Laying carbon fiber on 3d printed parts

EFOIL.builders Foils & Boards
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I’m planning on making my own high aspect foil by 3d printing it, in PLA then covering it in carbon fiber, but I’m just curious if anyone has any experience with this method and/or good reasons it wouldn’t work? I’d probably just leave the PLA inside as a core. If anyone has tried it, do you have any tips before i go ahead with it?

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I will make the wing pretty heavy if you let the 3d printed parts inside. You will be very limited with the design (espacially if you don’t use a vacuum bagging system) but it’s possible. If you want to do a strong and light weight wing you will need a vacuum bagging system and to use your 3d printer as a mold and not a plug. Then you can join the 2 parts together the way you want.

That’s basically what i’m teaching in this course easy3dcomposites.com
It’s risk free for efoil builders, if you build anything from a 3d printed mold and post a review you will have a refund. And if for any reason you don’t like the result the video linked in the email you can also have a refund!

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i am planning on vacuum bagging the foils, and using a carbon fiber sleeve to create a single seamless foil. If I didn’t care too much about weight though, would having a PLA core work? I suppose I could use a PVA core too, and dissolve the core once the part is done as well.

Is there some benefit to making molds and combining two CF parts other than repeatability? I had considered using molds, but had decided against it because I couldn’t think of a good way to bind the two halves of the part to eachother.

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Will definitely take a look at your course as well, I’ve seen your results in other threads and they’re very impressive!

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Thanks! If you plan to use a vacuum bag than making a 3d printed mold or making the wing from a 3d printed plug will cost almost the same. But you will have a much better result from a 3d printed mold for sure. Also you will need to make the center section strong (to attach it with screws) and you can easily do that by adding a filler when you make the wings from a mold.

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that wing was made with 3d print covered in glass fiber (it’s heavy anyway, so why bother with carbon :slight_smile: )
the grooves are made for strength without having a skin too thick…