i had a custom cut made by dragonplates for my guages to mount in. this piece was pretty spendy and i dont want to make any mistakes cutting the holes in it. its only 1/8" thick and i think the right sized holesaw would work but im worried about the fibers floating around. i know its probably a dumb question but i cant expletive it up.

 

Use the diamond cutter for a dremel. If you use a band saw or anything else it will make everything dull. Also, try not to weld with CF very close by. It conducts electricity.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Arturbo &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Also, try not to weld with CF very close by. It conducts electricity.</TD></TR></TABLE>

ooo!!! didnt know that!! learn something new every day.

what exactly will happen?? will it just heat up from nearby arc and deform or will you shock the **** out of yourself or something??

 

thank you art, i learned something new.

my idea is to use a holesaw. what i was going to do was predrill a piece of 1/2 or 3/4" wood to use as a template. sandwich the carbon underneath the wood to make sure it doesnt shift and drill that way. i thought the wood would hold it down plus keep the fibers from getting airborn.

 

alsor remeber to wear a particle respirator, and carbon is more itchy then fiberglass is !

 

Definetly wear a respirator. I have always found with cutting carbon to use a blade with real small teeth and high speeds. A rotary tool or die grinder work great. I usually tape the area of the cut with high quality tape to prevent fraying. This is mainly for tubing though, not sure how it would work on a flat panel.

 

when cutting carbon or fiberglass we use a sanding blade, can't think of what it is called right now, it sands it insteads of cutting it and you get better lines with it

 

yes, and ***** up your breathing. Forgot to mention that. Carbon is very bad for you..

 

i just dont know what H-T would do without ya Art.


good info. (also learned something new today)

 

yea take there suggestions a whole saw would splinter the carbon edges and once the edges are splintered its even easier to mess it up further.


Modified by Branman at 11:43 AM 3/17/2006

 

too late, i did what i thought would work best and it came out excellent. i have taken pics but havent posted them onto an online site yet.

 

heres the results so far. the reason it looks dull is because the protective film is still on the carbon.
wideband will go directly underneath the tach and i can accomodate 2 more guages if needed. i think i might buy a vacuum guage just so i can see if the motor pulls more vacuum after a few hard passes down the track.

 

So what did you cut it with then?

 

hole saw

 

i did the same thing.. but my CF came in a sheet, and it was 1 layer.

I made a plexiglass backing.. and cut holes in it, then faced it with CF.. i cut the CF with siccors, and holes with knife. Glued together with contact cement.

Turned out very well

 

i lasercut mine



This is a lil vid of the lasercutting.....
carbon cutting

save as plz

 

I water jet a lot of our plate. If I need to do gauges I use a carbide grit hole saw



Mcmaster has a bunch of them:
http://www.mcmaster.com/ctlg/D...tAct=

These are the best thing I have used if not water jet cutting. I always throw a piece of wood underneath the carbon. A carbide grit hole saw cuts so clean I don't even protect the surface of the plate. Seems like you got it anyway but I thought I'd throw in my $.02. Also if you ever need any plate we build it here every day.

I wasn't aware you could laser cut carbon cleanly, I thought it burned the resin as it cut due to the heat.

 

yeah, it does burn the edges a litle bit, but thats easely sanded away.