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.....