Carbon Fibre Parts? or Gun?

[Brackish]

Ok all,

I work in composites and have the potential to make carbon fibre parts. It is not cheap and it is a lengthy and stressfull process done right but in saying that there are ways around it to reduce the cost. For example: scrap material and left over molding blocks or molding materials and avoiding CNC machining.

An easier start would be the likes of M4 rear grip. It can be cut in half and both sides molded then joined afterwards with basic hand trimming, the insides can be made of other bits of scrap carbon or acrylic etc to house the motor or whatever inside.

Now if there is a CAD master around you could make a CAD model and I could speak to the powers above at work and see how much it would cost to CNC a pattern block to make a carbon mould which would yield roughly 100 to 160 rear grips and then I could bond them together and sell on.

There is the possibility of making a full carbon gun. This is something I may research and cost up as a project at work. I know there are lots of legal hurdles which will also have to be researched but I think there is a possibility of getting somewhere with this!

Let me know your thoughts and if a carbon gun or accessories would interest you.

Cheers,

Brack.

 

[Lozart]

Carbon fibre accessories always make me think of Saxo dashboards and Max Power. And then it makes me sad.

Unless I'm remembering it wrong CF still has the ability to fail at any given moment from a slight knock in the wrong direction so I'm not entirely sure it'll be durable enough for an airsoft gun...

 

[Brackish]

It can if it is poorly engineered and made. You can use 2 thinner plies one at 90 deg and one at 45 deg and when cooked under pressure they fuse and it can double the strength compared to one single thicker ply. It will be more than durable enough, we make car doors which have passed crash tests and are on the roads now lol.

I personally would not have a carbon gun unless I wanted it super lightweight and then I would paint it. But there are those who love it and would have one if engineered right.

You did make me laugh with the saxo comment lol!

 

[Lozart]

I know you can make car parts from CF but then they're a lot more heavy duty than the parts we're talking about here. Internal bracing and reinforcement isn't really an option in small parts like M4 receivers.

On a complete side note, I remember being amazed at how light CF parts can be when I was helping with an RFID tracking demo at a composite car parts manufacturer on the Isle of Wight and a small lady walked past carrying the whole side of an Aston Martin...

 

[ImTriggerHappy]

Could make me some parts for an EBR stock I am going to be making soon for a sig 552.

 

[MxHaze]

Carbon fibre accessories always make me think of Saxo dashboards and Max Power. And then it makes me sad.

Unless I'm remembering it wrong CF still has the ability to fail at any given moment from a slight knock in the wrong direction so I'm not entirely sure it'll be durable enough for an airsoft gun...

Click to shrink...

You take that back right now!!!! i had a saxo vts as my first car. best car ive ever driven, carbon bonnet, carbon bootlid, carbon wrap seats & roof panel. i didnt have a dashboard i stripped out all the interior bar two seats, wheel and gear stick to make room for my cage. awesome car, took it to many a track day to show up all the cars. a stock scooby has about 210bhp per ton, my saxo had 240bhp per ton. Not all saxos are powered by subwoofers and 6inch backboxes!!!

on topic: nah, its stupid.

 

[MxHaze]

Plastic is lighter, cheaper, more ductile, more available and can be made to look like carbon fiber.

But atleast if you dropped your cf gun, you could watch it float to the ground before it cracked or shattered.

 

[shortman]

^^

Lol

 

[proffrink]

I've seen a few custom made CF cocking handles/levers on sniper rifles but that's about it. Higher-grade aluminium seems to do the job of lightweight and strong in airsoft quite well.

I'd think there's a small market for some very specific parts. I know there are a couple of things I'd like lightening on my GBBRs, but whether or not it's economical I don't know.