Can I mix carbon fiber fabric with most glues?

[kolleamm]

I have a fragile plastic piece and I would like to coat the inner walls with carbon fiber, so I was thinking I could lay carbon fiber on it and put some glue from the hardware store to mix with it. Would it work in making it stronger or do I need a special glue?

 

[DaveE]

Pretty much anything that you successfully glue to your plastic piece will make it stronger. Information about adhesives for carbon fiber is better found via a google search than asking here, IMO. Try "Carbon fiber adhesives" for a start.

 

[Baluncore]

I have a fragile plastic piece and I would like to coat the inner walls with carbon fiber, ...

Carbon fibre has good tensile properties, so it is best wrapped around an outer convex surface where tension forces in long fibres will not cause delamination. Internal concave surfaces tend to be compressive so it is the glue or filler that will be more important, held in place by short fibres as reinforcing.

Small plastic items break after becoming brittle with time. I sometimes repair them by reassembling the parts with cheap superglue. Then I wind a Kevlar fibre around them, backwards and forwards to make a very thin outer sock of cross-hatched thread. One drop of fluid superglue on the Kevlar wicks through to make a very strong exoskeleton. The superglue, = cyanoacrylate, chemically bonds with the Kevlar, = aramid.
I get the Kevlar fibre from scrap cable. Make sure you are not touching any fibres as the superglue wicks in, or you will very rapidly become part of the exoskeleton.

 

[Nik_2213]

IIRC, modellers use cyano-acrylate glue filled with 'primed' glass micro-spheres, as this avoids chopped fibres, which are both dangerously 'fly' and tend to find the worst possible 'lay'...

 

[hutchphd]

Carbon fibre has good tensile properties, so it is best wrapped around an outer convex surface where tension forces in long fibres will not cause delamination. Internal concave surfaces tend to be compressive so it is the glue or filler that will be more important, held in place by short fibres as reinforcing.

Small plastic items break after becoming brittle with time. I sometimes repair them by reassembling the parts with cheap superglue. Then I wind a Kevlar fibre around them, backwards and forwards to make a very thin outer sock of cross-hatched thread. One drop of fluid superglue on the Kevlar wicks through to make a very strong exoskeleton. The superglue, = cyanoacrylate, chemically bonds with the Kevlar, = aramid.
I get the Kevlar fibre from scrap cable. Make sure you are not touching any fibres as the superglue wicks in, or you will very rapidly become part of the exoskeleton.

I do the same thing with carbon fibers and high strength low viscosity epoxe. If the epoxe bonds well to substrate (always a crapshoot with plastic) the result is remarkably strong.
Incidentally I obtained the epoxe and 4 inch carbon fiber ribbon to stabilize my 70 year old block basement walls which had started to bow a bit...small gaps in the horizontal mortar lines. That was five years ago and nothing has moved. since . A very good and relatively easy solution.

 

[Tom.G]

...70 year old block basement walls which had started to bow a bit...small gaps in the horizontal mortar lines.

Maybe de-water the soil around your basement. If you have a sump pump there, the perforated pipes that run around the foundation may have collapsed/filled with stuff, raising the water table.

Many plumbers can send a video camera thru the pipe to check for blockages. Not cheap, but cheaper than a collapsed wall.

 

[hutchphd]

Maybe de-water the soil around your basement. If you have a sump pump there, the perforated pipes that run around the foundation may have collapsed/filled with stuff, raising the water table.

Many plumbers can send a video camera thru the pipe to check for blockages. Not cheap, but cheaper than a collapsed wall.

Actually I had recently had a galvanized intake water pipe replaced which clearly created some leakage and backup outside. This likely caused the issue but is copacetic now. Vertical carbon fiber has made wall rock stable. Good call, thank you!