Hi tyler
I not going to say I am an expert,but I have built Quite a few carbon bikes.
(The mountain bikes I have made have been in races)
All made with molds. The proces is pretty simple, Design your bike make your mold plug, cast reinfoced plaster around to make the mold (reinforced plaster of paris with fiberglass window screen) I can give you more detail If you like.
I then bladder mold with bicycle tubes they are cheap and usually you can get old ones at the bike shop for free.
Some times I use vacume also my pump pulls about 27" and works well.
If you bag over foam crushing wont be a problem as long as you dont have hollow area's, atmosperic pressure on average is 14.7 pounds per square inch at sea level.I use lightweight clear bags from the hardware store.
My last recumbent frame I made the mold With a cnc router but not everybody has acces to one. It sure saved me a lot of time.
If you would like to see some of my bikes follow this link.
http://www.harnettcycles.com/index.html
Then click the bike website button on the right
I not going to say I am an expert,but I have built Quite a few carbon bikes.
(The mountain bikes I have made have been in races)
All made with molds. The proces is pretty simple, Design your bike make your mold plug, cast reinfoced plaster around to make the mold (reinforced plaster of paris with fiberglass window screen) I can give you more detail If you like.
I then bladder mold with bicycle tubes they are cheap and usually you can get old ones at the bike shop for free.
Some times I use vacume also my pump pulls about 27" and works well.
If you bag over foam crushing wont be a problem as long as you dont have hollow area's, atmosperic pressure on average is 14.7 pounds per square inch at sea level.I use lightweight clear bags from the hardware store.
My last recumbent frame I made the mold With a cnc router but not everybody has acces to one. It sure saved me a lot of time.
If you would like to see some of my bikes follow this link.
http://www.harnettcycles.com/index.html
Then click the bike website button on the right
