Gardner,
Carbon will bend. Just not at a sharp right angle.
That's why it can be used in sails which will last a while (it's great with UV resistance, and it basically will not stretch with time) as long as: a) you don't bend the sail too sharply, or crease it, when folding, and b) the sail doesn't flog in the wind.
If you're winding the tow or cloth over a radiused edge, you should be set. I wouldn't try bending a pre-constructed panel over a radius, but that's another story. Gentle arcs should be fine, as well as anything you do over a radius before adding the matrix.
Many people have problems wetting out carbon. Infusion is probably the safest method because it doesn't require any judgment on your part in terms of whether or not there's enough epoxy in a given area. I've not tried it myself, but some folks say it's near impossible to tell if a section is properly wetted and all the voids are filled.
- Mike
Gardner Pomper wrote:Hi,Thanks for the link! I was just using the ebay link because I didn't know where else to get it and I thought it would provide a good reference for feedback. It worked! Apparently Rob has been using 50K and I haven't ever seen anything above 12K, which has been remarked on as "difficult to wet out", so I am looking forward to hearing how Rob solved that problem.I am not actually building Elementarry; I was using that as an example because I was thinking about bulding beams for the plywood proa I started last fall, instead of the galvanized fence posts I was going to use. I do plan on hiring Rob for plans once I figure out what I want.I know I can also get carbon cloth from noahsboatbuilding.com for about $2/sq ft (not sure how much that is per pound). The reason I assumed that it would not bend is that my impression was that carbon is much stiffer than fiberglass. I thought that was the point of carbon.- Gardner