1 Topic by genesat1

  • genesat1
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Topic: Carbon fiber diameter and length

Does anybody know what the typical diameter and length used in carbon fiber filament is?  I was thinking of ordering some milled fiber that is 80µm in length and 7µm in diameter along with some urethane resin from a composites shop.  Mixing it in with some PETG 10% by weight sound plausible as a starting point?

2 Reply by carl_m1968

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Re: Carbon fiber diameter and length

Is there resin in CF filament? I thought they used CF powder which was bonded by the PLA just like they do with wood filament. Wood filament is just sawdust that is bound by the PLA during the melt process.

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3 Reply by genesat1 (edited by genesat1 2019-01-22 02:23:55)

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Re: Carbon fiber diameter and length

Yeah, the CF is like a powder.  The urethane resin is what I actually need from the place and the reason I was looking at what they had to offer, and that's when I noticed the place also sells milled carbon fiber.  The resin part isn't related to Filastruder other than drawing my attention to the fact this place sells milled CF - which I thought would be interesting to try to extrude.

I saw a video by CNC Kitchen making me think twice about it though.  Somebody claims that after even something as little as handling already produced CF filament they looked at their hand and saw a bunch of carbon fiber stuck to their skin (under a microscope) that wouldn't wash off.  I can wear a respirator and gloves while handling the powder for sure, but I had no idea the finished filament and parts of carbon fiber filament can shed fibers from the perimeter (I assumed it was encased in the plastic matrix as long as you didn't sand it).

Has anybody had any experiences like that with commercially produced CF or should I pay a bit less attention to what somebody mentions in a Youtube comment?