JerryCostanza

Hello, I am interested in making a bamboo frame. How much square feet should I be looking to buy for it? Is there a certain thickness of fiber that I should have as a minimum too? I have been searching, and I haven't come across somewhere that suggest how much one should buy.

Finally, does anyone have a good supplier in Canada?

This is my first home made frame, but I have some experience with fiberglass, so I think (hope ) patience and preparation can keep me somewhat sane throughout the process.

Thank you for your help.

MassiveD

In canada there is noahs. I buy tow off ebay.

https://www.solarcomposites.com/

There is aircraft spruce in Brantford. They also sell glass tow, as made famous by Burt Rutan. And it is a lot cheaper. Carbon is not necessary. It so happened that one of the early popularizers was Calfee and they also had expertise in carbon. But boo bikes have been made with natural fibers, so glass would also be a go. With 12k tow one tow is good for 100lbs and that is with huge margin. So you don`t really need all that much of the stuff to get hooked up. By the time you spread it around and bind it down, you probably have a pretty solid joint.

Canaboo

Composites Canada in Mississauga supplies carbon as well.
Masuelli uses glass tow for at least some of their bikes. It's perfectly adequate if a little bland looking. The Glass tow from Aircraft spruce is the stronger variety of glass. S as opposed to E.
Carbon is incredibly strong and most carbon wrapped lugs are likely heavily overbuilt. By the time you get a lug looking good it's pretty much guaranteed to be strong enough.
Where are you sourcing bamboo from?

MassiveD

I have got Bamboo from A&M in Cambridge. But being a town with a strong Asian presence, one would think that one ought to find it all over Toronto. I don`t have any tips. I have bought it in a decorator store in Fredericton. I would like to know where one can get the boo, or rattan in Toronto, preferably east, like Kennedy road area.

On the carbon, we have all sorts of industry and they are getting it in quantity. A neighbour of mine got 200 pounds of knit uni from a friend of his, for the asking. He has said I can have some, but it is sorta awkward. But I wonder where it was bought.

Canaboo

I managed t scoop the last of the Tonkin from the cambridge store and they claimed they were getting the exact same stuff in when re-stocking and even argued it was the same stuff when it came in. It definitely was useable but a far cry from high grade tonkin.
Hoping to get stuff randomly is still realistic but not if you're looking for quantity. It is easy to source seatstay and chainstay material of the best quality in the toronto area. I've accumulated a lot of that by just grabbing it whenever I see it.

Charles Ramsey

One manufacturer is using hemp between the carbon and the bamboo apparently they had some delaminations caused by the difference in thermal expansion of hemp and carbon fiber. I took apart a trek the thickness is in the 1 to 2 mm range. Some carbon fiber manufacturers use kevlar to deal with the thermal expansion issue. Glass makers spent 2000 years trying to make glass clear. Clear glass is not the strongest glass. There is an alternative basalt fiber which is a bit cheaper than fiber glass and more corrosion resistant. Also you do not need to use the glue they want you to use. Boat builders use titanium or stainless steel filled epoxy on places with high wear think of the chainstay near the chain.