Real Carbon Fiber

Anyone put real carbon fiber on their computer? (pics?)
Where could I get custom-made parts?
thx!

 

carbon fibre would be awesome

 

indeed.... I'm going to look into it sometime this week and see what I can do....

 

I would try automotive modification/tuner type shops. They might have it.

 

Yea, that's what I was thinking.... i just thought some of you may know a some other places.... thx though!
Its prob. gonna be kinda expensive, to doing the whole laptop is prob. out of the question....

 

do a search and you will find several threads on CF

If you want real real CF you will have to make molds and vacuum cast them yourself. I have a friend that did a CF desktop rig about 9 years ago, still using it and it is in perfect shape.

 

I second that. Carbon fiber works a lot like fiberglass. You won't be able to just put a cover of it on, you'll have to make new parts with it, essentially.

 

do you have pics? yea... I want the real tjing... no stickers... I see tons of those, but I dont want that... and I just might make little things cf.... just a thought.....

Yea; my laptop would be out for a bit so they can mold them and stuff...
idk

 

I think you missed a very key part of my post.

Your laptop would be out of service for a bit so YOU can mold the parts.

If you can find someone who will do it for you then it will most likely be a first time project for them and extremely expensive. You are not talking about a couple hundred dollars, it will be much more.

 

how am i supposed to mold it...?
thats interesting...

 

Several thousand is my guess... It's not worth the cost unless you can find a hundred other people with the same notebook that want carbon fiber. It would make the notebook a lot lighter thats for sure...

 

The creation of the mold themselves will be a few thousand, then you still have to buy the parts and machinery to do it.

 

What do you mean? You can certainly do an overlay, and with vacuum bags or a mold. It's easy to do a wet overlay then brush out the bubbles. There are plenty of resins that will dry without additional heat. Resin will happily stick to parts without any extra bonding agent....it's trying to get it to release that could be a problem. The toughest part will be cutting the CF to fit. It's best to trim it when wet.

Btw, I'd call up Aircraft Spruce, tell them what's up, then buy whatever they recommend. No way in hell I'd buy CF from a "tuner" shop unless I want to get bent over.

 

no pint in doing that, you are just adding weight and thickness and chances are it would look bad, really bad.

The best results are going to be making the case from CF _ prohibitively expensive unless you know someone or are willing to do it yourself. As a diy, it would be challenging but could be done making molds from your existing case. the results even if you had a few minor imperfections would dazzle and give hella bragging rights

If you can't make a case from CF then you might as well get a vinyl CF sticker.

 

I know you said no stickers, but here's one that might be better than the ones you've seen.
http://www.slymachines.com/catalog/products.asp?catid=8

I'm currently working on a way to paint the carbon fiber look, but I'm not sure I'll be able to pull it off. Might take me a few weeks to a month to figure it out, and if I do then I'll post up some pics, although I'll most likely do it on my mountain bike not my laptop.

 

nice job bro! Thx!

 

So you think that carbon fiber sticker stuff will work? I'm yet to order some, if you do, then it'd be nice if you'd PM me and tell me what you think about it, how real it looks and how durable it seems, and how hard it is to apply.

 

its real carbon twill.. i stock carbon twill for when we need it in our audio installs. this simply already has the resin's appliead ina thin coat and can be cut to fit. it really will only work on a pretty flat surface though as when using carbon fiber around curves and bends it need to be shaped before applying the resins, this could be heated a bit and bent but it will not take a compound curve. but yes its a real deal stuff.. cut it to the shape you want the stick it on works a lot like those real carbon fiber dash kits they sell out there...it will be pretty durable as far as scratching etc.. peeling will depend on a few things how clean you make the surface its applied to and how glossy the surface its applied to is.. if this is applied to like a super glosy notebook cover you would almost positive have to use either a promotion aid which etches the surface slightly to help it stick or it would have to be sanded slightly with a extra fine grade paper.. or it may not stick well...

 

mind i ask if applying the carbon fiber to the Inspiron 1420 palm rest area a good idea?? will it peel off??

 

depends on how you apply it. it done right no it will not come off. the proper way to do a setup like this would be to actually wrap the piece while off the system using actual matte and resin. these sticker versions will look nice but it will always appear as an ad on.

if you want it to always stick right.. go get a plastic adhesion promoter from a automotive supply store i myself use sem products.

once the surface it nice and clean from using the above product now do not touch the surface at all the oil from you finger can make the tape not stick from the new material. peel the backing and stick.

a word of caution though it the plastic promoters do "etch" the surface a slight bit to make it a bit rougher to allow the tape to stick better if you go to remove this later you may see a bit of discoloration or roughness..

 

You need to create a mold of the hole case, i'm talking everything. Is esensially the same way to build fenders and bumpers modifications for cars but the CF is more expensive than FG. A shop the use FG can tell you how to do the molding. It will be tough and be ready for make mistakes, patience is the key. But everything is posible is this life. Good luck...

 

thank you. sounds really tough since im not good doing this. i was thinking since our palm will be resting on the palm rest area, it might fade that part. so thought that putting CF can prevent that.

 

buy a sony sz or tz if you want carbon fiber