I’ve seen people use a glass sheet to make a flat c/f plate, however it is only glossy on one side, correct or not correct?
What about using two sheets of glass, with the lay up in the middle of the two sheets of glass - then vacuum bag the whole thing? Would this produce a strong plate that is glossy on both sides?
I would think that you’d need tempered glass for that lil’ stunt! Regular pane glass won’t take much deflection to break it, even a stack of .1" would probably cause it to break.
i dont know if you have ikea over their, but here they sell a table thats 10cm thick for $30 (£15)
Its quite big & heavy, cant see that cracking!
A table top is tempered so no problem there. You could break it with a big enough gap (stack) between the two panes of glass. Plexy would probably work better, it’ll bend and not break. You have to keep in mind the vacuum will put a tremendous amount of pressure on the glass. Just 1 sq ft is over 157 lbs.
The finished CF plate/sheet will not be very strong. It will be resin rich because you cant blead off the excess resin. We make CF sheets on a smooth table with a good perf film on the vac. bag side. The vac. side looks pretty good but the table side is flawless. Now, what you could do is lay up the CF on the good surface, use peel ply and normal vac. bag techniques on the bag side, then once it’s cured you could sand smooth and shoot it with clear coat. Now it looks great on both sides and it won’t be resin rich=brittle.
CCE
I’d stick with polished aluminum plates. Then you can add clamps, round the edges, add scribe lines for postcure finishing work, etc. Can’t “break” or slice yourself on broken bits of metal!
Depending on the size, start with 1/4" for small plates, and work your way up to 1/2" for 40"x40"+
polishing is easy. Start at 100, then work your way up too 1000grit, then grab some Mother’s Alum/Mag polish paste!
Remember to clean the crap out of it with Isopropol/acetone before using.
I use 2 sheets of toughened glass only 0.25" thick 500 x 500mm to produce double sided glossy prepreg sheet.
It goes in a hydraulic heated platen press up to 140deg C and sometimes depending on how long the prepreg has been out for it gets 25 tonnes of pressure! tough stuff, must have done over 300 presses on the same 2 sheets… Regular float glass cracks for fun and is pretty dangerous, wont take any heat or pressure.
Infusion is a great way to produce the bigger panels, obviously the back surface is peel ply texture just chop it in half when cured and bond together 
Best idea Ive heard yet. Plus no sanding involved.
Oh yeah, lol
now that is the best idea!
never thought of doing it that way… bonding together.
I’m also trying to find a good way of making two brackets for my motorcycle they are square “S” shapes about 3 inches between 90 degree bends. How strong is carbon fiber with a 1/8 inch radius at a 90 degree bend? It would be 1 layer of that multiaxial stuff CarbonJoe has for sale… epoxy as the resin.
I’d like to make about 6 of them. may be something i just have to experiment with to get results.
the flat plates i figured i’d find a use for eventually.
How thick is the bracket going to be. 24oz 3TEX Sglass I doubt can make it, but I think I just saw some 100+oz carbon (stuff is 3/8" thick!!!) that I’m sure would
I have .100" thick brackets on my bike for fog lights, and they are strong. They are like, 10-12layers of 5oz plain weave.
I’d be too scared of some tiny stress point in the press platens to try that!!! I’ve seen 1/4" thick steel sheets bend at only 100psi!
i’ve bowed 1" thick steel with water at 300psi. scary stuff.
I’m not sure Riff, the brackets that are stock on my bike are small, bent like a square S as mentioned with 3/8" lightening holes drilled through them. Think i could use 4 layers of 2x2 twill? The original steel brackets are like .025 inch thickness.
I wouldn’t even bother replacing the oem steel ones, but my bike is missing one of the brackets and the fairings are holding on just fine. So that kinda tells how little the brackets actually do. More or less they keep the side fairing from slightly flapping in the wind. I wish RC51_20 was in the States… i’d ask to borrow his mold to make me a new carbon fiber chain guard for my bike.