wrote:

Perhaps more to the point, I just suggested a rib as
an example. Being able to bend graphlite rod like
one steam bends wood opens up a lot of design
possibilites.


I think you're missing the forest for the trees. A wood steamer is your
answer. Make a form out of sheet metal, then bend the graphlite around
it. Tg is around 180F for most epoxies, so an hour at 212F should turn
it to it's plastic state throughout. The internal bending stresses will
pull themselves out. Take it out of the oven, and it should hold
whatever shape it had been forced into.

Now, what I understand of graphlite is that it gets it's strength from
having all the fibers aligned and equally tensioned. Doing the above,
you will probably get something only marginally better than a hand
layup. But you won't know until you try.


--
This is by far the hardest lesson about freedom. It goes against
instinct, and morality, to just sit back and watch people make
mistakes. We want to help them, which means control them and their
decisions, but in doing so we actually hurt them (and ourselves)."