Birth of the Blue Missile

Your experience is correct. Carbon has high tensile strength and little compressive strength, and Kevlar (and other aramids) is the opposite. This is why carbon/aramid hybrid cloths do so well structurally. As long as its not in a wet location.
By the way there is NOTHING wrong with "garage" composite work. That's where I do all of mine.
I even made my own magnetic stirrer out of a mini food processor. Here it is in action. Pic included.
Andrew