Carbon fiber laminates?

I would be pretty sweet to wrap a pick guard in a material with that pattern.

 

I've vacuum laminated cf cloth with epoxy on a neck. Works fine. I doubt you could bend that sheet to a neck.
Marko

 

Depends on what you are trying to achieve, but in general it won't be much beneficial for anything.

If you want to do it just for looks you are better of using carbon fiber cloth and epoxying it to the neck. The ready made sheets can only bend in one direction at a time, making it very difficult to make it sit nicely on a neck.

If you are looking for structural strength I don't think it will help much. It may aid a bit to stiffen the neck, but it's not worth it if you take the difficulty of fitting it properly into consideration. You also run the risk of warping or delamination since the wood will expand and contract white CF is totally "dead".

You could use it as a headstock veneer, though. Just be very careful when finishing the edges. You will probably need to epoxy the edges as they can be a bit sharp. Also, CF dust is bad for you. Use a filter mask!.

I did that once. (CF sheet under a clear PG). For some reason it never looked right. Don't know why, though.

 

Because It wasn't on my Bass
I've had that in the back of my mind for a few months now.

 

I have to disagree. I made a neck with obeche core (almost like balsa) and laminated a 1,5mm thick cf skin over it. The neck is one of the stiffest necks I've made. I used cf cloth, epoxy and vacuum bag.
Marko

 

yeah, making a neck from the ground up and covering it in CF should work well. I was talking about the sheets OP linked to. gluing those to a neck probably won't work as well because the weave would have to be cut in several critical locations to be able to fit it well.

Vacuum forming over a core like you did is the "proper" way of doing it.

 

In a perfect world you would have an outer mold that you cast the entire thing in, but it's probably easier to make a vacuum bag system and to some cleanup work after the epoxy is cured.


Basically what you do is to cover the neck in the CF cloth. Then you saturate the cloth with some epoxy (Epoxy made for cf. Not epoxy glue). You then cover everything in a special plastic that doesn't stick to the epoxy and a "breather cloth" to allow the vacuum for act on the piece evenly. On top of that you add a vacuum bag that you suck the air out of.

After the epoxy is cured you can sand the neck smooth. You could also add a layer of clear lacquer as a final finish.


edit: Take a look at this: http://www.cycfi.com/category/materials/carbon-fiber/

Scroll down a bit.


edit 2: Oh, and make sure you get the correct kind of weave. (Some are designed to wrap around compound curves while some can only fold one way at a time.)

 

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f57/how-i-make-cf-neck-760091/

I like this thread

 

I think Martin Keith (a member here) does fiber laminates in some of his necks ( I believe)..

 

Hi,

A single layer of carbon fiber cloth, properly applied to the outside of a neck, can add a tremendous amount of strength.
This is the concept behind the Parker Fly instruments and, before that, Renaissance lute and oud construction which used a structural "skin" of ebony over a softer neck core material.

The "skin", since it's on the outermost surface, carries the lion's share of the the tension load on the neck. Surfboards, boat and airplane components, and many lightweight/high-performance objects are built this way.

I'm using a C-shaped carbon layer about 0.1" inside the back surface of my hybrid necks - the exterior hardwood layer is quite thin. The inner core is lightweight redwood or basswood.
Those necks are very strong - actually, too strong for a simple Fender-style truss rod to even function. I need a 2-piece rod just to make them move!

Carbon is a great material and has a lot of cool properties. It's easy to overvalue it as some kind of "magic" thing - there are good and bad places for it. However, in the right place, and the right amount, it can make some really cool things possible.

Cheers!
Martin