Where to buy Carbon Fiber

www.stewmac.com has it and they also have a 'white paper' technical brief on how, why, where, and when.
The Rods
the examples

Simplified but still good info.

 

this might sound silly but i work for lola cars making carbon fibre for race cars for a living. we throw out loads of carbon "off cuts" all the time.

if you can find a composite company near you they may let you take some of thier scrap for much less than it would cost you to buy it from a shop.

 

I bought some from Luthier's Mercantile. They also have sheets of it.

Guitar Truss Rods/Neck Parts

 

Hey, that's a good idea, although I don't think there are that many places that make stuff like that.

Maybe you should consider gathering up scraps that seem to be usable for guitar making and selling them!

 

Too bad it only comes in 18" lengths I'd really like to find a place selling sheets 36" long. I just can't stomach having a joint in the middle of the neck span if I were to utilize a pair of 18" sheets end to end.

All the best,

R

 

The rods come in 24" lengths for bass. You only need it as long as your truss rods are.

I assume you want to do a neck through and have the graphite run the whole length? I used the 24" rods in my neck through. They used to have an article on joining the rods together.

For the sheet stuff, you can stagger it, or laminate it between wood veneers, in layers...

 

sorry I wasn't too clear ... I was commenting on the carbon sheet stock, not the reinforcement bars. The sheet stock only is available in 18" x 1" sheets

http://www.lmii.com/CartTwo/thirdpr...NameProdHeader=Graphite+Composite+Sheet+Stock

I'd like to find a source where I could obtain .04", .05", .063", or .08" unidirectional carbon fiber sheet stock (cured, of course) in 36" x 1" sheets so that I can laminate them into my neck laminates vs using unidirectional carbon rods routed and epoxied underneath the fretboard. I really prefer not to undertake the expense of ordering small batches of custom cured sheet stock. The LMII sheets are only 18" in length

All the best,

R

 

You may be surprised, many of these companies are quite small factory units and dont really advertise themselves too much because they dont have a range of products to offer the general public....however a google search may bring up some info for you. and its lightweight so wouldnt cost much to post if they are some distance away.

you could also try aerospace industries, airoplane manufacturers etc... there are hundreds of places out there which means loads of scrap.

i am toying with the idea of making a range of standard pick guards and cavity covers to sell.

 

If you are obtaining scrap from US based aerospace companies within the US, be sure you first have their permission to do so and that you have this permission in writing. Composite technology within the US aerospace sector is export controlled - and you can easily find yourself in jail for posessing scrap from a controlled part (even if you are unaware it is a controlled item)

All the best,

R

 

yeah, sorry i wasnt suggesting that anybody steal from these companies, most companies i know of are happy to give these off cuts away but you should always check with someone who has the authority to make that decision.

 

Or, you could rethink! Warwick, for example, only use reinforcement up to 12th fret...

 

ive thought about using CF fora top cover on my P bass project, the only problem is it seems a bit too immature almost, i dunno, i spent most of my later teen years around street racing (domestic guy) and carbon fibre still leaves a bad taste in my mouth

 

Yeah I kind of said that... my carbon rods are the same length as my truss rods. But if you read it again you see that he wants to do a neck through with carbon laminates the whole length of the neck, not just under the fingerboard.

I still think you can splice them together. Just stagger where the splices are... because of the orientation of the lams, it shouldn't matter much... and once you are at the body end, you have the body wings adding to the stiffness.

It's the same way they make laminated beams for houses.

 

Patented...

 

I had already considered utilizing two pieces or shortening the reinforced portion. For now I'll pass on these alternate approaches.

I don't like the load focus at the joint of the two piece method. Granted this is not an aero structural member, so all of my reasons are purely personal and retentive.

Since the composite lam will be visible on the backside of the neck, reinforcing only part way is not an option either.

All the best,

R

 

Maybe you could use fiber glass? Woven fiberglass sheets work basically the same way as carbon fibre.. Not that I know of any good fiberglass sources, but TBer bound says he works a lot with it. Maybe you can ask him where he gets his.

 

I'd agree on keeping away from building up a sheet that contains butt joints, in the manner of laminated timber. Reasons:
- in lam beams, at any region along the length,the continuous strips far outnumber the joints. To do this w- the carbon sheets, you'd have to do a high # of thin lams- lots of labor/time.
- in the lam beams, if the curvature in the loaded beam varies from the jointed to the non-jointed zones, it doesn't matter. A neck is a precision-sensitive assembly, and this might not be negligible.

 

i knew i remebered seeing this site before, i was going to make a car audio settup with CF a couple years ago...
http://www.shopmaninc.com/carbonpage.html

 

Found what I was looking for here:

http://www.cstsales.com/carbon_fiber_uni_laminates.html

on page three, look for item C1314

All the best,

R