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posted on July 31st, 2009 at 07:04 PM
Fibreglassing
I want to start my front speaker pods tomorrow....couple of questions if anyone can help!
It's my first time working with the stuff, but i'm fairly confident!
What exactly do i need as i don't know the technical terms for the different parts.
Is it just the matting and resin? Is there a hardener too?
If someone can break it down that would be cool!
Also, i'd like to grab the stuff tomorrow if poss.... but with Australia pretty much closing at 1pm on Saturdays is there any of the larger
'multiples' like Bunnings or whatever where i can purchase the stuff after i finish work at 1pm?
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posted on July 31st, 2009 at 07:42 PM
resin + catalyst. only mix as much as you need. the more resin/catalyst + the higher the temp, the faster it goes off. Don't go to bunnings, they
sell the stuff in small amounts for high prices. find a local fibreglass supplier. Valspar is a maker that also has a supply business set up round
here, but that's no good to you in Vic. A boating shop is another good place to find resin and matt. look up Dasdubbers old posts in his ragtop
build. he made some front kick panels for it.
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posted on July 31st, 2009 at 07:50 PM
You have to get it right ,read the information on the can or info sheets,the percentage of hardener to resin is critical to curing times and hardness.
Better still ask someone who works with the materials for a living to help you. This became a reality for me when a few mates decided to build 4
MG14's/NS14'skiffs as a group,the amount of preparation and skill is awesome,we finished our MG14 1.5 kg under minimum weight despite fittting a
spinnaker chute and retracable pole,wheras some of the other NS14 guys were over the weight without the extra fittings. This may appear to be a blurb
but knowledge is worth hundreds of dollars when working with anything.
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posted on July 31st, 2009 at 07:52 PM
Thanks for that Pete / Grumble....
Yeah, plent of places i can get it on a weekday here, but everything seems to shut Sat afternoons other than the bigger stores.
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posted on July 31st, 2009 at 09:56 PM
As a general rule, for laminating resin use no more than 5% catalyst. Wear those disposable latex gloves and do it in a well ventilated area. Acetone
for clean up. You will need measuring cups, paint brushes, scissors, mixing pots and clean up buckets, polyester laminating resin, MEKP (catalyst),
acetone, razor blades for trimming, a small metal roller and fibreglass cloth or mat. If your using chop strand mat instead of woven roving cloth do
not let it touch your skin, it itches like hell.
Buy from a fibreglass supplier and ask for some data sheets for the resin your using. It will tell you things like pot life and mixing %'s for
ambient temps and curing schedules. Very important. You dont want the layup not going off and staying tacky and you don't want the resin going off in
the bucket half way through the job. Air is the enemy in fibreglassing. Make sure you get out all the bubbles.
Other than that its a breeze
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posted on July 31st, 2009 at 11:23 PM
Never let the matting get wet. EVER. Even if it dries later it will not work properly. Be paranoid about water being anywhere near your fibreglass
matting. If your hands are wet, don't touch the matting. Throw away all wet matting, even if it has dried. Store matting in multiple layers of
plastic, where it will never get wet.
Get one of those rollers that is a small length of threaded rod on a strong wire handle. Roll the air out of your work as you go. Roll each layer. If
there is excess resin roll another layer of matting into it.
If you let a job set and then intend to add more, you must sand the top layer off to get a proper bond as the top layer of fibreglass, even if it is
years old, will not stick to a new layer unless it is sanded back.
The sanding with a rough sanding disc on an angle grinder is where the dust comes from. Wear a disposble paper 'moon suit', gloves, a proper dust
mask, goggles, a hat and even a scarf or you will suffer from 'ichyskinosis' and your loved ones will not welcome you into their presence. This goes
especially for the marital bed.
Do not let the dust settle on the washing on the line or you will be even less welcome in the household.
As you go, clean up the mixing container and brush, with solvent or they will set and become useless. I use icecream containers and cheap throw away
paint brushes with unpainted handles. The solvent will dissolve the paint on the brush handle into your work. I have a daubing brush that I have used
over and over again for years, simply because it was cleaned properly throughout the whole time I used it. The older and more dog eared they become,
the better they are.
When applying resin and matting, do not brush the resin on with strokes. Daub it on only, otherwise the matting will move all over the place. Poke it,
prod it and daub, daub, daub. Then, roll, roll, roll.
Do not mix up a new lot of resin in a container that contains setting resin, or it will become contaminated and begin to set immediately and will be
useless.
Clean the container and brush and put them aside and use your other set of container and brush which have dried from before. In other words have two
set of containers and brushes and alternate them.
To minimise wastage of solvent, reuse it for first washing and then use new solvent to finsh a wash, then dump that into the used solvent container,
for reuse later on.
Resin will not stick to a plastic icecream container, so it can be broken out of it.
Fibreglass will not stick to paper masking tape, so it can be used to stop it sticking to surfaces that you don't want it to stick to.
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