Ebike battery box construction Part 3, Carbon Fibre Skinning the Side Covers

[@Lithail]

Great Job. I am the same type of person putting hours of work and then wondering if it was all worth it. I like the videos I have seen so far.

[@alibro7512]

Thanks. I think it was worth doing the CF skinning but maybe I should have taken more time and care over it.

[@debohannan4315]

Well had my doubts as prject started but , wow , looks nice now that your close to the Finnish line , keep up with the great work

[@habzzz]

Carbon fibre style vinyl would have been easier. Great job with the fibre glassing though and you've inspired me to have a go on mine... Albeit if got a bit of a curvy frame gap so wish me luck!

[@Vortecks]

It's a bit late but...... the reason why you have tiny holes is because the resin has miniscule bubbles which aren't visible until they reach the surface - by then, it's too late. As soon as you've applied the coat, a hot air gun brings them to the surface and gets rid of them. It's still a superb job though mate 😁👍

[@alibro7512]

Thanks Tony. That makes sense, I tried in the earlier coats to get air bubbles out with a heat gun but maybe I didn't do it right and I didn't do it at all on the last coats. Thanks for the kind words. Means a lot coming from you.

[@Zomby_Woof]

You can use superglue to fill the little pits. Mix a little baking side and water to use as activator. Blow out before dropping the superglue into the pits and then then superglue will bind whatever powder you miss and usually renders it transparent. You'll need to sand again but it's not difficult.

[@alibro7512]

Great tip thanks. I'll use that next time I'm doing CF. This cover has too much wrong with it for this to work.

[@Zomby_Woof]

@@alibro7512 I have a similar problem with a set of boxes I'm trying to put together for a distributed battery pack to keep weight low. Did the main box in plywood - didn't like it - tried aluminum - that was worse. Going to try fiberglass as my last resort

[@alibro7512]

@@Zomby_Woof TBH the only reason I used CF was to make it look nice as the GF would have worked. I've seen a few builds that used plywood and it always looked clunky to me. Aluminium would end up with very sharp edges which are not nice on a bike.

[@johnnodge4327]

You definitely put a lot of work into that Ali. Oh and carbon fiber is actually a conductor, although not a good one.;) But we'll keep that to ourselves. :)

[@alibro7512]

LOL, you noticed my little blonde moment. In my defence I.....I..... OK I have no defence but I did notice the stupidity when editing and put a note at the bottom of the screen. 🙄 And yes it was a lot of work but I enjoyed most of it.

[@look-within]

Hi, you could have just used carbon fibre vinyl wrap I did on my ebike and it came out great I made the box from wood then wrapped it and it’s pretty strong and it doesn’t stop the signals getting out 😀 good effort though

[@alibro7512]

I could have used wrap but I had the real thing so decided to give it a try. In the end it made no difference to the signal so worked out OK.

[@BFBMTb]

@@alibro7512 also, carbon fiber is lighter and probably stronger than wood. Awesome work!

[@kurdo1922]

Hello mate Do u sell them or make one for me

[@alibro7512]

LOL, sorry no. If you saw it up close you wouldn't want it anyway. 😛

[@wallahiiii5364]

What was ur cost ??

[@alibro7512]

Good question Casey I had the CF cloth from previous projects so I don't know how much it was but I used maybe 2m sq so current cost from ebay around £50 I also used around £40 in GRP products and resin for the CF. The wood was cheap so maybe £100 total if buying everything.