I bought a load of (cured) sheets of carbon from the Caterham F1 team yesterday. Just about all of the sheets are 500mm x 500mm in size, however a few are 30mm thick and a couple are 50mm thick (and weigh a lot)!
I can deal with the thin sheets no problem, however I was just wondering if anybody had any ideas about what I could make with the thick sheets?
Thanks 
50mm, jeez… A house? Haha. Are they cored or solid carbon? Interested to know what Caterham would be making them for…
Haha! They’d be strong enough to be used in a house!! No core used, just solid carbon. The 50mm stuff is actually 2 plates bonded together. There is a range of sheets from 0.75mm up to 50mm.
Luckily, one of the 50mm panels has some useful info on it - m46j, 200gsm 2x2, used in nose structure.
When I collected the carbon I picked up a ‘route card’ which said a bit about who, what, where and when. It has a workers name on it , so I was maybe thinking about finding him on Facebook and asking him.
M46J fibre in a 50mm thick panel. That’s a lot of money in materials to manufacture that panel!
Should be super stiff. No idea what you could use it for though
Man that’s solid. I wouldn’t even make anything with that, I’d just hang it on my wall I’d be that impressed with it. Haha.
Might have been for machining brake rotors/pads? I have a rotor off a mid 90’s arrows. It doesn’t appear to be made from cloth though, more like a loose roving.
I think they have been used to mill inserts and partially structures to substitude the core.
And thats also the best you can use them for.
Brake pads and rotors are made different.
pictures 
!!
i think to mill something 3d will be pretty kewl showing the contours, like a knife handle …
i would imagine it was used for some sort of bracing for molds ? if you find out let us know
It might have been used for hard points in the chassis. Was there peel ply finish on both sides?
I will get some pictures tomorrow. I have weighed most of the thick panels as well so will include the weights just for a chuckle. The 500mm x 380mm x 50mm thick m46j panel used in the nose structure weighs about 14.5kg (31.9lb)!!
You could be spot on with that. Some panels have a very textured surface and the others have very faint peel ply surface.
It’s a pity there are no panels with a perfect glass surface finish. I will have to get polishing and buffing!
When I’d have rolls close to expiry or a lot of off cuts I would cure them into a plate to use for hard points or mounting blocks.
I weighed all the carbon sheets (36 pieces in total) - 145kg (319lb) !!! And there was me thinking carbon fiber was lightweight. haha.
Here are some pictures I took today. The first picture shows the 50mm thick sheet made of the m46j fiber.
I would have posted the URL links, but I don’t have a photo sharing website account.
I’m not sure what price you paid for them, but there are a lot of people who buy thick carbon sheets and hand grind them down to make knife handles. If you’re looking to sell them, get on instagram and check out the user @turbocarbon, he’s made something of a business out of this (he is the supplier of these pieces). As far as the buyers go, just do a search for the hashtag #carbonfiber and you’ll see manufacturers who have made knife handles out of this stuff. try contacting them and see if it’s worth your time and money to sell these parts to them.
That’s brilliant. Thank you for the idea!
post 8 id have a small piece to see how it carves on the cnc
Apologies Blackrat! I hadn’t seen you mention the knife handle.