Carbon question

[Lee]

I have a little project in mind for the winter.

i am considering having a diff housing in carbon , the only query i have is, can you fix a piece of carbon at 90 degrees to another piece of flat carbon, ie can you drill and screw into the vertical piece of carbon without it de-laminating.
If there is no way then i will just have alloy blocks made up and use these as mounts for the carbon to be attached too but i thought it would just look cleaner all carbon.

[dave g]

you stand a good chance of splitting the carbon if you try to end drill it...you will weaken the bond.

best bet is some nylon or alloy square bar and use that to connect them...you could try some small alloy angle too.

dave

[VintageRacer]

I've never worked with carbon, but is there anything strong enough to glue it?

[dave g]

resin epoxy i would imagine,but its brittle and wont allow any movement

dave

[terry.sc]

Originally Posted by Lee

I have a little project in mind for the winter.

i am considering having a diff housing in carbon , the only query i have is, can you fix a piece of carbon at 90 degrees to another piece of flat carbon, ie can you drill and screw into the vertical piece of carbon without it de-laminating.

Simple answer, no. The way to do this is to fit inserts into the carbon when laminating it up, so you are looking at carbon sheet around 10mm thick at the edges.

You can glue carbon together, but butt joints don't work. You need to use a decent epoxy resin (not araldite!) to glue sheet to carbon right angle section to make the joint.

The best way of making a carbon diff housing is to make make a pattern and laminate it up as two halves.