Hey folks. What are your tips and tricks for working in carbon fiber?
I can easily cut the outside portion of large shapes by starting the cut off the sheet and then progressing inward to cut the profile.
But… what about interior shapes and small holes? Thoughts? Suggestions? Share your misery?
Thanks!
C.
From my experience using carbon fiber, cutting holes/shapes inside a cut should work the same as any other cut. My biggest issue when cutting CF is the soot. It is constantly clogging the drain filters causing the cuts to stop every 5-10 minutes.
What sort of settings are you using for the inside cuts? What thickness CF? Oddly, I haven’t had issues with clogging filters, but then again I run a “collect abrasive” cycle after every cut.
Thanks!
C.
I am using 2mm CF, which I select under “other” in materials, and I use “outside” for cutting path with no tabs. Using “outside” might affect the hole pattern size, but I found it to be the most accurate so far.
I can’t even make it through a 20 minute cut without stopping to clean the drain filters though.
I use 3mm carbon fiber with no issues. In fact, I find that I can bump the feedrate up by almost 50% before I see any issues. I haven’t had issues with the soot either, but also the material that you use heavily determines how your cut will come out. I use some stuff on Amazon, but it’s very high quality; when it’s cut, there are no voids at all in the laminations, which prevents the stuff from delaminating when the machine pierces and cuts. Some lower quality stuff might blow apart between layers for finer features. The stuff I use cuts like any other material.
I’m using what I believe to be some of the higher quality CF…and sometimes it cuts like any other material no problem. But for some reason it sometimes gives me major issues with drainage. I assumed it to be the material, but it might be something else entirely.
I have experienced a black soot like material with a new cut bed. The bed gets eaten away by the water jet and floats around the tank. After breaking in a fresh new bed and actively cleaning regularly the soot begins to go away!
