I’m wondering what everyone uses for a cutting surface for carbon fibre. I make skis and snowboards so my shapes are not complex - mostly straight lines. The green, self-healing cutting mats are too small. Right now, I use a 1’ think 4’x8’ polyethylene board now but it quickly gets scored up. I saw some photos of one composites shop using a wooden surface. I wonder if something like a huge, wooden cutting board would work. It would have to be hardwood or bamboo.
What do you use?
Our cutting bench is made from UHMWPE, same stuff used for chopping boards. You need to get Ultra High Molecular Weight PolyEthylene, otherwise it will cut up if it’s just PE.
My guys sometimes cut on the wooden work benches (much to my dismay) and it tends to contaminate the fibre with wood slivers.
As a side note we also use it as wedges for demoulding.
Glass can also be used - toughened of course
Airtech has some special cutting surface board, but it is utterly expensive.
I have this cutting board from some company that sells it specifically for this, I don’t know what material it is but the main thing is that it comes in 5x10 feet size unlike typical 4x8 so you can cut 60inch roll on uninterrupted surface. Unfortunately I have no idea what the company was anymore
http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=23869&clickid=redirect
http://www.k-mac-plastics.com/hdpe-sheet.htm
Perhaps see if you have a local plastic supply company?