Walter D

My Feedback: (16)

I have always worked with carbon fiber cloth of the highest quality and never had any problems with it, while handling the material before and during the lay up; last week I was doing a home built carbon fiber landing gear and it needed the use of the tow to fill the space between the inner and outer layer of cloth, this required the need to pull enough tows from the weaved cloth, for the first time in many years I noticed the following day a sharp pain right next to my thumb nail, I didn't think much of it then, but the side of the finger nail became extremely painful and a pinkish discharge would accumulate there, every time I would accidentally hit my finger I would cringe in pain, and I am not kidding! I looked at the red and somewhat swollen area and couldn't find anything to cause the problem, but something was there, so I just poked the flesh with eyebrow tweezers, pulling out skin and flesh in order to remove whatever was there, it was then that it dawned on me that it could have been carbon fiber embedded in the skin that was causing the problem, but I didn't give it much thought. Well the job didn't turn up good, thanks to an old epoxy hardener that I used, the resin cured to a rubbery state instead. So here I go again a week later getting ready for another job, after starting to cut and prepare all the carbon fiber that would be needed for the job, I thought of using gloves to protect myself, but decided against it (macho man) just to see if it could happen again, lo and behold, it happened again, but this time on my annular left finger in a spot on top of the finger , I didn't feel anything until maybe half an hour later, a sharp itch and pain sensation, I looked with the magnifying glass again and couldn't see a thing, but then used the very small round lens to look at greatly magnified areas and guess what, there was a faint black little line in the skin, yep, carbon fiber, it took me a lot of work with the tweezers to be able to remove it, then a terrible itch next to my nostril, looked up there, also carbon fiber.
The moral of the story, use gloves, eye protection and dust mask when handling carbon and fiberglass cloths and tows, etc., imagine if some of this almost invisible fibers are inhaled or lodged in your mouth or eyes, this stuff is extremely painful and annoying and for sure not to be handled when small children are around (or pets). Also change clothes after working with these materials, I found several hard to see carbon fibers in and around the bathroom sink, where I washed after working with the stuff. Like I say, I have been using these materials for the longest time and this is the first time that I noticed this, so it can happen to you too if not careful!
Lots of good things can be done with composite materials, let's use them intelligently, think safety at all times!! (And this comes from a person that has always been guided by a Guardian Angel, you may not be as lucky!)

bojangle

Thanks for the warning. I am now exploring carbon fiber, but I will always prefer good ol' balsa.
BO

rajul

My Feedback: (58)

Walter, many thanks for the heads up ! I am preparing to fabricate my own CF plates and this is important. What is the best way to cut a CF plate, jig saw, laser ? Does laser work well ? Thanks

TrueScale

My Feedback: (47)

rajul, Buy a table top wet tile saw cutter. Home Depot sells them for about $100 and up.
Since it cuts it wet there is little problem of dust.

Walter D

My Feedback: (16)

If you are going to be doing a lot of cutting and plan on using the material fairly often, Bomberboy idea is a very good one.
I have personally used a small band saw to cut the nomex honeycomb plates that were sandwiched with carbon fiber and/or fiberglass, carbon fiber will eat up the blade in no time, so leave it for last (it will need to be replaced), cutting fiberglass is easy, do use a mask when cutting and sanding carbon fiber and fiberglass, unless using wet sanding, very fine dust is given off by these materials.
I know there are a lot of young people learning from us more experienced modelers, it makes me glad to know that at least one or two person can benefit from my personal experiences, to your health guys!

rajul

My Feedback: (58)

Chuck and Walter, thank you very much for your advise !

raptor22

good to know...I'm in high school and am about to start a made-from-scratch all carbon fiber rocket for a county-wide competition. I like knowing how to avoid these issues before I gat any accumulative allergies or anything.

--Alex

mattyd

I work with carbon fibre everyday. Be very careful, were told to use gloves when wet as epoxy can cause all sorts of problems with skin ive had days of work because of infections in skin from carbon splinters. As for trimming cured carbon one word the new asbestos is all ill say never ever trim without a mask how ever silly u look.

Matt