Cutting carbon fiber cloth

butchlambert · Dec 7, 2012

I'm ready to start laminating balsa and carbon fiber cloth. I know that it is tough on cutters. How do you cut the cloth. A new pair scissors wouldn't be a sacrifice for cutting the approx .010 cloth.
Help please.

kapps · Dec 7, 2012

Dry cloth? There are specific scissors made for cutting carbon and kevlar. ONLY use them on the material you cut first with them. You might be surprised how well a new Fiskars will work. If you notice the fabric pushing away when you cut, try making 1 bastard file stroke down each side of the scissors. This will create fine serrations which should grab the material and prevent it from sliding away.

Mike C. · Dec 7, 2012

I may be wrong, but I don't remember carbon being super hard on scissors. Kevlar is hell on them, but I don't think carbon is too bad. Check in the composite section of Aircraft Spruce and Specialty, they'll have what you need. They may be a little pricey, but you can at least find out what to buy and get it somewhere else.

CBlair · Dec 7, 2012

I have successfully used those cheap electric shears that you can get at the hardware store. Not sure what brand mine are, but the heads are replaceable and you just plug them in to charge them.

Ok just went to check it is a Black and Decker.

Charles

butchlambert · Dec 8, 2012

Thanks for the help.

WSnyder · Dec 8, 2012

Butch we used to use ceramic bladed scissors for kevlar and carbon but that was long ago. These guys are in Europe but they have a large selection of what's commonly used: Shears, Scissors and Knives for cutting carbon fibre, kevlar, aramid and glass reinforcement - Easy Composites

butchlambert · Dec 8, 2012

Thanks Bill,
How are your fast street cruisers coming along?

WSnyder · Dec 8, 2012

Hot rods are on the back burner for awhile. House renovations and gathering more machine tools seem to be keeping me plenty busy. I don't need more tools but they keep finding me

BTW I spoke with Tom R here and had no idea he ran a score match. I'm planning on getting out to shoot with them after the holiday's. Never shot a score target so I'm sure it'll be an education. I'll put your rest top to good use! Going to get him over to the shop as well. Funny we've existed so close and frequented the same places for many years but never met.

Peter from Holland · Dec 8, 2012

The last job (with a boss) i had we made machines to crossply dyneema fiber for balistic material
we used a small electric hand shear with a circular knive about 5 cm
it did a great job

peter from holland

Mr_Will · Dec 8, 2012

Telecom scissors cuts the stuff up easy. Regular sharp scissors will cut it as well. Telecom scissorswork the best though. They are designed to cut fiber optic which has Kevlar in it. Cutting Kevlar is way harder to cut that cf. I have a few sq ft of kevlar in the garage that stuff sucks to cut.

Forestgnome · Dec 9, 2012

A while back I bought a pair of scissors to cut Kevlar. They are diamond coated. Only cost about $75 at the time. That was after I tried cutting them with those penny-cutting scissors and the Kevlar just grooved them.

Terry Keeley · Dec 10, 2012

A rotary fabric cutter works great:

Welcome to Olfa

rbent · Dec 10, 2012

The limited cutting of carbon fiber clothe I've done worked fine with a decent pair of regular scissors. For carbon fiber concrete reinforcement I've used tin snips.

henrya · Dec 10, 2012

Hi Butch,
As others have stated, plain ol' scissors work just fine.
If you are cutting shapes it is easier to do and you will get better results if you use a hard pattern pressed on top of the cloth and a sharp exacto knife to cut.

rws · Dec 11, 2012

Terry Keeley said:
A rotary fabric cutter works great:

Welcome to Olfa

Yep, these work great. No handling of the fabric while cutting, fraying is minimized.

JWaldo · Dec 11, 2012

Be Careful.

The carbon in carbon fiber is so pure that if you get a piece of it (a splinter) in a finger, your body will not reject it, but will build calcium around it (like a little bone).

Jim.

PittChao · Sep 19, 2018

electric fabric scissors

Electric Fabric Scissors(TF510), Various cutter blades are available and easily replaceable. Electronic Scissors can be used for cutting cloth, card boards, leather, paper boxes, etc. It might provide you with some help, welcome to contact us.

jz79 · Sep 20, 2018

I've worked with composites on and off for around 15 years, carbon is quite easy to cut with any sharp scissors, about the same as fiberglass cloth, dry cloth will fray somewhat near the cut line of course

regarding cutting kevlar, there is a trick to sharpening any scissors so that they will cut at least for a limited time (even new sharp decent scissors with regular grind angles will not cut kevlar, the fabric just slides out), you need to regrind them with a coarse (coarse this is important) wheel in a way that the cutting edges are at a right angle, see the picture attached, I've even used just a plain file to adjust the geometry of regular scissors and they start to cut kevlar right away, the file also puts the serrations in the cutting edge that help to hold on to fabric, this same grind works very well on glass and carbon fabrics as well, touch up with a stone or a sharp file when they start to get dull

UncleFrank · Sep 20, 2018

A razor knife will work pretty well for straight cuts. Keeping the cloth from balling up is the hard part. Put something heavy on top to use as a straight edge.

A razor knife will work for contour cuts if you put a template on top of the cloth and weight it down.

Change blades or snap off the dull section when the cloth starts to ball up.

You can also apply some kind of contact paper/film to hold the shape. Use something with non-silicon based adhesive or it might affect your bond.

Cutting carbon fiber cloth

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