Since carbon fiber doesn’t behave the same as metal or other materials that are often used in car manufacturing, we must find ways of fastening the panels to the chassis without causing damage to the carbon fiber.
Drilling Holes:
As some projects would like to mount onto the panels with screws, the following are some ways I found to drill holes into panels.
The first few methods I found depending on the number of holes we’d actually like to make was adapted from the website Elevated Materials.
The first method is by using a simple electric drill:
Is the simplest way but also least efficient
You can drill the holes using high-speed steel bits
Most Efficient for 5-10 holes
Will dull very quickly after this and will only serve to heat and burn the resin
The second method is by using carbide tipped bits:
Can also be done using an electric drill
Can drill many more holes than an HSS bit
Although these bits are more expensive, they’re still reasonably priced
The last method is using a solid carbide bit:
Beware as these bits are very brittle and can only be used in a rigid setup like a drill press/mill
The bits will easily shatter using a hand drill
These bits just turn the carbon into dust at a high rpm
Cut fibers without fraying/delaminating the material and they eliminate splintering inside the hole
Can withstand hundreds of holes if they are used properly
The following drill bit has been said to be very efficient for drilling through composites:
Carbide Dagger Drill, you can get this drill bit from any retailer, this is just the one I found, pictured below.
Note that when drilling holes, it is good practice to gradually work up to your final hole size
taking a look at this later: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212827119313174