Anybody have any experience with fiberglass??

[jason-23]

Really fiberglass resin and speaker box building, not for speaker boxes but for something that im building for screen printing.

[mk162]

a little bit, what are you looking to do?  the work i did was mainly repairing a boat hull, jetski, and my fiberglass hardtop.

[jason-23]

I was just wondering how hard is just dried resin on fabric like what they use to make the body of a speaker box? they use fleece for the fabric because of the stretching quality staple it down to get the shape and then they lay down resin just to harden the fleece and then fiberglass and resin to make it stronger. I was wanting to know if the fleece and resin is strong for like a wall type thing, no load bearing or force applied to it.

[mk162]

yeah, you can also lay 2 layers down to make it stronger...and I would rotate 1 of them 45 degrees if possible.

[Binkspot]

The fiberglass and resin can be stronger then steel. Its all in how the glass is laid and shaped. It also depends on which type of glass, angle hair or mat roving and the size of the strands in the roving also std glass and graphite.  There are also several types of resins for diffrent jobs rainging from laminating, polyester, epoxy, finishing etc. There are also premade shapes and panels that can be bolted of glassed together.

[Frog]

Not that it will help Jason, but there are also these cool chopper guns which feed (and chop) fiberglass rope, mixing it with resin as it is sprayed onto a mold.

[jason-23]

So how do you go about making basically a large box? wood frame box, cover with fleece, resin it, dry, and then apply FG and resin? Will the wood frame separate from the FG after it is dried or do i have to treat the wood frame with something prior, in the first step?

[Frog]

I'm sure that there are mold release type things out there, something like wax. You want a nice smooth surface, and rounded corners will help the release as well as will a shape that gets a little bigger as the formed glass and resin is pulled off.

I am still a little stuck at the fleece part.

[mk162]

yeah, there should be mold release, you can use a sheet of mylar if you have it, i am sure there is a chemical as well.

[Binkspot]

Are you going to pop it out of the wood frame to make a shell or keep the wood for strength. I you are going to pop it out line the wood with wax paper and plain wax, no tight corners. The fiberglass will be stronger with rounded corners instead of square anyway. If the wood is staying the resin will soak into the wood and laminate it to the glass. Cardboard is a great alt to wood to shape the glass and make molds for frames and stiffners.

[jason-23]

I'm sure that there are mold release type things out there, something like wax. You want a nice smooth surface, and rounded corners will help the release as well as will a shape that gets a little bigger as the formed glass and resin is pulled off.

I am still a little stuck at the fleece part.

at about 3:30 is the fleece part.
http://youtu.be/G8cz_5eP81U

[mooseman]

let me suggest that you want to be VERY careful with the fiberglass HARDENER. It is MEKB which doesn't mean much until you slash it into your eye. It will INSTANTLY opaque your optical tissue.
Put a large enouh hole in the tube so you do not have to squeeze the tube to get the catalist out. Wear eye protection and never point the tube toward your face when you initally puncture the tube .
mooseman

[jason-23]

let me suggest that you want to be VERY careful with the fiberglass HARDENER. It is MEKB which doesn't mean much until you slash it into your eye. It will INSTANTLY opaque your optical tissue.
Put a large enouh hole in the tube so you do not have to squeeze the tube to get the catalist out. Wear eye protection and never point the tube toward your face when you initally puncture the tube .
mooseman

Thanks moose, I'll keep that in mind. I'm still weighing my options on different materials to build this project.

[Printficient]

Call Winston Strickland.  904-343-0848

[jason-23]

Call Winston Strickland.  904-343-0848

Who is that and for what exactly?