So I am building up my athena reed valve kit, and I got some carbon reeds to replace the crappy ones that came with it. I have to cut the carbon to fit. Any ideas what the best way to drill the holes for the screws would be?
I have never worked with carbon before, so I dont know what is going to happen if I try to drill through it. I have some extra carbon fiber to work with if I mess up, but I dont want to waste it all. Anyone?
Drill it, as long as you let the bit work it's way through the material there is not much chance of it grabbing a carbon thread. Start with a small bit and then go up to the correct size. Might want to put tape on either side too.
Sharp bits are key
Try it out on a scrap piece first.
the hole is so tiny i poked a skinny nail through for mine. And save your extra carbon fiber because even they rip on the athena :)
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/14043297@N03/1802774430/" title="Brokeassreed by littleloslex, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2162/1802774430_bc75c89059_m.jpg" width="240" height="180" alt="Brokeassreed" /></a>
Cool, thanks guys.
same as drilling light gauge steel shim stock put the carbon fiber clamped between two pieces of sacraficial aluminum stock or mild steel the drill through the reed sandwich. that stops the drill from grabbing and ripping the heck out of thin material.
High speed with a Dremmel. Let the drill do the work!
you have to be careful with CF. used to do a lot of carbon work with cars..even used to mold it the thing about it is, like people said, it is threads pressed and cooked together to shape. warisesi has it down packed! sandwhich it in a vice, and drill through the 3 pieces of material. but you need to make sure its a high speed drill. you can use a punch if you have one
sand along the edges, too, when you're done cutting. carbon fiber is very sensitive to surface imperfections when it comes to crack propagation. I would guess there was a chip/nick in the 'top' edge of that one pictured, that caused it to fail. if you look at a commercially sold CF reed, they have sanded lengthwise along the edges to ensure there are no nicks/ cutting marks.
athena kit sucks. tommy wut r u doing?!:?
i have used kevlar to make reeds for old engines where new ones were not available works great and easy to make but i wouldnt think carbon fiber would be good for reeds its not a good material for anything that flexes a lot its very brittle i would think it would break after a wile
athena will be the new polini killer.
start taking notes
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