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Kevlar, carbon fiber & fiberglass pre-preg
Original poster: "Scott Hanson by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <huil888-at-surfside-dot-net>
If anyone really needs to fabricate custom "scatter shields", etc, one of
the easier (but not necessarily the cheapest) ways is to use sheets of
material (carbon fiber, Kevlar, Nomex, fiberglass, etc) that are already
impregnated with epoxy or other resins (known in the composite industry as
"pre-preg"). Just lay up layers of this material up around a mandrel or
form, drape a "vacuum bag" around it and pull a vacuum to allow atmospheric
pressure to apply uniform, 360-degree clamping force, shaping the pre-preg
to the form. Finally, heat the whole setup in an oven to cure it and you've
got a very strong, complex shape without needing to handle or mix resins,
catalysts, etc. The pre-preg can be cut with a scissors or sheet-metal
shears, and the finished part can be trimmed using a router with
solid-carbide cutters.
This is pretty much standard practice for fabricating composite parts for
aircraft, race cars, skateboards, boats, snowboards, etc.
Do a web search for "composite pre-preg" and you'll get dozens of links to
suppliers.
Scott Hanson