Framebuilders - Living in the sticks

Well, it's official. I live in the sticks. I live smack dab in between 4 major cities (alright - smaller cities), and no one deals in carbon fiber. Not anyone that makes anything in small quantities or is willing to help the small guy.

No leads at tech schools either. I guess I'm on my own for my first CF bike.

So, I want to order some fabric, but I have no idea of 2 things. Being on a limited budget,

1. How many layers of CF typically go over a mold? (I'm probably getting 3k if that helps, and it will be a road bike)

2. Based on the answer to question one, how much fiber should I order? Especially since this is a trial run, and primarily for practice, I don't want to order yards and yards of the stuff.

I apologize if this has been asked before, but I've been reading for days now, and I can't seem to find the answers, so thank you in advance.

sorry I can't help you with your questions. I think we all live in the sticks as far as carbon goes. I did know someone who probably would have given me carbon when I lived in Utah.

well, thanks for the info...I think....:)

You know, while I'm on it, I assume you would want to wrap the bottom bracket, but what about the head tube? What would be the better way? Wrapping a head tube, and leaving it, or do like I saw in another post, wrap the head tube with grease and freeze it to get the aluminum out.

Aircraftspruce.com

That's the most common supplier of carbon to the homebuilder.
They specialize in supplying the homebuilt aircraft builder, but it's the same carbon and resin you use to build other things.

I agree about aircraft spruce, but ebay also acts as a dumping ground for carbon products, and general internet searches will also pull up many suppliers. AS is pretty limited in what they offer in carbon, compared to what is out there. I also agree about all of us being in the sticks relative to this stuff. I once built a boat designed by a guy whose office was a few feet from Boeing Surplus. While the list of composites was pretty tame by modern standards, he was always specing stuff that was totally unavailable to me at a decent price. These days guys who are building this stuff in scale, but on a budget, are knocking off bids in eastern europe or China. It is all over the place out there.

Many carbon frame manufactures' start with pre-made tubes from MacLean Quality Composites (now owned by Rock West Composites).

http://www.rockwestcomposites.com/index.php?p_resource=items&PHPSESSID=8f119e8f823ad0da949ee3df54a8559c

You can also buy ready made carbon seat & chain stay assemblies from Nova Cycles Supply.

http://www.novacycles.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=14

Homebuilt carbon frame by Damon Rinard:

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/rinard/carbon_fiber.htm

And least I forget, arguably, the best read on CF bike construction I know of,.. by the master himself, Craig Calfee:

http://www.calfeedesign.com/whitepaper1.htm

Thanks for all the replies. I was referring to a lack of experienced people around to garner any knowledge off of. (I guess I should have been more clear) So back to my original questions, approx. how many layers of CF, and based on that, approx. how much should I order, based on a limited budget.

Thanks again folks.

:edit: Although I must say, I have been to all the links but the Calfee link. What a wealth of info. Thanks a LOT for that.