Composite and Alternative Materials in Prop Making

electraflier

Well-Known Member
Hey everyone, I am working on a War Machine build and was looking for a strong, thin, semi-flexible (cheap):rolleyes material to make orbital hinges for my face plates and for other aspects of my builds.
Yes, "Technically" we are using mostly alternative materials for almost everything here at RPF when you consider that the average craftsman/women use metal, wood, glass, clay, rubber ,just to name a few, for making their end product.
But here building props we are using high end silicons, latex, fiberglass and now even multi material composites are within our grasp and they are even affordable!

I hope that anyone with some good ideas, materials or sources for said materials might post here!

I haven't seen this subject listed specifically on RPF ( I know a ton of threads hit on unique building materials during the process of a build, but finding them in one place might be a help). When I searched for MICARTA on our RPF site, my two threads came up, so I think there is room for a thread about the making and use of this neat, easy to make and versitile material as well as a place for the other folks to post when they have encountered and used some alternative material with success. (Did I stress cheap is a plus too!:lol)
What I am showing you all right here took me approx 20 minutes! Literally cost me my daughters left over craft paper and my yard work jeans with holes in the knees. Lastly a few cents worth or resin (Bondo Brand)
Basically the only cost was resin and time...Less time than it would have taken to get in my car to drive somewhere to "look" for materials!!! This is so important as the costs of our builds rapidly go up due to material costs, fuel and time!!!


My brother in-law, a first class guy and inventor in his own right made the suggestion during a conversation about the hinge parts after i sought his advise. He said Micarta. I had never heard of the stuff so,,,

I am posting a quick intro about Micarta from Wikipedia;
Micarta - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Micarta is a trademark of Norplex-Micarta industrial high pressure laminates and refers to a composite of linen, canvas, paper, fiberglass, carbon fiber or other fabric in a thermosetting plastic originally used in electrical and decorative applications. Micarta was developed by at least as early as 1910 using [phenolic resins invented by Dr. Leo Baekeland. These resins were used to impregnate paper and cotton fabric which were cured under pressure and high temperature to produce laminates. In later years this manufacturing method included the use of fiberglass fabric, other resin types were also used. Today Micarta high pressure industrial laminates are produced with a wide variety of resins and fibers. The term has been inappropriately used to generically refer to most resin impregnated fibre compounds. Common uses of modern high pressure laminates are as electrical insulators, printed circuit board substrates, and knife handles.

Sounds cool huh?:cool


Now, If you go to the net, and who doesn't, these materials are hideously expensive and usually need to be bought in 4x8 sheets or in bulk for commercial use. The cheapest I found on a quick search was 400-800$ :eekup to 1200-2000$ :eekdepending on the blend of materials.
I was right on the computer while I was talking to him and said.: "Riiigghhtt", "my Iron Man build expenses just went through the roof!"
" I guess I am using aluminum!" :sick Now mind you, all I have is a bunch of small shop tools and wood working tools. No metal working tools or experience in my house other than sharpening lawnmower blades. :$
He told me I could make my own.:rolleyes
Back to the web and Youtube, I discovered about a bazillion videos describing making this Micarta stuff!
Here is one, then enough history, I'll show you what I did and the end results!
Homemade Micarta - YouTube

This video outlines the basic process, but you can literally custom make this material for any purpose any thickness and most any at blend of fiberous materials. So pick a narrator you like and have a sit.

I had to consider my application;

I wanted strong up down strength, but some flex laterally side to side to fit the curves of the IM MK3 and War Machine helmet and it still had to be durable enough while being exceptionally light.

I also knew I wanted 2-3 mm thickness

I chose denim and colored craft paper as I wanted some color over the denim
I alternated denim strips 7-8 inches wide by 12 inches long with the paper strips.
I planned for my lay up;
2 strips paper,1 denim, 2 strips paper, 1 denim (with the weave opposite the other layer) then 2 strips paper.
I pre lay them in position to make the resin application quicker
micartalayers.jpg

I use 5.5-6 oz of resin for this experiment.
The first layer was coated and lay on a large sheet of waxed paper and I proceeded to resin, layer, resin , layer until I was done. I then folded the waxed paper over the top and went to my wood working vise.
Now mind you, I had just done a shelving project over the weekend so I had several 7 inch by 13 inch scraps of wood laying about.

The wax wrapped resin sandwich went between the wood pieces and then into the vise, which I then torqued down as hard as it would go.
(TIP: put the curved part of the waxed paper "U" up with the belled end down to catch resin that will squeeze out when you torque it down....it is quite a bit actually, maybe 1/4-1/3 your total resin application appears to be forced out and the rest gets forced into the fabric and paper weaves)
Now bear in mind the commercial stuff is under tons and tons of pressure and heat as well (hence the cost) but the video guys all used "C" clamps with great success! But they are using it for knife handles which while cool might be too soft for what I needed so I wanted tons of pressure, I used my vise.
I will most likely continue to use my vise as I dont need huge pieces..
(TIP:: this is a big one! Clamp evenly (thats why I like the vise) if you dont the materials will slip towards this side of least pressure!! Resin is slippery in the early cure stages!! One guy in a youtube video had his slip and ended up with a piece shaped like and airplane wing LOL!:$
You end up with this in your vise;

micartainvice.jpg


I wish I had a picture of it de-vised but I was so excited I lopped the ends off with my chop saw and went into the house and washed off the waxed paper with hot water, dishwashing liquid and a scrub pad..
I ended up with this:
Micarta1.jpg


SWEEET! It came out flawless and with the ragged ends lopped off at 6.75 X 11 inches,
It is 3 mm thick(evenly too) through out!! It weighs 3.5 oz!!!!!! It is as hard a 2-3 mm of aluminum as well, I cannot scratch this with a finger nail and a razor puts a tiny scratch!
micarta2.jpg

The thickness will vary based on materials and intended use.
You could use a layer of carbon fiber mat, Kevlar, heck even tissues LOL!

I next lay templates on the piece. I cant show the specific templates per purchase agreement with Mightjohn for his orbital face plate hinges... Here is his link!
http://www.therpf.com/f13/ironman-helmet-hinge-installation-guide-118736/
Great investment for those struggling with faceplate hinges, cheaper then doing it 2-3 times which is my pace right now for every part I build! :angry Except this!!:love
alteredparts.jpg


I have since used PVA glue to glue the actual templates to the Micarta for cutting by scroll saw( Yeah! wood working tool :behave)
It will be a simple matter of cutting then out and filing them to exact fit with either my demels or sand paper and files.
The material is laying on my glass desk surface and is as flat as the glass.
It is also serveral degrees harder than it was when I first made it as the resin has cured the rest of the way...

This material had countless applications for our hobby (read that life choice LOL!) I am so pumped up as I needed something to make the deck and plastic parts for a Tesseract case like the one in Avengers and Thor.
Once I find an aluminum case that matches I will be making the innards of the case!
closeup.jpg


this stuff can be sanded, cut, drilled, primed and painted like plastic and I think it will have applications for static and moving parts as well! (Thinking Steam Punk gears and cogs, gun parts, jeez anthing) Now if I could just figure out how to make all of my armor with this stuff??? hmmmm? :)

Please feel free to add any materials, ideas, application potentials or just say hi and tell me how it worked for you!
M
 
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The nature of the beast is that if it starts off too good on the first try, the second will probably have issues.:unsure

I needed a second piece of Micarta for my other helmet hinges, so figured I would wip out a piece when I was putting resin on my MK3 parts.:rolleyes

Wow it was an epic fail! :$
As great as the first one turned out, this was bad.
here are the pics>
epicmicartafail1.jpg

In this pic, I had a loose edge that was showing fabic and gave it a pull, and bazinga! It completely separated..

epicmicartafail2.jpg


I know exactly what I did wrong too! I scrimped on the resin. You can see in pic 2 very poor resin penetration!

I had thought that since 6 oz ish last time was so sloppy, I could use 5 oz and be more tidy..
Not..worth it. I also, on several parts, coated only one side of the materials trusting that the resin that was between the two would be sufficient if put on thick enough..:eek
The first piece does not suffer from this issue and there is no discernable seam to initiate de-lamination
I also torqued the vise harder so may have forced too much resin out, but honestly, very little resin squished out. It was purely a case of too little resin and that was my fault!
Cool thing is so little time and cost, means that this lesson cost me very little, but I learned alot!:cool
M
 
Actually there are two main types of Micarta type materials. ( micarta is just the main manufacturer, hence the name) Those made with resins and those with epoxy's! I have some epoxy and was thinking about trying it to see if it was more rigid. If you try it please post it! Thanks!
M
 
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