Composite Suppliers

[SchiessCo]

Most of us know ACP / Aerospace Composite Products (http://www.acp-composites.com) and CST / The Composite Store (https://www.cstsales.com/) are good suppliers for composites. If you have any other favorite source of composite or mold making materials, please list them here.

[nichanderson]

If you have any other favorite source of composite or mold making materials, please list them here.

Hands down Aircraft Spruce beats anyone out there in terms of price and quality. Best stuff, Best prices and excellent shipping.

Just a few of their AWESOME deals..
Bidirectional Woven Carbon Graphite 5.7 oz - $16.50 a yard

[Compares - ACP is $32 a yard ! 51$ a yard at CST !!!]

Unidirectional Carbon Graphite 4.7 oz - $18.45 a yard

5" Carbon Tape - $1.48 a foot

1 Gallon of Aeropoxy Resin - $47.50

Haven't seen anybody else with lower prices.. Material is always in stock (or so it seems) and ordering is fast and easy. And they carry a full line of composite materials and mold making supplies.

Nick Anderson

[davidfee]

The Aircraft Spruce page isn't very clear on how they actually price the 5.7oz/sqyd carbon. Is it $16.50 for 42" x 3', or for 1 square yard? CST has 5.7oz/sqyd carbon for $38.12/sqyd. Keep in mind, the 50" roll CST sells is more expensive to manufacture and ship than the 42" that Aircraft Spruce has. Not sure if that accounts for the aparent difference in price. Possibly the CST graphite is a different grade or finish. That said, it's all standard modulus generic graphite.

As for "best stuff," well, that's subjective I'd say. ;) Aeropoxy is nothing special. Aircraft Spruce's price on MGS epoxy is within pennies of CST. Who knows about the carbon.

R&G in Germany has some really great products:
http://www.r-g.de/

Also Bacuplast:
http://www.bacuplast.de/

And for the high/ultra-high modulus graphite check out Carbon-Vertrieb:
http://www.carbon-vertrieb.com/

I think I'll continue shopping around, but CST always seems to get my business after about 12 years of dealing with them.

-David

[nichanderson]

The Aircraft Spruce page isn't very clear on how they actually price the 5.7oz/sqyd carbon. Is it $16.50 for 42" x 3', or for 1 square yard? CST has 5.7oz/sqyd carbon for $38.12/sqyd. Keep in mind, the 50" roll CST sells is more expensive to manufacture and ship than the 42" that Aircraft Spruce has. Not sure if that accounts for the aparent difference in price. Possibly the CST graphite is a different grade or finish. That said, it's all standard modulus generic graphite.

As for "best stuff," well, that's subjective I'd say. ;) Aeropoxy is nothing special. Aircraft Spruce's price on MGS epoxy is within pennies of CST. Who knows about the carbon.


T300 or T700 is pretty much all you will ever see on the hobby market. I've used both intermediate modulus IM7 and MR-50 fibers and gotten much better results in terms of stiffness, although I'm comparing apples and oranges because those two fibers were in uni, and the T300/700 was woven..
Aircraft Spruce is priced per yard, (standard) with price breaks at 25 yards.

Aeropoxy is certainly a lot better than West Systems or such stuff. Its a very thin, excellent laminating resin, with excellent curing results when heated. Because post curing improves the overall strength of the laminate (from more cross linking) I consider this to be a key aspect of epoxy choice. Nothing else I have used (West, JeffoCo, Ez-Lam, Poly Poxy) holds up nearly as well as Aeropoxy does to high temperature curing. Plus price does significantly influence my buying decisions.

As for MGS, I haven't used it, and it looks to viscous for my liking. ;-)

Nick Anderson
http://www.calpolydbf.com

[davidfee]

I believe this thread was intended to be primarily about suppliers and not products, specifically, but could you elaborate a bit on what you meant by "Nothing else I have used (West, JeffoCo, Ez-Lam, Poly Poxy) holds up nearly as well as Aeropoxy does to high temperature curing."? All of the epoxy systems we are talking about are room-temp cure which will generally show improved physicals following a post-cure heating cycle. How "high temp" are you talking about for curing, with what temperature ramp? The reported Tg for Aeropoxy is respectable... certainly better than West.

And that's interesting what you say about MGS, as it has about half the mixed viscosity of Aeropoxy. (300-500cps vs. 850-975cps) It is great for lightweight laminates, particularly when vacuum will be used. Sometimes the low viscosity is less desireable, such as for a highly compound curve or tight radius with stiff fabric and without vacuum. In such cases I often make it "sticky" by adding colloidal silica.

It's nice to see more technically-oriented users in this new forum! :)

-David

[shoe]

I get my light Kevlar from John Sweet (http://johnrsweet.com/index.html)

[Fledermaus]

http://www.carb.com/

Great selection, good prices, fast delivery, friendly staff.

Marty