Hi Barry

The 282 style fabric is a pretty good all around material for the odd and
ends stuff.  There are also a lot of other styles though.  For a bit more
strength you can use a 5 harness satin weave.  The fibers are the same just
the weave is such that the yarns go over 4 yarns and under every fifth and
it's available in the same 5.7 oz weight.  Anyway, the satin weave thus has
only 20% of the fiber crimp of a plain weave.  The down side is that the
weave is held together much more loosely and falls apart more easily.  On the
plus side, there also is a slightly reduced tendancy for "print-through",
i.e. the fabric weave doesn't show up as much with time as a 282 (plain)
weave.  The drapeability is great though on the satin.  I buy them by the
roll and the last 6 months or so have used about 70 yards of the satin and
about 50 yards of the 282 and like them both for slightly different things.

What you didn't say was whether you had any specific uses because there are
also a lot of other materials out there.  One thing you might get that will
sve LOT of money when you need stiffness without a lot of strength is a
material called "Coremat".  It's fairly heavy and the weight varies according
to how much resin you saturate it with but I figure about 45 lbs/cu. ft,
(about the same as oak) so it is a lot denser than foam or honeycomb but it
is extremely workable and handles complex curves aesily. And when compared to
doing a lot of layers of solid ply is much lighter.

For example, one layer of 4 mm coremat with a layer of 5.7 oz carbon on each
side will be a lot stiffer than a dozen layers of the 5.7 alone.

If you want to get "techie", one thing I like is a well done laminate in
clear finish.  Carbon fabric looks really great with a clear finish.  If you
like the black weave with the fibers being highlighted in the lights, build
your mold as normal, then put clear gelcoat against the mold.  When hard, do
a very carefull laminate of carbon against that and make sure it's a little
on the wet side to avoid any bubbles.  Core and laminate the back of it as
usual and then pop it out.  You will have a really pretty carbon weave
showing through!  For an even more spectacular finish, sand and then spray in
clear LPU.  I plan on doing that for a console and dash inserts.  I've done
it for parts on my racing sailboat and they look really cool!

Dan Newland

Super ES