Thread: Carbon fibre/epoxy gurus help please

Hey team.

Last year I made my own carbon fibre stock. Was a really rewarding process and I learned a hell of a lot. The rifle has been used multiple times since I made it without issue. On my last outing a couple of months ago I was met with some very adverse weather in the form of torrential horizontal rain. I would have been out in it for about 4 hours. All my other hunts with the rifle have been in good weather.

I noticed at the time that there were bluish white marks forming in places on the stock that did not rub off. I can only assume that moisture managed to get into it?? After the hunt I made sure to dry the rifle really well. I took the rifle out today just to have a look and have found many marks and blemishes all over it, these are in the places where the white mares were.

Can anyone tell me what has happened? I am about to embark on a second stock build, and if I have made a mistake somewhere I would like to rectify it before I begin.

The stock is built on a powlonia blank. I laid one layer of epoxy down. When it was tacky I laid the carbon, followed by three layers of epoxy, sanding each then finishing the final coat with very fine paper. I waited until the epoxy was hard before sanding and then adding the next layer. And yea I am aware I was a touch vigorous with my initial sanding and went through the carbon in places.

My current plan is to sand the marks out, then put a coat or two on at the same time as my new stock.

I am not sure if it user error that has caused the blemishes or not?

Appreciate your thoughts.