O.k. heres the deal. I am tired of laying awake at night thinking about this, so some advice would be very much appreciated. I need to make some carbon fiber plate. I will be useing 3k 2x2 twill carbon and some red and blue hybrids. The maximum thickness needs to be .025 or less. I am just not sure about my process though. Here’s my master plan. I will be useing a sheet of tempered glass as the mold (maybe automotive??). Here are the layers… first a polished mold with PVA…then brush on gel coat…then a layer of carbon fiber…then wet out wiyh epoxy resin…then vacuum bag??? Or should I do away with the gel coat and just brush a layer of epoxy resin… then fabric… then wet out with epoxy then vacuum bag?? I need to use a clear epoxy as well…Which one? Should I use an auto clave? I really do appreciate your help, so thanks a bunch. I hope this makes sense!!!
All i do is wax/PVA the glass, leave it for a few hours. Then resin, fabric, stipple with a brush, let it go tacky, then resin, fabric, stipple with brush again and let it dry like that. works every time. no need for vacuum or auto clave. sometimes may not need second layer of resin, like… resin-cloth-let tack-cloth-dry.
Just try it, and keep trying till it works 
First off, start with Fiberglass and Polyester resin to get a hang of the systems to save money and not get burned out from the mistakes. Learn from each time you make a test panel your mistakes.
I’d just use the carnuba wax (with proper mold releasing) and no PVA on polished (scratch free) thick glass.
Do the lay up all in one step with soaking up the excess resin with the laying of a new reinforcement layer.
If you also need a smooth and flat back too, add another thick glass panel (with proper mold releasing) while still wet to the top and add some equal weight to it to push the top late down equaly.
But for a top tier finish, you will need to post coat most anything.
Is this for a cosmetic item or a structural part?
How big of size plates do you need? (My GGROP composite class is making CF Pre-Preg clipboards and we can do 2x at one time with a Bondline RVBS, donated CF PP and a shop oven)
How much weight does it need to hold?
The sheet is mostly cosmetic. I am hopeing to make 24"x48" sheets to water jet parts from. So, on smoothe thick glasss…no PVA, just wax? Thanks for the advice , it helps a ton!!
You could also buy thick HDPE (High Density Polyethene) sheeting as then you won’t have to mold release at all…just have a press or frame work on top with a lot of weight (and slow curing resin too) to fully flatten it out.
You do know that someone makes CF imitation formed ABS sheeting that looks just like CF?:rolleyes:
Since this is cosmetic then, only use 1x layer (top) of CF and the rest fiberglass to save the CF for everyone else…LOL. Or your costs down…
That’s a pretty cool idea. What are you using for the clip? Like can you buy just “clips” or are you pulling them off of other clipboards? Will you rivet them onto the CF ones? I’m always looking for new, unique things to make. 
I (from my slush fund) bought a case of 100x from a school supplier (I think I could find them cheaper somewhere else but didn’t look) www.delviesplastics.com in Utah.
You want to buy some of them? I want to find the other type, if I can and then have both on hand.
How much for 4 of them shipped to 21234?
and what do you mean by the “other type?”
That is how I make all my plates. I have a 58 x 40 sheet of glass that I wax, spray gel coat, layup and infuse all right to the glass. Watch out when popping them, I have broken a couple pieces of glass since I have been doing it
Not the best pictures but it buffs to a really glossy surface!
