Pondering on mentions of carbon fiber in recent weeks but NOT finding a link to the stuff in threads or posts, I decided to look for it online. Specifically carbon fiber with a silver finish.
Some people, including yours truly, have been wanting to emulate the look of the HRAP SA and SE sticks with those nice reflective faceplate art.
It’s really a derivative of carbon fiber. Carbon is is more blackish/dark grey alternating blocks. Vanilla HRAP’s (both black and white HRAP 3 cases in my collection) have cheap sticker art that emulates this…
The HRAP 3 SA and SE I own have a silver finish. Likewise for the HRAP 2 SA but its finish is a bit darker. This is technically NOT carbon fiber but a similar product called Texalium. It’s a fiberglass product with an aluminum coating. Still looks very silverish to me! It’s generically called silver carbon fiber because people generally don’t care about its composition. They just like it because it reflects well in light!
Here’s place that sell sheets that are big enough to be cut to an HRAP faceplate with an Xacto knife or similar sharp instruments – .015" silver sheet veneer 11" x 8"
The cheapest sheet that can be used in the 11" X 16" sheet. The sheets I’ve look at are all 0.015" thick! The smaller sheets just don’t have enough material to cover the faceplate of an HRAP (which is ~ 13" by 8" at its longest and thickest sections). It’s also far cheaper than the next size up! $22.95 … You also have to pay for adhesive backing on this. The cheaper alternatives I’ve found seem to be rolled up… It doesn’t say for sure whether this is the case for the sheeting sold through Sierra Composites.
Carbon fiber and its derivatives are usually used in car interiors and suitcases.
True carbon fiber is like a cloth, soft and flimsy…like cloth.
The way it’s made hard is by using a special resin to soak/coat it and form it around a mold, under instense heat and pressure it’ll cure and become a solid hard piece. I’ve done tons of work with carbon fiber before, but never have I cured it flat like a metal/plastic sheet.
I used carbon fiber vinyl on one of my earlier sticks over a year ago, the stuff holds up pretty well for usage as a stick panel cover. Mine was meant for automotive applications though, but I sure they can take hands rubbing against it pretty well.
I sent an e-mail asking questions to Sierra Composites, the company that sells the silver ‘carbon fiber’ sheet I linked to.
The fellow who e-mailed me back said that the sheets are very durable and they don’t rust because of the aluminum.
He also said that they had been used very many times in computer applications and in hobby situations such as ours.
It think the material should do very well for a stick project… The question is how much you want to buy and at what price?
This material is apparently mailed slightly rolled up at least, if not in a tube.
Obviously, it seems like it can had cheaper than what Sierra Composites sells their product for. The question is does everyone advertising actually sell the SAME material or are some items up for bid cheap knock-offs?
I honestly don’t know how something goes down from being $23 from what seems to be a reputable source to $6 a roll from a company/individual selling what is allegedly the same material!!!
Plenty of us have gambled and lost on third party joysticks that were far cheaper but just not as good as the high-grade HRAP and Mad Catz TE joysticks…
My cash is a bit low after Christmas shopping (!) so I know I have some time to think about this before my disposable cash mound builds up again…
Fiberglass and carbon fiber are almost the same, the proccess of curing/molding it is nearly the same. Carbon fiber is stronger, looks cooler, but alot more expensive…
Nice thing about fiberglass is because how ugly it is, you can easy paint it any color and it’ll look good.
BE CAREFUL THOUGH:
Always wear a NIOSH approved respirator for organic vapors because resin and fiberglass/carbonfiber will cause lung cancer and sickness. I learned the hard way. Buy a nice respirator, dont risk it if you’re working with resin.
Yeah, decided to end up keeping it and just keep adding on more modifications to it. I’ll be getting some Sanwa Dark Hai 24mm’s soon to have it fit with the color schematic, then I’m going to contact Satek about creating a new bottom plexi so that Jinx’s feet can be added onto it and the level of the stick can be evened out. Either how the plexi is designed or the feet on it right now is leaving it very slighty imbalanced. Not really so much of a problem when playing on the lap or floor, but if I already gone to the extent I have for this case, then I guess vanity shouldn’t be one of my top priorities to fix. Also plan to find some way to get a set of Big Pocket’s JLF Carbon Fiber Shafts/Dust Covers, and should be getting some Great Planes lead weights to add some more stability to it.
I think I’ll just keep my modding to a custom faceplate from Art Hong and see if there’s a way to put lettering on the silver carbon fiber!
Thanks for posting the carbon fiber stick, Kyle, but I think I’ll stick to something less work-intensive and DEFINITELY steer away from the unhealthy stuff!
I just put the 3m di-noc carbon fiber vinyl on my TE stick and it looks and feels amazing. It was easy to apply, easy to cut, and it’s extremely easy on the eyes.
I actually bought a small amount to use on a Soul Calibur 2 stick, but since there was enough for both, I used it. I have no regrets. It’s solid.
I need help guys, I bought a large roll of 3M carbon off the internet. but I don’t know how im going to cut the template out! I don’t have another template to use to trace everything over onto the carbon fiber to cut out
Remove all the buttons and stick from the metal plate. Apply carbon fiber vinyl on to the metal plate. Get xacto knife and cut on cutting mat/thick cardboard. Go be sloppy around the button holes and joystick hole, but be clean and go slow on the turbo panel areas. Done.
You can probably find this stuff cheaper somewhere else,but I buy all my old school eclipse stuff from here and immediately thought of these when I saw this thread.
