Help! Carbon fibre tube overlay

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#1

Hello Guys,

Well I am going to have a crack at overlaying a rifle silencer. Does anyone have any experience doing this that they could possibley advise me?

Thank you!

Edit: this is only for looks.

Similiar to the one above;

#2

Buy the correct sized carbon fiber sleve from these guys: http://www.solarcomposites.com/

Also buy the correct sized heat shrink tubing from solar.

Apply epoxy to the sleve, heat the tape, and any excess should squeeze out of the side of the tube.

The only hard part about what your doing is to get the epoxy to bond the the metal housing.

#3

Thankyou JRL for the quick response,

Im thinking along the lines of getting some prepreg carbon fibre cut it to perfect shape then wrap it around the part with some peel ply. Then some breather fabric over the top and some heat shrink all wrapped round then in the oven @ 120. Only thing putting me off it the fact is that its metal like you saying. Do you think the prepreg will get on with the metal warming up in the oven?

#4

http://www.compositeforum.werksberg.com/showthread.php?t=1163

#5

Thankyou :smiley:

#6

Roughen the metal with at most 120 grit. CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN. Hell, if youhave access to a good sizing solution, apply that to the metal :slight_smile: (sizing, is a coupling agent for materials and adhesives) Then again, I’ve had enough tubes stick onto released coated molds to know that epoxy likes metal…grrr…

As for layup. Prepreg is always good. You might not need/want peelply at ALL if you are using shrink tape. You do not want breather either. When wrapping the prepreg, do it as tight as possible!!! When wrapping the tape, do it as tight and smooth as possible!!! It can wrinkle easily. If you get enough material, do a few method tests. Check out Dunstone shrink tape as well. They have release coated, as well as perforated shrink tapes!

#7

+10 on roughing the tube surface prior.

#8

Thanks guys for sharing your methods.

I bloody love this forum! :slight_smile:

#9

Copy what the previous folks said about surface prep.
Sanding gives more surface area to bond to, as well as surface imperfections (tooth) that will result in mechanical grip even if your bond fails.
Remember to do an acetone wipe or suitable solvent wipe to make sure there are no surface contaminants to interfere with your bond.
It would not hurt to put down a layer of adhesive film as your first ply. This will give you a better bond to the substrate.