Finally found the time to collect photo's of thing's I've filament wound.
To start off, here is a pm I sent on doing mandrel's, and where to get some of the supplies:
Thanks for the note. I've used many different mandrels. The absolute easiest is to buy paper tubing from uline in almost any diameter you need. The cardboard doesn't add much weight, and you don't need to do anything once you are finished. I've done several cardboard tube-based mandrels, and they have all worked out quite well. I've also used large aluminum 6061 tubes (I have this 6" diameter one from amazon:https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...rch_detailpage ). They work well, but you will need to use mold release grease on it before starting to wind, and will have to build something to help get the carbon fiber tube off of the aluminum once you are finished. These days, I use almost exclusively dissoluble 3d printed mandrels. for small mandrels, you can use PVA (https://www.makergeeks.com/wasopva10.html) which is water soluble, but I've found it's kind of brittle and can't handle lot of load. I now use high impact Polystyrene filament (https://www.makergeeks.com/hiimpohfi3.html) which dissolves in d-limonene (from amazon:https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00..._bw_g121_i2_sh). You wind some amazing structures by printing them in dissoluble 3d strucutres. I've built transitions, nose cone's, interstage couplers, etc... hope this helps.
You are looking at a traditionally wound 38mm tube on a copper mandrel, in which I used the shrink-tape method of compression and curing. You can still see the excess resin winding down the tube where the epoxy oozed between the tape winds. I have not prepped this tube at all, this is exactly what it looks like when I take off the tape, minus the dust. That plate on the top is a part of a door, which I use to push the carbon fiber part off of the copper mandrel.
On the right, is exactly the same tube as the photo above, while the tube on the left I applied peel-ply, breather material, then vacuum bagged it. I also sanded it down the little holes the teflon coated peel-ply leaves, which is why it has a matt finish.
Once again, on the right is the traditional tube. On the left, I used a final vail of two carbon tapes of a slightly different finish wound at a very, very low angle. Gave a much cleaner finish. Note, it's not a perfectly round tube either, as I used a 3d printed part as the mandrel to make a monopod for my camera.
On the right, is still the original tube. The almost translucent tube was wound using nylon 645 filament, and the 50% overlap method of shrink-tape. I had to use a totally different method to wind the nylon since it isn't necessary to use epoxy, you just need heat. Compared to carbon fiber, this is a very expensive option. The CF tube on the right cost about $5 in consumable material, while the nylon tube cost about $15. Will make a fantastic night flyer though :>
This was wound using linen! Specifically, Linen is actually flax filament - the fibers from the flax plant, which are 3x stronger then cotton. Just used some woodglue on the ends.
The nosecone was wound using PETT filament (specifically, t-glase). You can kind of tell I had to 3d print the tip, and use it as the end of the mandrel since I don't have a 4 axis winder. Should have been completely clear. the discoloration is due to the chemical I used to dissolve the mandrel.
