I think it would be a good idea to laminate my wishbones with a carbon fibre hose.
What is the the process of laminating a braid (hose)?
You just “wear” the tube into the braid and then apply resin? Is it that simple? And how you make sure the tube surface gets perfect and homogeneous?
Are the wishbones going to gain anything in strength/stiffness?
You can try to laminate it by hand and squeeze out as much resin as possible. Results are likely to be a little less than desired. You can also try a shrink tube (shrink wrap) to get a really tight result. Soller Composites sells all sizes of the shrink tube. I have some but haven’t tried it yet. I think there are shrink tapes that’ll work as well.
what kind of wishbone? do you have a photo?
most likely vacuum bagging is the way to go.
The wishbones are similar to those in the following pictures. I thought i could “cover” the tubular sections with a carbon braid.
I just found more of my heat shrink wrapping rolls…
Carbon fiber touching metal = fail.
Besides, for this application it won’t help anything. If you insist, lay down a ply of glass before the carbon.
ah yeah…why bother, unless they REALLY need to be stiffer…then you would need a layer of glass to be safe, and then the carbon sock, a few layers. But at that point you are adding tons more weight, and thickness to the tubes (if that matters)
other than that…
yes, you slip on the sock, tie down one side, pull, and tie down the other. Apply resin (eh, do that before you make it tight), and wrap with plastic tape. If you don’t have heat shrink tape, I heard of people using electrical tape, adhesive side UP of course, and wrappign it REAL tight. then poke holes in the tape to let out the extra resin.
so i guess wrapping it in carbon is just for looks? it will only look like a mess…
In this situation probably, but It depends on how it is done. They carbon wrap aluminium F1 gearboxes for strength and we are working on a similar solution on the integrale transmissions too.
Try checking the 1" x 1’ tube sticky above here…