab on to), but a with a few applications of mold release the part popped off super easily. Mold side surface is not visible and cf laid up almost to 2mm so the top layer was all good and ready for finishing after light sanding. The small pump in your store rocks btw! Supereasy and quiet
Thanks for the feedback, that's all really interesting and good to hear. That's pretty much exactly what we'll be doing in the next video although we debated using a vacuum bag and in the end decided to show simplest possible version; just an open hand layup. Send us some pics of your project, we'd love to see and share!
Where where at online are you getting the files for the 3D print modes
What infill (percentage) did you use on that mold?
This is cool. 3d printing giving so many options for the DIY guys at home 👌
Absolutely it does. 3D prints on their own have their applications for sure but a lot more exciting opportunities open up when you combine with the properties of materials like carbon fibre.
One more amazing knowledge sharing video. I watched on easycomposite website. Direct purchasing option to the materials used is much appreciated. Thanks!!
Thanks Soma, it's really good to get your feedback that this way of publishing was helpful to you. Thanks again.
I was waiting for you to cover this topic. Presentation is great as ever. Thank you so much!
You're very welcome Andrew, glad you enjoyed it, thanks for watching.
Wow this is an awesome video!
E3D are experimenting with a toolchanger and a milling tool. So you 3D print a few layers, than mill them smooth to perfect accuracy, them 3D print some more etc. It would be interesting to see if you could use that to produce a nearly finished part than only needs a bit of spray coat and polishing to make the mold.
Theoretically even that could be automated with a tool changing 3D printer by having some kind of polishing tool bit.
Great video Paul, thank you! Looking forward to the future videos!
Thank you, you're welcome. Looking forward to making plenty more.
This content is gold.
Thanks for this- exactly the info I need for a new project at my work making replacement radomes for a customer!
I have been just looking at these videos and every time i'm wishing that i could figure out some project that i could buy that stuff. Also these videos help to lower the blood pressure, because of their calm pace. =D
Haha Ponakka, thanks for the feedback. We hope you think of the right project.
OF COURSE!! RESIN! That was the key I needed!!!
Haha, great, yes, I hope this helps.
If the print material is ABS then you can chemically smooth it with acetone. If you want to get real fancy you can make a vapor smooth chamber by heating acetone in a big pot. This is how the Stratasys vapor smooth station works, but they use different chemicals. I'm sure there are tons of videos of DIY setups on youtube. But it works really well and gives a great surface finish.
Better tutorial, impossible! Thank you for your time!.
Glad you enjoyed John!
Is there any alternative for the XCR epoxy coating resin? Does any kind of Epoxy Resin work aswell?
Not that we stock. The XCR is the main epoxy coating resin in our range.
I love your videos. Yeah i would definitely like to see the 3D printed mold video.
Hi Juan, absolutely. Well, we're filming it at the moment, it's a very quick process and so should be quicker to put together than most of our tutorials (including this one), stay tuned over the next couple of weeks.
But man you guys make it look so easy and it's kinda not. There's a lot of little details in the process that if you mess up on just one detail...the whole product goes to the trash. I've had to watch so many videos to get the whole picture of how to make carbon fiber.
@@easycompositestv It's a very quick process? That's an characteristic no one would associate with 3d printing.
Always love your videos, keep up the cool vids. God bless...nice finish way cool!
Thank you Michael, appreciate the comments. We'll keep them coming : )
I print with ABS plastic and put the print in an acetone vapor bath to give the printed mold a smooth glass like finish.
Hi Branden, yes, perhaps we should have mentioned acetone vapour, it's certainly an option for improving the surface of ABS prints but not really the right solution for this type of process (part distortion, how to get a release etc.). Also, heating acetone is not really a process that we'd encourage a casual viewer to engage in!
An alternative to the ABS here, with less volatile solvents, would be to use something like PolySmooth.
The quality of the content throughout this entire channel is extremely high.
Thanks a lot, we really work hard to achieve this.
This is a great overview of the process, great primer!
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it. Don't forget the extra detail version is available on our website if you want it.
I was impressed already just at the first finish you got, so imagine how I was at the end
Thanks Daniel, it's great that you appreciate the craft.
Great video! This makes me want to go out and try this process.
Excellent video! Thanks!
great demo
Great Video :)
A video of building larger hollow parts (link a fuel tank or similar) would be nice
great video, thanks for making it!
great video, would be great to see videos on how to create parts without ovens or vacuum
Hi Nick, for sure. We're already filming the next part in this '3D printing in composites' series which is where we 3D print the mould directly, wax it up and hand laminate a carbon fibre part into it, all in, using zero fancy kit, vacuums or ovens. Whole process, a few hours from start to finish. I've rather spoilt it a bit now but look out for that video in the next week or two.
@@easycompositestv great thanks looking forward to seeing it.
love it. you make it look so eazy.
Glad you enjoyed the video!
Excellent information
You guys are amazing. That part popped out with ease. Duh. 😳 I guess that’s why it’s called easy-lease.
Hey Will-Co, yes, that's about the idea!
So cool - you guys rock
Thanks Nate, glad you like it.
Amazing work, I'm definitely going to give this a go!
Great, we'd love to learn how you get on.
Very interesting! And the 3D printed mould video will be even more interesting .-)
Hi Rolf, We're filming it at the moment, it's a very quick process and so should be quicker to put together than most of our tutorials (including this one), stay tuned over the next couple of weeks :)
Will the 3D printed mold simply be a cavity vs the core you built to cast from?
perfect video as always
Glad you enjoyed Mahyar!
Beautiful
Very nicely explained. Great finished products those!
Thanks a lot, they look better in real life too!
Great video! 🤜🏼🤛🏼🍀🍀🍀😎
brilliant timing thank you
Thanks Bernie, glad you enjoyed it.
@@easycompositestv The one on your main site was very impressive, thanks again
Such cool videos for us DIY'ers/makers! For my projects, (guitar making) I'd love to see a video on how to make some small CF rods, solid, square or rectangular, maybe 1/4" square section and 18" long, for use as braces and stiffeners. Just mentioning it in case you're looking for video ideas. 😎
Thanks for the comment and suggestion. Quite honestly, for carbon fibre rods you're much better off just buying them. They're cheap to buy and readily available in a huge range of shapes and sizes. In industry they're made on a full-scale pultrusion line. This is just not something you can replicate at home. You'd be able to bodge something by pulling tow through a resin bath and then trying to shape the section you need but there's not really much point. If you've not done so already, check our website for a huge range of carbon fibre pultrusions.
@@easycompositestv, Thanks for the reply. I didn't realize rods would be tougher to DIY. I guess if I want to DIY something, I can experiment with L or U section molded braces instead. In fact, there might be (acoustic) advantages to doing that.
Good way to make quick prototype without high precision.
Your videos are wonderful
Thanks, glad you're enjoying them.
Awesome work...
Thank you Florian : )
yall earned my respect..
What a treat. As usual, first like then watch.
The finished product is superior in quality and the pattern obtained is interesting, but the costs for this method add up quickly when you consider all of the products necessary to complete the process.
Its benefits add up if you already have access to 3D printing (yours or a friends) as a lot of the cost would be paying to have a model board or foam CNC cut as an outsourced project.
Thank you for this video, exactly why I subscribed a couple yeas ago!
Well, thanks for bearing with us. We have another 3 3D printing videos in the pipeline so hopefully you'll gte a good breadth of knowledge on the subject very soon.
@@easycompositestv Wonderful! Thank you for all the types of videos you do, I've learned a lot from them.
You guys are great
This is something a lot of us can do. Can you briefly cover how you would make the the 3d printed mold of a pipe and release it? Thanks.
Use soluble materials like PVA or HIPS.
We're working with Easy Composites on this very thing. More tutorials to come :)
@@dynamism6990 unreal!!!!!! Looking forward to that!!???
If you layup carbon fiber around a solid bar, I imagine it would be pretty tricky to remove the finished part from the bar.
AMAZING VIDEO!!! THANK YOU FOR SHARING!!!
You're very welcome, thanks for watching.
Since you mention making a mold, would you have any interest in doing 3D washout molding?
PVA filament is readily available and prints similar to PLA, and dissolves in hot water. Similar to lost foam, but way cleaner.
Reinforment could be laid directly onto the mold and would be applicable to hand layup, infusion and pre-preg as the glass transition temp is below an initial pre-peeg cure temp.
I dont think anybody has done a video yet on this method.
This is actually the first of a several part 3D printing / Carbon fiber series. We may have something in the works like what you have mentioned so be sure to subscribe to Easy Composites for those follow up videos ;)
@@dynamism6990 definitely subscribed.
This particular process is of interest.
I was at a trade show a few years ago and a company had a fancy sand 3d printer that they used for this exact purpose.
The ability to make complex piping and other captured objects seemed very intriguing. Coupled with a very low mold cost, its something I'm planning on pursuing myself.
Such an informative video, thanks for posting this up! Do you mind sharing some tips to achieve better surface flatness as I saw there are still a few uneven surface. Keep up the good work!
Excellent video.
Thanks, appreciated :)
Tip for very large molds and patterns from 3D printer : print a hollow shell and fill with Smooth On Foam-It 10 SLOW. Speeds up the print, less warpage, very solid mold. Done 5-parts molds from a CR10 MAX printer this way within a week.
We're curious, are you saying to print with no infill?
@@dynamism6990 Absolutely, or the bare minimum to stabilize the shell. I have found that for large print, infill increases warpage (and time) by an inacceptable amount. I print with a 1mm nozzle and Volcano block to increase speed. You just need to find the proper shell thickness (I do 3mm) to avoid bulging when pouring the foam.
Really cool stuff. I've been interested in making parts for my Sprites and Midget, for example bonnet or boot lid, or even bumpers or wings. They're much larger than these example prints but 3d printers are rapidly approaching the size of those components, and of course machining the mold out of foam with a CNC has been possible for years, and can use the same methods. Ah, someday a bonnet. But within a year I hope to play with this method to make two very specific parts, a little tear drop shaped lump that fits under the taillights where a piece of a bumper used to go, and "bumperettes" which are bean-shaped bumpers that take the place of a full width steel bumper on these little cars. Both of those products are well within the range of an inexpensive 3d printer and both designs lend themselves to this modeling method. Thanks for the tutorial, you make it look simple, though obviously it's not that simple.
Thank you for your comment, these all sound like great ideas for components. Realistically, I think it will still be a while (or maybe never) before 3D printing will be the most viable process for larger (bonnet scale) mouldings but for smaller parts, such as those you describe, it's a great way in. For your bonnet, check out our (rather old but still accurate) bonnet making tutorial - unless you're making a custom shaped bonnet, you'll more than likely be taking moulds off your original part and this would be the way to do it. Look forward to hearing how you get on :)
Thanks for every tutorial video. They are all amazing. Hope to see your EU warehouse soon.
Thanks for the really kind comment, we'll be sure to make more videos soon!
"i dont know shit about 3d printing"... Yeah but your post process is smooth has ice and there is no video about that on 3d printing channel. Good job !
This is amazing
Have you guys done any videos that go more in depth with material properties and how that impacts the design process of a part? Things like not only fiber direction in relation to strength, but also things like electrical sensitivity of components that might be inside the composite part. This drone would be an excellent example of that. I assume that the carbon fiber could cause electrical interference with any radio transmission from inside the shell, requiring an external antenna, for example. That sort of thing. Or maybe you know of some good resources that may already be covering that level of detail and depth.
We haven't done anything on RF shielding but it's quite straight forward. Carbon blocks RF so, yes, this drone has external receivers, one for the video and one for the control, they're post mounted. Switching the reinforcement to any synthetic material like polyester, Diolen, Dyneema, Spectra etc or glass (particularly S-glass) would solve that problem and would have been a good choice for at least some parts of these shell components. To be honest, the video was more about the process of 3D print > mould > component, rather than the material choice for the component itself. In other cases, the RF shielding of carbon can be desirable.
Would it be advisable to print the form 1-2% smaller vs the desired finished product to account for the resin coating thickness?
Hi Jason, I wouldn't aim for a percentage reduction in the size of your prints because this could lead you to making larger parts that are several millimetres smaller than you want them to be. The coating itself only adds around 0.5mm and so the better approach would be to design the part 0.5mm smaller (in all directions) than you want it to be.
@@easycompositestv Thanks this makes sense!
Found this video on the quest to make ceramic molds from a 3d printer. Pretty Familiar with the mold making part itself. Only hitch was the lattice surfaces on 3d printed objects making mechanical locks. The epoxy coating method might solve that issue! Only I wonder how it might react with pottery plaster.🤔 Thank you sir!
Hi Landon Pal, epoxy is a very tough and resistant surface. There would be no problem at all using some kind of ceramic material on the epoxy surface. I'm not sure what material you're planning to use but the use of some release agent known to work with your ceramic material would be recommended.
@@easycompositestv Well the steps are similar to your method . 3D printed object - mold made from object - ceramic object made from mold. The mold for ceramics is plaster (no release agent needed). That is the part I'm curious about, is how that plaster might react with or absorb anything that its being poured over to make a mold. Strange things leeching into the clay can ruin the finished product. Ill have to do a little research on the epoxy, could be no worry at all.
great channel
It would be cool to see the finished carbon parts fitted to the drone. Great video tho. 👍
Yes, we did want to do that but production time was already way over on this video after we had a million problems filming the time lapses! If anyone wants a pile of random drone she’ll patterns you know who to ask. We’ll try to get some shots or video of it to share.
Very cool!
Superb ✌👍🏻👍🏻
Thanks Sameer, glad you enjoyed it :)
I had the idea to make a pour mold to make a violin from epoxy resin. (I'm thinking 3 pieces for the body and neck) Just for fun mostly, I don't play but want to learn. Looking into it I see that a few people have made carbon fiber violins, and there's a company that does it. I also saw that a company made a glass violin as a gimmick, that would have used a mold too, though it would likely have been a more complicated injection sort of thing. I'm an engineering grad and pretty good with solidworks. Haven't made any molds yet, but I will. Kinda have to after videos like this.
Guess my dirtbike will get a nice upgrade 😆
Why not to use SLA printer and leave behind all the hustle of sanding and preparing that FDM product? Naturally with SLA there will be some sanding but with 0.0025mm resolution much less of it! I know the size of the mould could be a reason but otherwise I would like to hear your opinion!
FDM printers are a fair bit cheaper and generally offer larger build volumes. SLA 3D printers will work here for smaller applications unless you're lucky enough to have the new Formlabs 3L. That said, there will be less post-processing like you mentioned.
What would we have to change in the process in the case that we have no oven to cure the mould?. Thank you.
I believe your videos are the absolute best for all newbies like me. I have watched every single one at least once. I want to make a coolant reservoir tank out of cf for AutoX my car (1983 Porsche 944). Wondering if you have done any, or can share some tips or if it is not something you would recommend? Thanks
Not something we have tried, but you will need a high temp resin as coolant can sometimes get to 120C plus and design it strong enough to take the pressure as coolant systems are pressurised. Generally if an OEM plastic tank can be used, it would be much easier and not much heavier.
I love carbon parts :)
Hello Easy Composites. Can you maybe show a video on how to make a mold to replicate a very rusty item? I’m restoring an old wheelbarrow and the tub is badly rusted, holes in places, so I want to make a carbon fibre version instead. The metal is very thin so sanding is not ideal, but I don’t know how to protect it or treat the surface so that the fibreglass mold will not adhere to the rust or cause more damage. Thank you 😊
if the surface is too weak to mould from, then you would need to make a pattern.
@@easycompositestv ah right, thank you. I’ll look at those vids then
Greetings! Is it possible to cure prepreg in a home oven? Do you have any instructions on how it might be done? Thanks!
We don't recommend it as most ovens lack accurate temperature control necessary for good pre-preg curing. Also most are not capable of being programmed to follow a cure cycle.
No 3d print experts disclaimer, knowing 3d printing guys are insane by nature
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