Some things I just buy and don’t question the price - cleaning rod is one of them.
However. . .
I have a seller locally with 12 lb spools of 70,000 psi unidirectional carbon fiber and they haven‘t been able to sell them for a year - price has dropped to $50/spool. I bought one just to peel the tag off the inside of the spool to confirm what it is and thinking it would be useful to stiffen a stock layup or add rigidity to a flexible forend. 12k unidirectional carbon fiber is not easy to work with unless you have a winder mechanism that wets the cf with epoxy as it’s wound on round form. There’s something like 5,000’ on each spool. So, I’m looking for something useful to make with this stuff that doesn’t require a winder.
Do you think cf cleaning rods are simply unidirectional cf cast in a two piece compression mold with minimal sanding to clean up mold joints? Any idea what material and shape might work well? This stuff will be the consistency of honey soaked long human hair so the shape has to be conducive to getting it in place, then compressing to 15 psi or so. A round bottom slot with half round second piece applying pressure? Four 1/4 molds - hold 3 sides together, add goop, then compress fourth side? Don’t use a mold at all and stretch the fibers between two points and wrap with shrink wrap or tape? Use a compressible material like foam as the mold with accurately formed round inner channel, insert that into a metal outer form to keep straight and apply pressure?
I’m also set up to do epoxy vacuum molding, but round objects are still dependent on a multi piece mold for proper shape.
I also have a steel and wood two piece compression mold for a Remington 700 chassis using the unidirectional cf chopped into 6” lengths, but that’s a post for another day and hopefully with a successful stock to show. With epoxy that stuff reminds me of working with a hair clog pulled out of the sink drain! Lol Other chopped unidirectional cf molded like this has been destructive tested by others online to be very close to 6061 aluminum of equal thickness, so this will be a fun project.
However. . .
I have a seller locally with 12 lb spools of 70,000 psi unidirectional carbon fiber and they haven‘t been able to sell them for a year - price has dropped to $50/spool. I bought one just to peel the tag off the inside of the spool to confirm what it is and thinking it would be useful to stiffen a stock layup or add rigidity to a flexible forend. 12k unidirectional carbon fiber is not easy to work with unless you have a winder mechanism that wets the cf with epoxy as it’s wound on round form. There’s something like 5,000’ on each spool. So, I’m looking for something useful to make with this stuff that doesn’t require a winder.
Do you think cf cleaning rods are simply unidirectional cf cast in a two piece compression mold with minimal sanding to clean up mold joints? Any idea what material and shape might work well? This stuff will be the consistency of honey soaked long human hair so the shape has to be conducive to getting it in place, then compressing to 15 psi or so. A round bottom slot with half round second piece applying pressure? Four 1/4 molds - hold 3 sides together, add goop, then compress fourth side? Don’t use a mold at all and stretch the fibers between two points and wrap with shrink wrap or tape? Use a compressible material like foam as the mold with accurately formed round inner channel, insert that into a metal outer form to keep straight and apply pressure?
I’m also set up to do epoxy vacuum molding, but round objects are still dependent on a multi piece mold for proper shape.
I also have a steel and wood two piece compression mold for a Remington 700 chassis using the unidirectional cf chopped into 6” lengths, but that’s a post for another day and hopefully with a successful stock to show. With epoxy that stuff reminds me of working with a hair clog pulled out of the sink drain! Lol Other chopped unidirectional cf molded like this has been destructive tested by others online to be very close to 6061 aluminum of equal thickness, so this will be a fun project.
