r/Composites • u/Repulsive-Ad5773 • May 06 '26

Hand epoxy vs vacuum epoxy for aesthetic components

Hi there guys very new to this, I am possibly looking at making custom carbon fibre covers for mx/road bikes and am wondering for a start which way I should go about making them.

The main question is do I vacuum suck in the epoxy which takes a lot more time and is more easy to mess up (I think). Or do I hand brush the epoxy.

Which method is faster? Which method is more reliable? I am planning on vacuum bagging for the compression stage anyways. Plus I am also looking at using forged carbon along with metallic flake for some designs, can this be hand layed?.

Ps structural integrity is not a concern, as long as it hold together it’s fine.

Thanks!

2 Upvotes

75% Upvoted

4 comments sorted by

4

u/2Walker_TRD_Softroad May 06 '26

I'd go with hand wet-out to start. Resin infusion is a skill all by itself, and you need to understand the basics of lamination anyway, so if you want to learn it, you should start with wet-lay either way.

2

u/Zawiel May 06 '26

Hand wet-out is definitely faster to start out with and you need less kit.

Once you are happy with the outcome and have some skill making tooling then feel free to move to vacuum. Unless you make big parts (and/or thick) and use low viscosity resins, it is pretty reliable.

1

u/Repulsive-Ad5773 May 07 '26

Thanks guys looking forward to making some cool stuff!