Carbon Fiber Conundrum: The Ups and Downs of DIY Carbon Fiber Parts

[@nathan_smith]

Please never stop making videos. Most underrated youtube channel right now

[@Cinema_Mechanics]

Much appreciated!! I’m doing my best to keep it going!

[@도둘리-i7k]

@@Cinema_MechanicsMan, appreciate!

[@WAURO1]

This and the superfastmatt videos are the best way to understand everything that can and will go wrong with composites. Great video!

[@Cinema_Mechanics]

I promise to never include a ham sandwich at least. I hate ham.

[@PoshuMokona]

I feel your struggle. Not because I experienced it myself, but because the cinematography and the editing are communicating so much of those weeks of hardship in 16 minutes.

[@cho4d]

sooooo relatable... the stumbling across easy composites videos and thinking... "hang on a minute.... i can DO THIS!"

[@VEC7ORlt]

Gods don't fire pots - we do! Sure you can!

[@SianaGearz]

@@VEC7ORlt Insert raccoon trash can meme here.

[@Komaru.89]

I'm really loving these! You don't hide the mistakes you make, and that makes them all the more educational, believable, and genuinely impressive.

[@aarondcmedia9585]

1. It is becoming quickly evident why CF manufacturing is so expensive. 2. I have never watched a video of errors and mistakes and been so entertained. 3. how incredible are the Easy Composite videos in eliciting feelings of "Oh man so easy, even I could do that!" 4. persistence is the key to success. Good job.

[@Cinema_Mechanics]

@@aarondcmedia9585 thank for watching! Yeah gives you a new appreciation for how cheap CF has become really.

[@R.Daneel]

Teachers emphasizing the successes: B+ Teachers emphasizing the failures: AAA+++

[@abcmorgan2909]

Love it!!! "I've got this, what could possibly go wrong?" in all of the universe conspiring against order detail. This is what learning looks like and thanks for sharing!

[@StainlessHelena]

Thank you for sharing this! I have nothing to helpful or witty add, so this is just feeding the platform's machine spirit.

[@NotABot00101]

Adding a comment to help boost the video and to please the algorithm Gods I know others have said this, but I absolutely love your videos. They're definitely underrated, and I can't wait to see more of your future videos. I'm sure you'll get the recognition and views you deserve!

[@eatenkate]

The secret to becoming a person who finds sanding zen is enthusiastically lying to yourself until you start to believe it. I do a lot of textile work, and i've managed to convince myself that any boring / trivial part (taking apart wrongly sewn seams, finishing a thousand thread ends) is a nice low stakes high reward break with comparatively low screwup chances and freedom from creative thinking or decision making. (All of this obviously goes out of the window when there are tight deadlines. In that case the motto of my artistic practice turns into "why whole-ass it if half-assing will do" )

[@Cinema_Mechanics]

I definitely relate to the half ass it thing. Still working on convincing myself…

[@eatenkate]

@@Cinema_Mechanics That's the thing, don't try to convince yourself, just lie like you're 12 and your mum caught you smoking. The being convinced comes after the fact

[@Steelcrafted]

Your videos are great man, really informative...i feel your pain, they make it look easy, but every new process has such a learning curve....glad you're sticking with it!!

[@s_cycle1921]

your failures are inspiring. I had many composite failures before the summer, so many I had to stop it was getting me down. watching this video gives me the perspective that composites are hard and you need to fail a lot before a successful process. drat, now I gotta start it up again!

[@pauldorman]

My future self is brimming with confidence after vicariously living through your multiple failures, so I hope you keep up with your warts and all, play-by-play style. The cognitive dissonance of feeling certain that you'll reach your goal and being in awe of how ambitious you are is enthralling!

[@Anon-k9i]

Please don't stop making videos! 🙏

[@aaronfagerstrom1]

Great video, Stephen! Tough one man... but it's super impressive you're even attempting this.

[@ee72sp]

If you make a full bag and place the mold inside it instead of trying to seal the film to the mold, you'll take leaks in the mold out of the equation. That way you only have to worry about the seal on the bag edges and hoses.

[@Steelcrafted]

I think the problem is you need an inlet and outlet on opposite sides of the part...and the bags are sold as rolls of sheets to allow flexibility for various size requirements...🤔

[@Cinema_Mechanics]

My understanding is that you can’t do full bag infusion since the resin would flow all around the mold and not just over the top of it. That said I haven’t tried it.

[@frankfurtdynamics2783]

I just started building my robot arm, damn it is though when you don't want to spend money on bearings.

[@simplerocketscience6222]

I love the style of your videos! I had to learn many of the same lessons when working with composites and I was just working on my own robot arm when I saw your video pop up. perfect timing :)

[@Cinema_Mechanics]

@@simplerocketscience6222 thanks for watching! Good look on your arm.

[@bakedbeings]

I'll be watching this, this.. SuperFilmMat

[@Colin7768]

So impressed by the editing and commentary of these videos. You should be proud of your work here. Commenting to hopefully they that algo moving

[@miestermind]

Love it man. Also. Love your color grading. Can relate to you nonstop

[@Mingonimuga]

Am an engineer who turned into making videos and right now am laughing with tears, it's like being a director with no knowledge of turning a story into a audio visual element, yaani its easy to watch a movie and see mistakes than to make the movie itself... love this !!

[@akaegotist]

I'm so sorry thank you for sharing your pains doing this. I really got a kick out of it 😂😅

[@Cinema_Mechanics]

Pain is a good teacher. 😅

[@squa_81]

Congratulations on discovering the horrors of composites. Here's some ideas, that may or may not be worthwhile trying. It's up to you to judge that For the U shaped part, your idea was good, but could beneficiate from some improvements. One option is just have an excess of fiber on the top, don't wet it with resin, clamps it in place, then insert your inner mould as it was (maybe use a threaded rod and so nut inserts to pulls together after curing). The idea is to prevent the fibers from being pulled down by the mould. Harder and dumber version could also having inner mold be pulled together during insertion (threaded rod for tension or any other mechanisms could work) so as to minimise contact with the part's walls. Ideally the printed inner mold would be smaller than it is in place. You'd then expand it with a wedge and some clamps for curing. For the bottom radius, have the inner mould be thin enough to "roll" up to the part when under compression, use wedges and clamps when curing to fully round them out at the bottom.

[@ibcharles]

I love your resilience and perserverance. your work shows us all how NOT to do it and gives us a good laugh along the way! but also flex's my empathy, i feel so sorry for you but also know that when you get your arm finalised you will know ALL the ways not to do it! keep making these videos my friend!

[@jeremybrouillard]

As an industrial robotics engineer, I got told many many times by management ppl "Building our own robot shouldn't be that hard, the one we buy are way too expensive." I use to argu against the idea, now I just ignore it.

[@Cinema_Mechanics]

I agree. If you earn income from it, you should just buy it. This is all for “fun”.

[@tommyrold355]

Ive wanted to buy kits from these guys for a long time :D Love the content my guy!

[@PiotrMorawski-j6r]

Great video! Hard experience but you have learned a lot;-)

[@alexnostalgix]

This is pretty crazy as I have messing with carbon and having similar results within the last few weeks.

[@Cinema_Mechanics]

The allure of carbon is just too strong. 😂

[@zoeyzhang9866]

It's fun to watch all the trials! Rang the bell already! Looking forward to the next video! And! The third option can be ordering from pcbway directly if it's in urgent haha.

[@arischlossberg1920]

I knew you were gonna say "Easy Composites" as soon as you started talking about the KZbin rabbit hole lol. Also - I've also been experimenting with a lot of moulding-involved projects lately and if I've learned one thing it's to never use PLA. Ever. It's a shame, because for almost any other application my advice to people would be to always use PLA.

[@Cinema_Mechanics]

I usually use PETG but wanted to make sure the coating epoxy stuck well. Hence PLA.

[@VEC7ORlt]

This was throughly entertaining! Times I've said 'oh no' in anticipation, lets say if it was a drinking game...

[@Cinema_Mechanics]

How’s the hangover?

[@VEC7ORlt]

@@Cinema_Mechanics the liver sends best regards! or is it worst?

[@JSound777]

This shows how difficult everything is if you don't have experience!

[@therealchayd]

EasyComposites make it look so easy, when in reality it's the most messy, stringy, sticky, oozy thing ever. Still it's carbon fiber, so very futuristic (apart from titanium, which is similarily a PITA to work with)

[@SianaGearz]

OMG that first mould design and attempt to build the parts like that... I instantly saw what was wrong when you showed the CAD, but that's second-eyes advantage, because two dumb people together usually spot mistakes that one smart person doesn't, and for other priming advantage (similar to hindsight), since you already told us that this is going to be a trouble vid. In real life i make the same kinds of boneheaded mistakes when working alone, and then wonder what i was thinking and why i thought that was going to go well. The magic of Easy Composites Ltd, UK, is that... they worked out all the kinks and supply high quality, purpose-fit materials, thoroughly designed and tested. And when i'm finding that their materials are a little too expensive... well that just makes me think twice whether i want to use a given method, because odds are, they're expensive for a reason and substituting them with something drastically cheaper won't do me much good. And even then one shouldn't expect success on first try, and maybe not on the second, and in general, yeah having done things a number of times, i'm pretty certain i'm not going to reach that level of success, i mean, it's a skill, just like anything, it needs to be honed. Like, i know i'm trash at designing moulds. I'm a bit lucky that i'm in EU and they have an NL subsidiary, and before Brexit it was super smooth sailing anyway.

[@SianaGearz]

Also my suggestion is to not make a mould from the part, but actually 3D print and prep the mould the same way you did previously, because that obviously worked well enough. Because i think otherwise you'll either ruin your good part in a way that neither of us can exactly predict yet, or receive a bad negative at first try, maybe with voids, very likely twisted out of shape. PLA and PETG are cheap, you're not saving money, and you're not saving time because you're not taking trial and error into account.

[@Cinema_Mechanics]

Easy to fall into sunk cost fallacy as well. Once you’ve committed time and energy to an stupid idea, it feels more wasteful to not follow through.

[@Spirit532]

Pro tip: upload in 4K, even if your source material is FHD. It uses a different transcoding process and makes the videos look _way_ better. 5K or 8K is even better. Surface defects are somewhat expected in large, flat parts. As long as you get good wetout, you can just fill those in with a gloss sealing pass later. But yeah, composites suck, it just takes personal experience to make it work well.

[@Cinema_Mechanics]

Much appreciate the tip. I’ll look into that in the future. Source is gonna stay HD for a while but want it to look as good as possible!

[@tilaknana9789]

Love the content Underrated

[@nixxda270]

This looked exactly like the last 25years of my live! And yes, it physically hurt one more time!)

[@Ratzmutz]

Maybe for future attempts at a composite material, you could try to collab with Xyla Foxlin. She's done a lot of work with epoxy and carbon fiber/fiberglass. Plus I think it would make for some fun content

[@Cinema_Mechanics]

I think I gotta get my subs up first. 😉

[@Ratzmutz]

@@Cinema_Mechanics Oh right, your production quality made me forget you're a "small" channel..

[@ajw.8085]

Hey, I love the fact you are making a robot arm. That is one of my dream projects. I just found your channel a few months ago when you started this project and has been awesome to see your progress! By the way, I am a mechanical engineer that works in the composites industry. I have experience in manufacturing in every manufacturing method, designing molds, layup structures, and more! I primarily make military and aerospace components for L3, Cobham, etc. Let me know if you have any questions on how to make better parts! Many times technique and strategy for manufacturing can make all the difference. Please feel free to contact me if you want any advice on anything composites!

[@Cinema_Mechanics]

Much appreciated!

[@OneKapitan]

Please see a doctor about your clubbed nails, as they can be a symptom of certain diseases. Also, nice video, dude! Keep up the great work and don't stop doing this.

[@razvanv317]

Nice storytelling! and you kinda sound like kevin spacey

[@andreasnikolopoulos5263]

FIBER GLASS MOLDS ARE WAY WORSE PLS DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME!!!! Imagine how difficult it is to wet our 10 or more layers of fiber glass whithout any imperfections

[@nikolajhansen1953]

GREAT VIDEO!

[@ixenn]

Commenting for the algorithm.

[@BadYossa]

How very dare you talk such heresy about Easy Composites! Lol. Been there mate. My first fibreglassing was on a yacht from the '60's. To say it was a disaster would be understatement. got the hang of it, eventually. Ish. Very ish. Fast forward many, many years, I come across EC on YT and eventually jumped in and tried a wee project, for an astrophotography project. My DK readings were high, so I went for it. An absolute, unmitigated disaster and a waste of a chunk of change. After spending way too much time and money, I ended up with a "thing" that looked like it had been made by an alcoholic toddler with Parkinson's. I feel your pain brother...

[@Cinema_Mechanics]

Hahaha. Glad I’m not the only one to feel the struggle.

[@regun2434]

You are not only youtuber who has sun ruined mould 😁

[@morkovija]

thanks for reminded rest of us to do reality checks x)

[@jpwhre]

I'm only a minute 45 in. I've watched almost all of easy comps videos. I've never done carbon fiber. But Dunning-Kruger 😅😅😅😅 Edit: finished. Wow, if you had a vacuum oven (not worth the price of one or two parts), you could have done prepreg. Thanks for sharing your experience. Easy Composites makes it look easy. But I watch with the sense of "painting is 99% prep". The painting is more fun to watch than prep. I'm sure a month or more is taken to prep everything before his 15 minute video makes it look like a couple hours work. But the end results.....

[@Cinema_Mechanics]

Yep. It’s 100% prep. By the time you’re at laminating or infusion it’s too late!

[@lukasbaumert]

why not split that U shape into three flat pieces with a 90degree bend as overlap? way easier than a U shape with 3 equally long sides

[@cho4d]

with that first cover, couldn't you just design it with a draft angle and have the bolts that attach it pull it in to place?

[@Cinema_Mechanics]

Maybe… recommended draft is 5 degrees. So that’s a fair amount of bend.

[@g_glop]

I let out a small 'noooooo' when you bagged around the mold's flange instead of showing the entire thing into one big bag. Also, why not print vertically from ABS at a tiny layer height so that solvent smoothing takes care of everything?

[@Cinema_Mechanics]

My understanding is that you can’t do infusion in a bag since resin would run all around the mold. But I haven’t tried it. My printers struggle with ABS since they’re not enclosed. Also I don’t trust vertical prints nearly as much for dimensional accuracy. Maybe that’s old fashioned.

[@g_glop]

@@Cinema_Mechanics Yes, the resin will cover the entire mold and stick if you don't use mould release. But you don't really care about the dimensions of the mould except where the part sits. The bigger issue is that the pressure may crush the mould and/or force resin into it through small gaps - better than letting air into your part. Better coat it beforehand to avoid loosing a kg of epoxy into the void. And yeah, I also avoided ABS and vertical printing like the plague until i got my P1P

[@Cinema_Mechanics]

Bamboo labs... are you listening?? I'll have to try the whole bag at some point. Maybe it'll help seal my mold!

[@wiju]

Your layup is wrong for torsion. Should be mostly 45°

[@wiju]

And you made me laugh a lot. I work with infusion and hand laminating almost 20 years now, I could predict your sentences sometimes 😅

[@Cinema_Mechanics]

I def didn’t optimize my orientations. Honestly just trying to preserve materials while I learn the process.

[@wiju]

@Cinema_Mechanics Start with Glas fiber, dirt cheap, and only about 20% worse mechanical at the same weight. Also, it is a breeze to work with compared to carbon. When you are looking for those stiffening parts, use IMS or UMS fibers, but make sure you are trained. If you thought carbon fiber was expensive, sit down before looking after UMS 🤣 Use glas for your first tries. They always fail. Also, your molds have unnecessary complications, those small indents around the bolts... no... When you do infusion, use spray glue (3M 77) to fix the layers, use an 80gm glas layer top and bottom. That gets rid of pinhole ease. And, if you have complex molds, always use 45deg and twill weave, linnen is for non convex or concave parts. In the inner layers, you can also use non-woven fabrics, uni or bidirectional. And the most important thing you didn't do... Degass your epoxy in a vacuum chamber!!! 😇 Have fun!

[@Cinema_Mechanics]

Great tips! Appreciate any and all advice.

[@feilko2170]

The title said Ups and Downs... I didn't see any Ups😂😭

[@Huutrungcongnhan]

That's so great🎉

[@kayakMike1000]

Practice with fiberglass first...

[@migueldefares]

🙃

[@migueldefares]

Would’ve done it in reversed manner so laminate over the part that you used as the inside and also it’s also better to make molds in multiple pieces.

[@Cinema_Mechanics]

@@migueldefares. Yeah you’re totally right. That’s essentially how I ended up getting it in anyway.

[@kayakMike1000]

You failed because of obvious mistakes.