Trad Gang
Main Boards => The Bowyer's Bench => Topic started by: longrifle on January 31, 2023, 12:10:21 PM
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Anyone know of a unidirectional carbon supplier besides Bingham ? Thanks
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Gordon's makes the stuff, but nobody seems to be selling it. Could be that it has to be custom ordered in minimum quantities(large). Maybe you could convince one of the listed distributors to get some.
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You do know they make a 6 ply that has a twill exterior with uni, in it. It adds sfiffness and stability. From Rosewood
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I believe this is Gordon’s uni…..
https://binghamprojects.com/store/carbon-unidirectional-glass/
I haven’t purchased any carbon in years. I used to use CST carbon in California years ago and have them lay up custom sheets using pre preg material in different thickness that were 24” x 36” that I ripped when it arrived. Much cheaper buying by quantity too.
There is another carbon place in Seattle Washington that does custom lay ups, but they hate bowyers… lol. Our consistency tolerance is much higher than the aerospace industry.
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Thats Gordon's alright, but it's sanded both sides and the OP was wondering who else sold carbon Uni besides Binghams. If you check out Gordons/PolyOne/Avient website, you see that they make a variety of glass and carbon unidirectional pultrusions.They will make it for anyone, just have to satisfy the minimum order requirements. So far nobody that I'm aware of, sells a Uni carbon with one finished side, like the glass lams we use. I'm guessing it's not very desirable, most bowyers that use carbon want the "bling factor" of the weave to be visible. Uni carbon is going to solid black or very dark grey, otherwise it's going to look like crap when you start profiling it.
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You are right about the black uni carbon not having much sex appeal on looks, but that stuff can turn the performance up a notch used on a long bow design. The bias weave is used mostly on recurve limbs for added torsional stability, and it's better looking stuff. Its often laid up together with Uni to improve performance.
I burned through about 10 grand years ago ordering different pre preg lay ups with different thickness and composition. Each layer of pre preg carbon they use adds .005 - .006 thousandths of thickness. Using X as the bias weave, and O as the uni.... I had XOX laid up that ran about . .015- .017 , and XOXOX that ran about .030 in thickness. You had to balance out the X evenly or it would twist after lay up... So an XOXO wasn't a good choice the panels would twist. We even had it laid up XOOX and had a layer of glass on the belly so we could run it on the belly side of the RC limbs.... We had mixed success with this lay up. The limbs that did held up for awhile were rock solid, and very fast.... But the longevity of these belly carbon lay ups were poor on recurve limbs...... BUT.... That XOOX was great on long bows.
The worst part about all this was once you found a good lay up, the next time you order it, it could be stronger or weaker by a lot.... Trying to hit draw weight was a nightmare with that stuff. You don't sand bias weave carbon on the face.
Bottom line is the stuff is just too darn expensive to mess with fot the average guy, or small shop IMO.... If you take some time tweaking your limb designs, you can get right up there in performance with the fastest carbon bows out there, and the longevity is much better.
Good luck to you guys playing with it....
Kirk
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What size are you after? I buy S1S @.025”x1.5” for the A&H ACS limbs. Unfortunately, that’s the only size I have that’s sanded 1 side. It’s Gordon’s