Weight Weenies

Is it possible to make moulds for carbon fibre out of wood? (probably in the form of MDF), as I know most use fibreglass and metal . If not wood, would acrylic do? I want to tinker and experiment with making some carbon bits and the easiest way to make the moulds for me would be out of either of those two materials.

thanks

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You can make molds out of MDF just fine, but you will be limited to whatever shape you are capable of creating out of MDF. I made some carbon fiber floor pans using MDF as a mold, but they were mostly flat so they were easy to do. You can use just about anything that you can finish to a smooth surface.

Just make sure the material can withstand the heat used in the manufacturing process. Also metal will have a more even and longer lasting surface. If this is for fun projects then no problem.

yes you can use MDF , acrylic plastic or any other material , you just need to be able to "get a mould release" the safest type is PVA release film which is a liquid plastic till the solvent evaporates and leaves a very thin film of plastic (blue or clear in Australia)

If you intend to use "pre-preg" (the fibres [usually carbon] are already wet out with resin [usually epoxy]) but you need a lot of heat to cure it (approx 100 degrees c min) and the mould material needs to be able to cope with that , otherwise a wet resin system needs no heat to cure just a few hours or overnight depending on gel- time and that would be easist IMO

ps If you have the ability to get metal moulds remember that they will expand with heat , aluminuim a lot in particular ,which is why steel is used a lot