I know that the easiest way to cut and trim Fibreglass or Carbon Fibre parts is with the use of grinder or Dremel. This is also a major time consuming process to cut straight lines and sand them down.
I wanted to know if there are some clever guys out there that want to share their tricks or jigs to help them.
Depends on what you want to achieve. Some things u can use that you didn’t mention are: metal saw, laser, waterjet, jigsaw, ect. Many ways to get there.
What about a diamond coated disc, probably the most common method?
Follow a line and sand it smooth.
Can’t laser carbon!!! Fiberglass is stinky (tried 1/8" FR4 on a 200w (i think) CO2 laser cutter
Lasers and waterjet machines as an answer for introductory cutting trimming techniques had to be sarcasm . lol.
An airsaw or jigsaw with an 18 or 24 tpi blade will work great for starters . On long straight cuts , clamping a piece of metal or wood to use as a cutting guide will help keep the edges clean .The same can be said for round cuts or curves if you are making multiples of something and want uniformity . An airsaw will work better on smaller parts because of it’s compact size and a good set of files will clean up any inside corners or notches .
Like all other hands-on skill sets , practice makes perfect . Enjoy .
Yes you can laser carbon and also a lot of times you can’t.
I use a dremel or angle grinder with a diamond coated disc to cut, planer to get a nice straight edge, and a belt sander to round off larger corners. Only issue is abrasion resistant fabrics will chew up your planer blades quick as anything, you’ll go through a few of them.
For split moulds I use a method that Warren (I forget his username on here) advised me on: trim a piece of shim steel to the shape of your mould edge, then slide your part into the mould and use a sander to trim the edge down flush with shim steel. The steel protects the mould and is thin enough that it won’t affect your part fitment.
I find the best disc for cutting in my case - very thin laminates ie: 200gsm each side of soric either Carbon or Carbon/Kevlar is the 100mm x 1mm metal cut off disc, I get the cleanest cut with little sanding post cut!, I have been using these for over 10yrs. now after trying every other system on the market, I think?.