3k Weave Frame
types of carbon fiber and epoxy(any experts)?
I am trying to make a carbon bicycle frame, but I have no clue how much fiber I need to buy, what type of weave (1k, 3k , 5k+) and what type of epoxy. Help?
Thanks for the help, one of my biggest questions was how much carbon fiber to buy. This is more of a project just to see if I can do it, but would still like a lightweight strong frame. And I have no mechanical engineering degree, only a high school student that works in a bike shop.
That’s a very interesting sounding project. While I have never made a structure from carbon fiber reinforced plastic, I do have a bit of experience with the analysis of composite structures.
First off, I would argue that it would be very hard for you to make a “good” carbon fiber bicycle for less then the cost of one already produced and I realized they are very costly. I’m not sure if it’s the challenge of building the bike or the hopes that it will be cheaper to make the bike yourself that’s driving your decision to make this carbon fiber bike.
Assuming it’s the challenge here are my suggestions. What you’re going to want is a carbon fiber bi-directional fabric, which is a 0 and 90 degree layup. A bi-directional fabric as opposed to a unidirectional tape is easier to work with since its material properties are more uniform. In other words it harder to mess up your design. If you didn’t make a unidirectional tape bike right, it would be very easy to break however there is potential for greater weight savings with the tape. For ease I would go after resin pre-impregnated carbon fiber. It’s a lot easier to work with since you do not have to apply the resin yourself.
I don’t know what type of academic background you have, but I would highly recommend doing a basic analysis of the bike before your start laying fiber down. Efunda is a great website for mechanical engineering analysis. If weight is your prime concern, which I’m assuming it is, you need to have some analysis completed as to produce a weight effective, but tough bike. Use the material specs provided by carbon fiber producers, so you can select what carbon fiber works for your project and pocket. Analysis would also tell you how much fabric to buy and about how heavy it would be. A mechanical engineering degree would really help out here!
I would say the easiest was to go about building the frame would be to do it in pieces. Tube by tube, so to speak. The rational for this is because you need to lay the material over the desired shape and then pressurized and heat the layup. The whole frame in one piece would be very difficult to do. It's also possible to buy carbon fiber tubes already made.
Do not underestimate the difficulty and expense of this project, but good luck with it! If you have any questions shoot me line.
Update:
If you have little engineering knowledge, I would highly base your design on carbon fiber bicycles currently produced. This way you could be pretty confident in the structural integrity of the bike. See if you can find cutaways of current carbon fiber bicycles to see how many layups they use in there design. Once you know how many layups are used, then you can do VERY basic calculations to see approximately how much carbon fiber you need to buy. Namely the circumference of each layup of the tube multiplied by the length of the tube. There is no way I could tell you a good number here without knowing your design and requirements and then running the numbers.
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