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Form, lay up, and
cure your own
high-performance
composites.
By John Wanberg
Photograph by Meiko Arquillos
It seems as though nearly everything “high
performance” these days boasts some amount
of carbon fiber in its construction. Originally used
in aerospace, carbon fiber has moved into the
mainstream and can be found in luxury automobiles, mountain bikes, and sports equipment.
Some laptops and cellphones even use printed
decals to simulate this lightweight material’s
cutting-edge look. The good news is that you
don’t need a state-of-the-art manufacturing
facility to work with carbon fiber composites. In
fact, you can do it at home.
This article discusses some of the basics of
carbon fiber construction and explains how to
create a carbon fiber iPod case. All you need are
some basic woodworking tools and skills, and the
right materials. And because the same process
also applies to fiberglass and Kevlar»composites, these skills give you multiple ways of boosting your future projects to a new level!
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