Forged Fabric Parts!!?.. With 3D Printed Compression Molds

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Hello fellow makers,

I'm back with another composite Instructable!

This time around I took inspiration from forged carbon fibre that is currently all the rage.

For my part I swapped out the carbon fibre tow for some fabric and had a go at compression casting.

The resulting part is crazy strong for what it is and you can make some amazing looking usable parts using this method.

Let's get started...

To replicate this Instructable you will need the following:

• Piece of old fabric

For his handle I used pieces of old jeans.

Amazon - Denim Fabric

• Access to a 3D printer

Amazon - Ender 3

• 2 Part clear casting epoxy

This kit also contains some metal foils that look amazing when added to your composites.

Amazon - 2 part Clear casting epoxy

• Release agent

I use red PVA release agent as it works with a wide variety of resins, it's super cheap and a bottle lasts forever.

Amazon - PVA Release agent

• Sanding paper (waterproof) around 60 to 400 grit and I would highly recommend a sanding sponge/block

Amazon - Sanding sponge

Amazon - Sanding paper (wet)

• Clear coat

Amazon - Clear coat

• A hobby knife

Amazon - Hobby knife

*As an Amazon Associate I receive a small percentage from sales made through provided links at no cost to you, this helps fund future projects.

We will start by designing and making our compression mold.

For the test part I created a bicycle brake lever as it allows me to test a few different parameters of the composite.

To make the mold I simply took the part and extruded a block around it, then split the body into two pieces and cut the original part from the block.

You want to make sure that the walls around the part is quite thick ( mine was 10mm ) as you don't want it to deform from the pressure.

I printed the mold in PETG but any sturdy filament will work.

My print settings are as follows:

Material: PETG

Speed: 40mm/s

Temp: 230 degC Nozzle and 85 degC Bed

Nozzle: 0.5mm

Make sure your printer is properly set up and prints waterproof otherwise your resin will leak out of the mold and cause air pockets.

This step is really important.

You will need to apply release agent thoroughly to the mold otherwise you'll be left with a part that's fused to the mold and impossible to remove undamaged.

For epoxy and polyester resin I always use PVA release agent, it's super inexpensive, easy to apply, easy to clean and I've never had trouble demolding.

I find that two thick layers of PVA work perfectly and it also hides some of the imperfections of the printed mold, just be sure to let the release agent dry completely in between coats.

Now we need to prepare the components of our composite.

I chose to recycle some old jeans for material but most fabrics can be used. Using a pair of sharp scissors I cut the fabric into pieces roughly 5mmX20mm in size.

If your part has lots of small details cutting the fabric into smaller pieces would yield better results.

I also decided to throw some copper foil into the mix for some shimmer.

We now need to wet our fabric with the epoxy resin.

I mixed up 100 grams of slow cure casting resin (which turned out to be way too much, I could have gotten away with 50 grams) according to the manufacturers instructions.

Next I placed my fabric strips along with the copper foil into the resin and pressed them down until they were submerged. You don't want to stir the fabric into the resin as that would cause it to break apart.

Leave the fabric to rest in the resin for about 10 minutes so that it can absorb.

Optional:

I placed the container with resin and fabric into my DIY vacuum chamber for about 10 minutes to ensure thorough absorption of the resin.

With the fabric soaked in resin we can start filling our mold.

We want to press as much of the fabric into the mold as possible but also we don't want a lot of excess resin, to make this easier I used a plastic disposable fork this allows you to scoop out the fabric from the resin whilst letting excess resin drip off.

As I filled the mold I also pressed out any excess resin from the mold.

Now that the mold is filled to the brim we need to compress it.

I laid down some plastic sheeting on the edge of a table and placed the mold onto it. Next I grabbed some offcut aluminium bars and placed them onto the mold to help distribute the force from the clamp across the entire mold.

Now we can attach the G-clamp and tighten it down until there is no more gap between the two pieces.

Leave to cure for at least 24 hours.

After leaving the resin to cure for at least 24 hours we can now go ahead and remove the part from the mold.

First we need to remove the lid. I use a sharp chisel and just push it in between the lid and main mold, it should pop right off.

Then we can remove the part. Usually giving the mold a slight flex is enough to break the part loose, if it is really stubborn I found that placing it in a bucket of water so that the release agent dissolves also works.

Because we squeezed out a lot of the epoxy resin there will be quite a lot of excess resin around the part, luckily it is very easy to remove with a sharp hobby knife.

Unfortunately the top of my part had some air pockets that needed to be repaired.

I use a sharp hobby knife to open up the voids just so that it is easier to fill in. Then using some quick set epoxy glue I fill in the voids making sure to slightly overfill them so it can be sanded flat to the part.

Leave to cure according to manufacturers instructions.

With all the resin fully cured we can refine the shape of our part and get rid of imperfections.

Starting with drum sanding bit attached to my Dremel I round all the edges and sand away the layer lines from the mold, you will notice that with the course drum sanding bit (this was 80 grit) the fabric in the composite frays a bit don't worry as the finer sanding paper fixes this.

Next I used some 220 grit sanding paper with water and a bit of dishwashing liquid to smooth all of the scratches left by the coarse grit.

If you are not going to be finishing the parts in clear lacquer you can continue with 400 grit sanding paper up to about 1200 grit and then finish with some compounding polish but if you will be using a clear coat you can stop at 220 grit.

Now the last step, time for the clear coat finish.

Start by wiping down your part (I use benzine or alcohol) to get rid of any dust and oiliness on the surface.

Then I use an airbrush so that I can use my own mixture but a normal clear coat spray can would work just as well, spray about three coats of clear lacquer over the part giving it some time to dry slightly in between layers.

Set aside in a warm dust free environment to dry completely.

And that's it..

You can now let your imagination run wild with all the possibilities.

I hope you guys found this Instructable helpful and if you have any questions please feel free to leave me a comment bellow.

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Happy making!