anyone tried carbon fiber?

[Bruce Barlow]

Richard Ritter uses carbon fiber tubes on all his LF and ULF cameras. My 8x10 weighs 6 pounds.

[Jac@stafford.net]

I've used my Feisol 3371 for nearly 8 years

Me, too. Great product that is always ready to behave properly every day.

[Bob Salomon]

Me, too. Great product that is always ready to behave properly every day.

Good to hear that! I have been using my Linhof Lt Wt Pro aluminum tripod for over 30 years. Still functions like new, but no longer looks new! It functions so well that I gave my son in law my CF tripod!

[Drew Wiley]

I've seen carbon fiber sheet sandwiched in as part of the custom base laminate of Chamonix cameras. But otherwise it's a bit of a headache material to work
with. I started making a lightwt 4x5 point n shoot using carbon fiber, but got distracted and haven't finished the project yet. Low priority. There are a lot of
types of cabon fiber sheet and tube. You need something rigid. Having the right kind of sanding abrasives and glue is also important.

[Len Middleton]

I've seen carbon fiber sheet sandwiched in as part of the custom base laminate of Chamonix cameras. But otherwise it's a bit of a headache material to work with.

One of the interesting things I remember years ago when doing my engineering degree, was a simple and light composite structure comprised of two thin strips of aluminum glued top and bottom on a styrofoam block. Surprisingly strong and of course very lightweight.

For a DIY project, perhaps one could use the same approach with aluminum or CF, and use a honeycomb or lightweight balsa wood core. Have not done that myself, so just speculating on potential solutions...

[Drew Wiley]

Carbon fiber has come a long ways from back when the Carbon Infinity was manufactured. There's a huge selection of strength to weight ratios, and number of plys involved. I sold quite a bit of fabrication equipment to the international teams who built the various carbon fiber yachts for the last America's Cup race; but some of their material was very strong Kevlar-reinforced, custom mfg for that kind of extreme use - not strong enough, unfortunately. One mast
snapped and the sailor drowned, someone I had spoken to in person just a few days before. So new rules for the next race, so the yachts aren't too overtly
small or light. Same goes for tripods. The current two-ply tubing breaks far more easily given a dent or gouge than my old original 3-ply Gitzo. .. Aluminum
sandwiched fomeboard? There are version of Dibond etc like that, CNC friendly. Stay away from honeycomb - it's hell to work with.

[Bob Salomon]

Carbon fiber has come a long ways from back when the Carbon Infinity was manufactured. There's a huge selection of strength to weight ratios, and number of plys involved. I sold quite a bit of fabrication equipment to the international teams who built the various carbon fiber yachts for the last America's Cup race; but some of their material was very strong Kevlar-reinforced, custom mfg for that kind of extreme use - not strong enough, unfortunately. One mast
snapped and the sailor drowned, someone I had spoken to in person just a few days before. So new rules for the next race, so the yachts aren't too overtly
small or light. Same goes for tripods. The current two-ply tubing breaks far more easily given a dent or gouge than my old original 3-ply Gitzo. .. Aluminum
sandwiched fomeboard? There are version of Dibond etc like that, CNC friendly. Stay away from honeycomb - it's hell to work with.

When we closed in early 2015 our Giotto CF tripods had 8 cross layered legs. Don’t know who makes 2 layer CF legs.

[Drew Wiley]

Nearly everyone now it seems. I've seen Gitzo legs snap like a twig. Apples to apples just to save half a pound. But it's not just about the numbers of ply. Those yacht masts were just 2-ply too, but hundreds of times stronger than any CF tripod leg.

[Havoc]

Wow, never tought of getting this much out of that question. Ok, so from what I understand of it is that layering carbon fiber isn't that simple if you want to get the lowest weight/strength ratio. Vacuum bags etc are above my competence.

Delrin or ABS are options, but then I'd have to mill from a solid block. And from my experience with Delrin, it isn't that stiff if you go thin. And if you want it stiff, then it won't weight much less than alu. Glueing isn't easy (understatement) so you would have to make a rather complicated shape in one go. Never worked ABS but I fear it wouldn't be much different. And both are translucent, the black delrin specially made for bearings, not what is sought here. Peek might be another ption, but then alu would be cheaper and easier.

[Drew Wiley]

ABS is heavy and can easily shatter if dropped in really cold temperatures. Delrin is flexible. Fine for gears and sliding elements, but little else. It's a form of nylon, so not meant to be glued. ABS is easy to glue - ordinary plastic pipe or model cement; but it is never transparent and typically black. Thin multi-ply
modeling plywood is realistic. It can be CNC fabricated and then pickled with marine epoxy to make it nearly as impervious as plastic. But when you work
with carbon fiber for a minor project like a camera, no need to layer it. You just buy the thickness of sheet you want. The stronger and more rigid, the more
it will weigh. The tough stuff is compressed from multiple plys under high pressure. Or you could use urethane Gorilla glue to bond thin carbon fiber to a
thin piece of plywood for greater strength and easier machinability. I wouldn't want an aluminum camera. You'd get condensation on it like crazy, and probably on the film too in cold damp weather, and skin burn handling it, just like alum tripods. Classic aluminum cameras are made from die-cast alloy,
not simple sheet material. So imagine you wanted to replicate a Tecknika - every single metal part would need a die costing around $60,000 apiece prior to the cost of materials and manufacture itself. But that's why they hold up. All considered, there is a very good reason why so many view cameras are made
of wood.