Hi all,

I'm looking for material which is wafer thin, very strong, and most
importantly - light weight. I have looked at carbon fibre, but It's
either too expensive or doesn't come in the shapes sizes I'm looking
for. I will use it to make a custom 1/10 scale RC chassis. I've heard
of using balsa coated (doped) with some kind of compound made from some
kind of epoxy and talc. I'm considering fibreglas cloth and epoxy or
polyester resin. I may make a mould out of a block of wood to make a
square tube shape for starters. Does anybody have any experience
working with fibreglas and perhaps have any suggestions on how I can
get started? If moulding it, should I use wood or metal? for a release
agent, what should I use. Should the block have a slight taper for
easier release? Etc. You get the idea
I hope someone can lead me from start to finish. Is there a website or
book you can recommend?

Thank you all.

wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi all,

I'm looking for material which is wafer thin, very strong, and most
importantly - light weight. I have looked at carbon fibre, but It's
either too expensive or doesn't come in the shapes sizes I'm looking
for. I will use it to make a custom 1/10 scale RC chassis. I've heard
of using balsa coated (doped) with some kind of compound made from some
kind of epoxy and talc. I'm considering fibreglas cloth and epoxy or
polyester resin. I may make a mould out of a block of wood to make a
square tube shape for starters. Does anybody have any experience
working with fibreglas and perhaps have any suggestions on how I can
get started? If moulding it, should I use wood or metal? for a release
agent, what should I use. Should the block have a slight taper for
easier release? Etc. You get the idea
I hope someone can lead me from start to finish. Is there a website or
book you can recommend?

Thank you all.

I hope somebody does have a website for you, because there are a lot of
issues here. But I can pass on a few basics.

First, no polyester. Epoxy will give you a much stronger result. Second, the
amount of carbon fiber you would use in a 1/10 scale model is quite small.
Someone probably has a good source for you. It will produce a chassis that
is several times stiffer, and a bit stronger, than any fiberglass you can
get, including S-glass.

The chassis design is the place to start. Is it a shear-panel type, or maybe
some type of "tub" (monocoque)? If so, my thoughts would lean towards a
balsa core with unidirectional carbon fiber, with epoxy matrix. The balsa
will be a good former and it will give you some extra panel stiffness,
assuming you cover both sides of the panels. Woven carbon fiber would
actually be harder to work with than unidirectional strands or roving on
such a small scale.

I can't help you with designs, using words. This is a job for pictures. Good
luck. You'll wind up doing some experimenting to get anything really good.
It's worth it.

--
Ed Huntress

As I'm sure you know, all of the team cars and high dollar cars are built
with carbon fiber. You would be making a big mistake to use anything
else...

wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi all,

I'm looking for material which is wafer thin, very strong, and most
importantly - light weight. I have looked at carbon fibre, but It's
either too expensive or doesn't come in the shapes sizes I'm looking
for. I will use it to make a custom 1/10 scale RC chassis. I've heard
of using balsa coated (doped) with some kind of compound made from some
kind of epoxy and talc. I'm considering fibreglas cloth and epoxy or
polyester resin. I may make a mould out of a block of wood to make a
square tube shape for starters. Does anybody have any experience
working with fibreglas and perhaps have any suggestions on how I can
get started? If moulding it, should I use wood or metal? for a release
agent, what should I use. Should the block have a slight taper for
easier release? Etc. You get the idea
I hope someone can lead me from start to finish. Is there a website or
book you can recommend?

Thank you all.

Ed has it right. Epoxy is a lot stronger than polyester, it has very
little odor, and by mail is only a bit more expensive than fiberglass
resin at the parts store. I bought a gallon and a half of (very slow)
epoxy from www.mrfiberglass.com for about $65. (Just a satisfied
customer. There are lots of other dealers out there.)

Kevlar is stronger than fiberglass, less expensive than carbon fiber,
but doesn't sand well. In any event $35 for a yard of carbon fiber
doesn't seem an insurmountable price to pay.

If you've never worked with fiberglass/Kevlar/carbon fiber, you may
want to try something easy first. Even a simple shape like a cylinder
can be a lot of work. I build high-power rockets and now know several
ways to do it wrong..... :-(

Best -- Terry

wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi all,

I'm looking for material which is wafer thin, very strong, and most
importantly - light weight. I have looked at carbon fibre, but It's
either too expensive or doesn't come in the shapes sizes I'm looking
for. I will use it to make a custom 1/10 scale RC chassis. I've heard
of using balsa coated (doped) with some kind of compound made from some
kind of epoxy and talc. I'm considering fibreglas cloth and epoxy or
polyester resin.

I don't think I understand how you could use fiberglass composite where you
cannot use a graphite composite. They come in the same forms -- fabric,
rovings, pre-made flats, rods... It's the same technology, different
material.

Talc is only a filler. It has no structural benefit.

I built a main spar for my "gutsy lady" glider. It's .375 x 1" x 84", made
from graphite ribbon, spruce, and aircraft plywood, laminated with epoxy.
It'll take a cantelevered load of 60lb at the free end, if it's not allowed
to twist. It bends like a fishing rod, but doesn't break. Graphite is that
strong.

LLoyd

On 1 Feb 2006 18:07:52 -0800, wrote:

Hi all,

I'm looking for material which is wafer thin, very strong, and most
importantly - light weight. I have looked at carbon fibre, but It's
either too expensive or doesn't come in the shapes sizes I'm looking
for. I will use it to make a custom 1/10 scale RC chassis. I've heard
of using balsa coated (doped) with some kind of compound made from some
kind of epoxy and talc. I'm considering fibreglas cloth and epoxy or
polyester resin. I may make a mould out of a block of wood to make a
square tube shape for starters. Does anybody have any experience
working with fibreglas and perhaps have any suggestions on how I can
get started? If moulding it, should I use wood or metal? for a release
agent, what should I use. Should the block have a slight taper for
easier release? Etc. You get the idea
I hope someone can lead me from start to finish. Is there a website or
book you can recommend?

Thank you all.
Ed had lotsa good points . If you want the car to be strongest, and
that guides your design more than being an exact scale copy of a real
vehicle, then the loads from all the suspension and drive train must
be considered. Careful design here can make a remarkably light and
strong car.
ERS

The OP needs to find a local club of RC carpet racers. My son was rookie of
the year at our local club, which, being located in Austin TX, was populated
by a large number of brilliant young engineers with a huge excess of money
and time to invest in this activity.

This environment was very cool. The track is carpet coated with a sticky
substance, so it is absolutely consistent and uniform every week. The
tiniest advantage made a huge difference. In our case, I convinced my son
to concentrate on set-up. We used Carroll Smith's Engineer to Win and
Engineer in your Pocket to tweak our car, and he got quite good at it. I am
very proud that he took this experience to heart and has started in the Mech
Eng program at UTx, with a goal of being an automotive engineer.

We finally had to quit when the cost per week started to approach $100 - new
tires and batteries every week were merely the starting point.
Electronically managed motor dynamometers, battery conditioners, tire truing
machines, programmable speed controllers, titanium suspension pieces, and
the chassis of the week club were all standard. Some of our club members
were nationally ranked, and were sponsored, but as always, "Speed costs
money, how fast do you want to go?" Saving money is totally counter to
every other motivation in racing, and is therefore wrong-headed and a waste
of time.

The point of all this background is that the OP is ignoring all of this
incredibly competitive knowledge in trying to make his own chassis from some
new material. He doesn't yet understand how important stiffness is - far
more than lightness, and he is trying to save a few bucks in a hobby where
cost can't be the limiting factor if he wants to be competitive. And if he
doesn't want to be competitive, he should use aluminum which is cheap,
easily worked, and very strong.


"Eric R Snow" wrote in message
...
On 1 Feb 2006 18:07:52 -0800, wrote:

Hi all,

I'm looking for material which is wafer thin, very strong, and most
importantly - light weight. I have looked at carbon fibre, but It's
either too expensive or doesn't come in the shapes sizes I'm looking
for. I will use it to make a custom 1/10 scale RC chassis. I've heard
of using balsa coated (doped) with some kind of compound made from some
kind of epoxy and talc. I'm considering fibreglas cloth and epoxy or
polyester resin. I may make a mould out of a block of wood to make a
square tube shape for starters. Does anybody have any experience
working with fibreglas and perhaps have any suggestions on how I can
get started? If moulding it, should I use wood or metal? for a release
agent, what should I use. Should the block have a slight taper for
easier release? Etc. You get the idea
I hope someone can lead me from start to finish. Is there a website or
book you can recommend?

Thank you all.
Ed had lotsa good points . If you want the car to be strongest, and
that guides your design more than being an exact scale copy of a real
vehicle, then the loads from all the suspension and drive train must
be considered. Careful design here can make a remarkably light and
strong car.
ERS

wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi all,

I'm looking for material which is wafer thin, very strong, and most
importantly - light weight. I have looked at carbon fibre, but It's
either too expensive or doesn't come in the shapes sizes I'm looking
for. I will use it to make a custom 1/10 scale RC chassis. I've heard
of using balsa coated (doped) with some kind of compound made from some
kind of epoxy and talc. I'm considering fibreglas cloth and epoxy or
polyester resin. I may make a mould out of a block of wood to make a
square tube shape for starters. Does anybody have any experience
working with fibreglas and perhaps have any suggestions on how I can
get started? If moulding it, should I use wood or metal? for a release
agent, what should I use. Should the block have a slight taper for
easier release? Etc. You get the idea
I hope someone can lead me from start to finish. Is there a website or
book you can recommend?

Thank you all.


Airplane builders use a foam core that is sandwiched by fiberglass. Very
strong, very light.