More carbon and some seat action

Things are going along slowly but surely. I had cataract surgery this week, so I have strict instructions to not strain myself or get around any dust. That pretty much restricts me to doing light work that doesn't involve grinding or sanding.

I decided I could do some small part carbon layups and work with balsa wood. In the photo of the carbon parts you can see six small parts. The two large rectangles are balsa sandwiched between one layer of carbon on either side. These will become the seat mounts and will also be the upper shock mount. They will get bonded and carbonned to the main framed. The two small rectangles are plywood sandwiched with carbon, they will be the front parts of the swing arm. They will have 10mm slots cut in the bottom side to allow them to attach to the axle of the hub I am using for the pivot point. The odd shaped small parts are the rear dropout connectors. They will go between the foam swing arm extensions and the aluminum dropouts from the Rocky that I cut up.

The balsa part is one of the two seat frames. Once the glue dries, this will be shaped a bit to the curve of my back/butt, and cut to size. One the left is the seat bottom and the right is the back. Once I get this piece shaped, I will make a second one. These will be parallel seat frames, positioned about three inches apart. One they are CF'ed they will have balsa slats laid across them which will make the base and back of the seat. I will then layer them with a couple of layers of carbon. Pictures in the next few days will help clarify what I am trying to explain.

Progress is on track and there is no sign of good biking weather yet so I am not too pressured!!!!

Since I am off training for a few weeks due to the eye surgery, I should get a bit more work done on the bike. I need her on the road by the end of March so I can get some training miles and hills under my belt.  With my one hour of off-road recumbent experience, I'm not quite ready for the race in May!!

First Carbon Layup......

Well, I'm not sure if this should be titled first carbon layup, or first carbon lesson. I guess it was both, since I did get a layer of carbon on the frame and I learned about a thousand things of what to do and what not to do. I had read about pretty much every lesson I learned, but it is hard to put the lessons into practice, until you practice!! The piece isn't a thing of beauty, but it isn't a disaster either. Although I have some grinding and sanding to do, I am overall very happy with the result. When I put the piece into the vacuum bag I had a bit of shift of the peel ply and breather fabric (white fluff in photo). The result is some of the breather is laminated into the carbon. I have most of it trimmed down now and will remove the remainder with the dremel in the next couple of days.
The layup itself went well, however things started to get a bit stressful when the epoxy was getting tacky and I still had alot of dry CF. The big lesson from this is that I should work in smaller pieces for the remaining layups on the frame. I think I will do the rest in three pieces per layer. One at the rear with the angle down, one being the long centre bit and then one with the angle up and headtube area. I also need to have the frame suspended somehow, as this time I was rolling it on a sheet of plastic as I epoxied each side. It caused the CF to pull away from the foam, I would then need to go back and try to flatten that side while I worked on the opposite side. Having an octopus with me to help would have been good, however, I was by myself. All in all, an awesome step forward and I am no longer a CF beginner. Next step is to do some small carbon sheets and parts for the swing arm assembly.....

Slow Progress

I thought I was going to be ready to lay up some carbon last weekend, but I realized that I didn't have any peel-ply, which I thought was with the vacuum pump kit. Since there is no supplier of this material near here, I needed to order some. Today (Friday) I am going to pick it up in Kingston at West Marine. They ordered it in from the US so I wouldn't have to pay the courier and brokerage fee.

I did some redesign work in the swing arm/suspension/seat attachment area. I removed the "hump" that was for the seat mount. I am now planning on making some balsa/carbon laminate flat sheets to use for the rear shock and seat mount uprights. The sheet pieces will be epoxied and carbon wrapped to the rear end of the frame after the first two layers of carbon sleeve are on the frame. This will make the frame construction much easier as the carbon sleeves will shape very nice around the newly streamlined rear end.

I shaped the hub that I going to be using as the swing arm pivot. It started life as a rear freewheel hub. I ground down the spoke connection points to give me a nice small piece that needs to be wrapped in fibreglass then carbon and then will be mounted into the carved out frame piece with epoxy then wrapped/bonded with several layers of carbon.

The swing arm is starting to take shape, you can see the general lay out here. What is missing so far is the rear shock mount which will be custom built once the swing are is attached to the frame and I can get accurate measurements. The mount will be a "U" shaped mount which drops below the swing arm to allow for the necessary shock length.
The plywood and balsa pieces you see will be sandwiched in carbon to give me some mounting points for the front and rear swing arm components. The rear drop outs are from the Rocky Mountain that I cut up and got the bike components from. The paint will be ground off, the aluminum etched with a West System aluminum etch kit and then wrapped with fibreglass followed by carbon to bond them to the balsa and then the foam. It will become a big aluminum, balsa, foam, fibreglass, carbon sandwich. The front dropout will be sandwiched plywood/carbon and then I will cut the 10mm dropout shape for the hub/swingarm attachment. The rear end will be connect via a normal rear quick release skewer, which should allow for quick removal if that is ever required.

Carbon Fiber Delivery

WOW, I am really getting close to having everything I need to get the bike put together. The order of CF from Soller Composites in New Hampshire arrived today. I got two different sizes of CF sleeves. A large diameter sleeve for the bike frame and a smaller diameter for the swing arms (chain stays) and possibly a handlebar tube. I also got a couple of yards x 56" of fabric. I am working on the seat design and I am planning on this material being for the seat and the few places where I will need some strips for strengthening in addition to the sleeves. The CF looks excellent, I am really starting to look forward to the layup and vacuum bag process. Although I have never done this before, I have read so much and gone through the process so much in my mind that I feel quite confident it will go well. I have one more order of bike parts to arrive. It got shipped today from Jenson USA. I have a front derailleur coming, it is a shimano Deore XT M770E derailleur which mounts via a ring onto the bottom bracket and should prevent me from needing a riser post to mount the derailleur on.

Epoxy Purchase

I made my trip to the Kingston Ontario West Marine on Saturday to pickup my West System epoxy and accessories. It was really worth the 45 minute drive instead of ordering online as I had planned. I thought I would need a gallon jug of epoxy, but when I picked up a gallon can as I was thinking how heavy my bike will be I quickly realized that there is no way I will need nearly that much. I ended up buying the smaller quart size. Looking at the coverage charts, it is now obvious this stuff goes much further than I had realized. Actually, I hadn't given it much thought. I also got the pumps, rollers, mixing cups, etc that are required. I got 207 hardener since I understand it holds up better to UV exposure and it also cures to a much clearer finish than the other hardeners. I got a can of 404 high density filler, this will be used for the bonding of the headtube, bottom bracket, swing arm pivot, chain idler and likely part of the upper rear shock mount.