I just ordered 30 feet of custom made carbon fiber tubing. It only took me about 16 months to find a supplier. Turns out, sometimes all you need to solve a problem is wait long enough for the internet to get better. I digress. I'll be using
Clearwater Composites out of Duluth, MN.
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My old experimental prototype |
I don't have all the details worked out, but they are just details. The carbon tube will be a thin sleeve that covers the aluminum tube, so the interior of the light will still be continuous aluminum. However, my plan is to mill away a significant portion of the body for maximum strength and weight reduction (below).
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This is just a concept, the interior may look different and assumes I won't be forced to epoxy the carbon skin to the aluminum skeleton. |
Normally you'd bond the carbon to aluminum with epoxy. However, I'm thinking I'll leave it unbonded, so you can remove the tailcap, slip of the carbon sleeve, and proceed to admire the ridiculous mill work underneath. Sound good?
This isn't a "done deal" yet because I haven't seen any tube. It's being made now and will be a couple weeks. Once I get it, I'll have to figure out exactly how to engineer the rest of the light. It will also have to meet some pretty tight manufacturing tolerances so we'll see if that's possible. For example, if the outside diameter is too big and won't slide inside the head...project sunk...anyone a carbon toilet paper roll holder? Hmmmm.