The guitar was modeled after the “Flame” design that was provided by Professor Pringle and Professor Calahan. The core of the guitar is made out of Styrofoam and carbon fiber is used to reinforce the foam. The Styrofoam core was cut using a router in the Woods Lab. A router was used to ensure that the guitar was cut with the correct dimensions and also because the program for the router was readily available.

 

A vacuum sealer will be used when doing the carbon fiber layup. Using a vacuum sealer will allow the carbon fiber to be molded more tightly to the Styrofoam core and ensure a better finish. Only one side of the guitar will be done at a time to try and get the best layup possible.

 

One layer of carbon fiber was done at a time to try and sure a nice even finish each time. A vacuum bag was used to try and remove all the air and get as good of a finish as possible. The cure time took around 6 hours which is close to the recommended cure time of 5 to 5.5 hours. When the vacuum bagging process finished, the guitar was pulled out and found to have deformations around the neck attachment area. The Styrofoam was too thin around that area and the cutout was bent and crushed when being vacuum bagged. A wooden block was placed into the cutout to try and return the foam to the correct shape. 

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The rest of the carbon fiber was done using a wet layup process instead of using a vacuum bag. This was done to make sure that the foam would not bend or crush like it did in the vacuum bag. One part of the carbon fiber was laid on the guitar, the epoxy mix was applied, and sat overnight to allow for maximum cure time. Each morning, the excess carbon fiber was cut away and the edges were sanded down to be flush with the edges of the guitar. This process was repeated until 2 layers of carbon fiber were applied to all the necessary parts of the guitar.

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