Making a Composite Mould for a Carbon Fibre Part from a 3D Printed Pattern
►Full length version plus product links www.easycomposites.co.uk/maki...
Further information and links ▼
►Thanks to Dynamism for help and advice with the 3D printer dynamism.com/3dp-cf
Learn how to prepare and coat a 3D print using XCR Epoxy Coating Resin so that it can be used to produce production quality composite moulds suitable for making carbon fibre parts, including using prepregs.
In this tutorial we 3D print a composite patterns for drone shell components. We then smooth and key the surface before applying the special XCR epoxy coating resin. The resin is flatted and polished to produce production quality 3D printed pattern, ready to take moulds off. In this case, we use Easy Composites' EG160 epoxy gelcoat and EMP160 epoxy laminating paste to make moulds suitable for high temperature use, including for use with prepregs. We then demonstrate laminating prepreg into these mould and oven curing under vacuum to produce the finished components.
For a more detailed version of this tutorial, as well as a full list of all products used and links to buy, visit the project page on the Easy Composites website: www.easycomposites.co.uk/maki...
The part is so light it was practically floating when he released it in the air. Nice!
Best kind of ads, the ones you're really eager to watch! And with the added bonus of learning something cool!
Haha, thanks Øyvind, we do our best to keep the content interesting for everyone, whether they're using our products or not. But, of course, we have to pay for this production somehow :)
You @@easycompositestv g
this is currently my favorite youtube channel. i don't even work with composites... yet.
Thanks Jellomello; you've got great taste ; )
I cannot believe that right after I get into 3D printing and carbon fibre laminating, incredible content like this comes out! AMAZING WORK!
The planets are aligning!
I had a 3D printed plug made for my Racing Model Sailboats. Approximately 1 meter long. It was a precision mold that was lazer checked and reworked until it was close to perfect. Then I had a mold made. The mold is perfect as well. This process really worked well for me.
Eh it was my goal from day one when I started to watch your videos. I am so happy to have the privilege to watch this video to learn more about do and don't. Tx very much.
Thanks François, it's our pleasure to be providing this content.
Dude, this was incredible!!! And the other one without oven!!! It's perfect!!!
The timing of this video seems like it's meant for me! I've started manufacturing headlight kits, as seen on my channel, for Corvettes. I'm going to be doing composite parts next and wanted to incorporate printing heavily, into the process. This is what I needed to see...all good in theory, but perfect for what I'm doing. Man....good stuff!
That's great to hear, we hope this helps your project. Look forward to seeing how you get on on your channel :)
I was waiting for this video for SOOOOO LONG
Well, I hope you enjoy it. If you're following the process for real then don't forget to watch the full length version on our website.
We need more !! 🤍🤍
@@easycompositestv Ya damn right I enjoyed it!
Me too
me too :)
Your videos are just so... classy. It is pleasing to see professionals do their job.
Thank you, that's appreciated.
Thanks for this- exactly the info I need for a new project at my work making replacement radomes for a customer!
This channel is pure gold, very professional.
Man this opens up so many possibilities
I like how you printed the mold vertically, in what might be considered the non-obvious way, minimizing the presentation of the layer lines along those gentle slopes. Very clever. Dammit, all your videos are amazing.
Thanks a lot. RE the print orientation; correct, the contour steps are less pronounced in the vertical orientation and for FDM, print speed is pretty-much unaffected by the orientation. Glad you're enjoying the content :)
Wow this is an awesome video! E3D are experimenting with a toolchanger and a milling tool. So you 3D print a few layers, than mill them smooth to perfect accuracy, them 3D print some more etc. It would be interesting to see if you could use that to produce a nearly finished part than only needs a bit of spray coat and polishing to make the mold. Theoretically even that could be automated with a tool changing 3D printer by having some kind of polishing tool bit.
I was waiting for you to cover this topic. Presentation is great as ever. Thank you so much!
You're very welcome Andrew, glad you enjoyed it, thanks for watching.
Great content! One of my favourite channels here! I made a wet-lay carbon fiber part straight off the 3dprinted mold in a room temp vacuum bag. It had a shallow curve (so lots of sparse layer lines to grab on to), but a with a few applications of mold release the part popped off super easily. Mold side surface is not visible and cf laid up almost to 2mm so the top layer was all good and ready for finishing after light sanding. The small pump in your store rocks btw! Supereasy and quiet
Thanks for the feedback, that's all really interesting and good to hear. That's pretty much exactly what we'll be doing in the next video although we debated using a vacuum bag and in the end decided to show simplest possible version; just an open hand layup. Send us some pics of your project, we'd love to see and share!
Where where at online are you getting the files for the 3D print modes
What infill (percentage) did you use on that mold?
I haven't seen your channel for a bit. Your videos are as high quality as I remember. Really incredible productions.
Thanks Steve, we appreciate it.
Lots of thanks for this very infotaining video! Immediately I realized the mistakes I made. Thank you. Keep up this fantastic work.
Thanks for you feedback, glad this was helpful.
Great video! This makes me want to go out and try this process.
Great video Paul, thank you! Looking forward to the future videos!
Thank you, you're welcome. Looking forward to making plenty more.
I'm in love with this. I had created silicone rubber molds with 3d printed parts before. I will now try brushing the parts with epoxy before molding.Thanks for sharing.
You're very welcome. Certainly it can be a very useful process to take silicone moulds off of 3D printed parts in order to duplicate parts as resin castings and in fact using a coating epoxy like XCR can be a good way to improve the finish before taking the silicone mould off.
Where online are you getting your 3D print files to make the molds
OF COURSE!! RESIN! That was the key I needed!!!
Haha, great, yes, I hope this helps.
This is cool. 3d printing giving so many options for the DIY guys at home 👌
Absolutely it does. 3D prints on their own have their applications for sure but a lot more exciting opportunities open up when you combine with the properties of materials like carbon fibre.
This is a very good addition to the video library. Good technique.
Thank you Alan, appreciate your feedback.
Wow that shot at 5:44 is so satisfying! Great video and great product!
as always what an amazing video, I tried to make some 3d printed parts before but always I had a problem with it while vacuuming and your video gave me the perfect solution, so thank you so so much for all your videos for teaching people like me to learn how to work with composite materials, easy composite is the best composite company in the world
Hi Amir, well, that's praise indeed. I'm glad this information has helped you and wish you all the best with your project.
@@easycompositestv thank you so much, mad respect for you all !!!
Finally!!! Like always, straight forward, simple and very clear.
Thanks Andres; yes, this one's been in the pipeline for a while, it's good to get it out there.
This content is gold.
Went and bought the materials mid-video, you sir, are a hero!
Thank you Adam, we appreciate your confidence and trust. Looking forward to hearing how you get on and helping out if you need us. All the best with it.
glad youtube has some valuable stuff like this.. and great people who are willing to share their knowledge (even if they are promoting certain products)
Hi Loui, thanks for your feedback. Of course it's the sales of our products that allow us to make these videos but we always try to provide general information that's useful to everyone. Often in composites the real trick is to make sure you're using the right products and know that they will work. Our products are definitely not the only products that *could* work but they are the only one's that we can guarantee *will* work, and that can be invaluable : )
Very well put together overview! You guys do fantastic work!
Thanks DarkAero; we respect your work and it's great to get kudos from you.
great video once again! Worst thing of watching this video is that I now have an urge to buy a 3D printer :D
We know the feeling :) Just let us know if you need any help.
Matthieu, always a pleasure to get your feedback; I would think with your product design background this would be right up your street! Maybe Dynamism will check out your KZhead channel and following ;)
This is a great overview of the process, great primer!
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it. Don't forget the extra detail version is available on our website if you want it.
great video, thanks for making it!
Amazing work, I'm definitely going to give this a go!
Great, we'd love to learn how you get on.
great demo
Excellent information
This is amazing
yall earned my respect..
Excellent video! Thanks!
Real cool. I'm doing this right now, you guys really help with the tips.
Great to hear, we'd love to know how you get on.
Such an informative video, thanks for posting this up! Do you mind sharing some tips to achieve better surface flatness as I saw there are still a few uneven surface. Keep up the good work!
Great Video :) A video of building larger hollow parts (link a fuel tank or similar) would be nice
love it. you make it look so eazy.
Glad you enjoyed the video!
AMAZING VIDEO!!! THANK YOU FOR SHARING!!!
You're very welcome, thanks for watching.
brilliant timing thank you
Thanks Bernie, glad you enjoyed it.
@@easycompositestv The one on your main site was very impressive, thanks again
You guys are great
I was impressed already just at the first finish you got, so imagine how I was at the end
Thanks Daniel, it's great that you appreciate the craft.
Better tutorial, impossible! Thank you for your time!.
Glad you enjoyed John!
perfect video as always
Glad you enjoyed Mahyar!
Nice video, well done. Right now I make a carbon fiber part (end cover for the muffler) for my KTM motorbike. My son have a own 3D printer and have made with him a negativ mould for me. After preparation this mould (sanding and filling) we will make the end cover with 5 layers of carbon fibre. New for me is the posibility to coating the mold / pattern directly with resin for a even surface. I will test this in future on a new project. Thanks for this information.
Our pleasure. Your project sounds much more like the next 3D printing video we're doing where we use the 3D print as the female mould (not as a male pattern).
Very nicely explained. Great finished products those!
Thanks a lot, they look better in real life too!
One more amazing knowledge sharing video. I watched on easycomposite website. Direct purchasing option to the materials used is much appreciated. Thanks!!
Thanks Soma, it's really good to get your feedback that this way of publishing was helpful to you. Thanks again.
Excellent work! I'm learning a lot from you! I hope soon I'll be able to make my first carbon fiber piece! cheers
You’re welcome, glad to hear our content is useful to you. Good luck with your first project.
@@easycompositestv Your content is awesome! Very well done and educative! Thank you sir ;)
Always love your videos, keep up the cool vids. God bless...nice finish way cool!
Thank you Michael, appreciate the comments. We'll keep them coming : )
This content i really looking for 🔥
Beautiful
Awesome work...
Thank you Florian : )
Your videos are wonderful
Thanks, glad you're enjoying them.
So cool - you guys rock
Thanks Nate, glad you like it.
Easy Composites is doing a great job with these videos. I prefer buying EC simply because I know they will perform as shown in the videos. There are cheaper options but they don't have the tutorials. Thank you for producing these extensive and comprehensible videos. The cost is not as low as I'd like, but we are dealing with a relatively new technology, and with the videos i make less mistakes, thus the cost goes down. Best regards, Leo
Very cool!
Excellent video.
Thanks, appreciated :)
Great vid as always, thanks!!
Thanks Joakim, glad you enjoyed it.
@@easycompositestv looking to invest in some parts from you but brexit has made it a little confusing.
Thank you!
I have been just looking at these videos and every time i'm wishing that i could figure out some project that i could buy that stuff. Also these videos help to lower the blood pressure, because of their calm pace. =D
Haha Ponakka, thanks for the feedback. We hope you think of the right project.
Great video! 🤜🏼🤛🏼🍀🍀🍀😎
finally! cheers!
What a treat. As usual, first like then watch.
Thank you for this video, exactly why I subscribed a couple yeas ago!
Well, thanks for bearing with us. We have another 3 3D printing videos in the pipeline so hopefully you'll gte a good breadth of knowledge on the subject very soon.
@@easycompositestv Wonderful! Thank you for all the types of videos you do, I've learned a lot from them.
It's awesome
I love your videos. Yeah i would definitely like to see the 3D printed mold video.
Hi Juan, absolutely. Well, we're filming it at the moment, it's a very quick process and so should be quicker to put together than most of our tutorials (including this one), stay tuned over the next couple of weeks.
But man you guys make it look so easy and it's kinda not. There's a lot of little details in the process that if you mess up on just one detail...the whole product goes to the trash. I've had to watch so many videos to get the whole picture of how to make carbon fiber.
@@easycompositestv It's a very quick process? That's an characteristic no one would associate with 3d printing.
Guess my dirtbike will get a nice upgrade 😆
Amazing
This video is just what i needed to cover a lot of the basics. It unlocked to me many different ways to produce my items. Could you please tell me the name of the microscope you are using to observe your prints and details. Much obliged thank you in advance.
Awesome video! thanks!!!!
No problem Javier, glad you enjoyed it.
Good way to make quick prototype without high precision.
Very interesting! And the 3D printed mould video will be even more interesting .-)
Hi Rolf, We're filming it at the moment, it's a very quick process and so should be quicker to put together than most of our tutorials (including this one), stay tuned over the next couple of weeks :)
Will the 3D printed mold simply be a cavity vs the core you built to cast from?
great channel
You guys are amazing. That part popped out with ease. Duh. 😳 I guess that’s why it’s called easy-lease.
Hey Will-Co, yes, that's about the idea!
Superb ✌👍🏻👍🏻
Thanks Sameer, glad you enjoyed it :)
I love carbon parts :)
Merci beaucoup pour le partage
Vous êtes les bienvenus Marina, c'est notre plaisir
Nothing beats a properly sanded and polished ABS print (PLA resists sanding like crazy...always use water when sanding and a proper small desk lamp so you see the shape of how's your sanding going). If you can afford a large fdm you can afford one of the new large SLA printers. It's such a joy to sand and polish SLA resin prints to perfection.
We did plenty of detailed testing on various filaments and surface processing. For a proper composites moulding process you need to be coating a 3D print in something that can be finished to a high standard and which will take a reliable release agent. Our results were that for FDM prints, epoxy coating was the way to go. On that basis, it really doesn't matter whether the plastic sands and finishes well because that's not what you'll be sanding and finishing; it's more important that the print material is dimensionally stable. SLA printers do give a nice finish for sure but you still need a reliable coating and release agent if you want to take composites moulds off the prints.
Any Video with conformal cooling? Great content!
Thanks for every tutorial video. They are all amazing. Hope to see your EU warehouse soon.
Thanks for the really kind comment, we'll be sure to make more videos soon!
That's fantastic thanks for this video why the resin any special gloss
Such cool videos for us DIY'ers/makers! For my projects, (guitar making) I'd love to see a video on how to make some small CF rods, solid, square or rectangular, maybe 1/4" square section and 18" long, for use as braces and stiffeners. Just mentioning it in case you're looking for video ideas. 😎
Thanks for the comment and suggestion. Quite honestly, for carbon fibre rods you're much better off just buying them. They're cheap to buy and readily available in a huge range of shapes and sizes. In industry they're made on a full-scale pultrusion line. This is just not something you can replicate at home. You'd be able to bodge something by pulling tow through a resin bath and then trying to shape the section you need but there's not really much point. If you've not done so already, check our website for a huge range of carbon fibre pultrusions.
@@easycompositestv, Thanks for the reply. I didn't realize rods would be tougher to DIY. I guess if I want to DIY something, I can experiment with L or U section molded braces instead. In fact, there might be (acoustic) advantages to doing that.
Lockdown hair! I feel you brother! 😂 Awesome video btw! 👍
For sure! No ‘close contact’ services in the UK for months now so it was the Tom Cruise or the full Michael Stipe!
great video was looking for a video like this and thanks i got it ...like your new hair style
Thanks, that’s a lock down haircut (as in, no cut!).
@@easycompositestv you should see mine all the best .
thanks very good
Appreciate the kind comment!
Really cool stuff. I've been interested in making parts for my Sprites and Midget, for example bonnet or boot lid, or even bumpers or wings. They're much larger than these example prints but 3d printers are rapidly approaching the size of those components, and of course machining the mold out of foam with a CNC has been possible for years, and can use the same methods. Ah, someday a bonnet. But within a year I hope to play with this method to make two very specific parts, a little tear drop shaped lump that fits under the taillights where a piece of a bumper used to go, and "bumperettes" which are bean-shaped bumpers that take the place of a full width steel bumper on these little cars. Both of those products are well within the range of an inexpensive 3d printer and both designs lend themselves to this modeling method. Thanks for the tutorial, you make it look simple, though obviously it's not that simple.
Thank you for your comment, these all sound like great ideas for components. Realistically, I think it will still be a while (or maybe never) before 3D printing will be the most viable process for larger (bonnet scale) mouldings but for smaller parts, such as those you describe, it's a great way in. For your bonnet, check out our (rather old but still accurate) bonnet making tutorial - unless you're making a custom shaped bonnet, you'll more than likely be taking moulds off your original part and this would be the way to do it. Look forward to hearing how you get on :)
great video, would be great to see videos on how to create parts without ovens or vacuum
Hi Nick, for sure. We're already filming the next part in this '3D printing in composites' series which is where we 3D print the mould directly, wax it up and hand laminate a carbon fibre part into it, all in, using zero fancy kit, vacuums or ovens. Whole process, a few hours from start to finish. I've rather spoilt it a bit now but look out for that video in the next week or two.
@@easycompositestv great thanks looking forward to seeing it.
No 3d print experts disclaimer, knowing 3d printing guys are insane by nature
Comment checks out
This is perfect for custom carbon fiber headlights
Yes, could be a great method for custom shapes like that.
Would love to see your projects! Tag Easy Composites and Dynamism if you do.
The quality of the content throughout this entire channel is extremely high.
Thanks a lot, we really work hard to achieve this.
MY GOOD. JUST WHAT I NEEDED :O
Thanks Michal, that's good to hear. Look forward to seeing how you get on.
@@easycompositestv No way you wouldn't want to see it. It will be the most cheap and crude way possible 🤣 I'm a poor student, doing a custom diffuser 🤣 3d printed with a thin layer of filament in parts glueded together and reinforced with putty and fibreglass once the fitment is perfect. Than time for a mold. I've found your videos very informative and useful, it's also quite entertaining, it isn't boring 😂. The usage of a vacuum cleaner and epoxy for smoothing blow my mind away and I won't have to worry about a vacuum pomp. I found also thanks to you guys there is a material called diolen, and it looks like carbon 😁 I'm thinking of using it instead of fibreglass, what do you guys think, diolen vs fiberglass? Or both 🤔 top layer for looks
"i dont know shit about 3d printing"... Yeah but your post process is smooth has ice and there is no video about that on 3d printing channel. Good job !
If the print material is ABS then you can chemically smooth it with acetone. If you want to get real fancy you can make a vapor smooth chamber by heating acetone in a big pot. This is how the Stratasys vapor smooth station works, but they use different chemicals. I'm sure there are tons of videos of DIY setups on youtube. But it works really well and gives a great surface finish.