Fiberglass Enclosure

[ra4u2nv 10+ year member]

Hey guys I started my fiberglass box today and **** is it hard. Videos I bought made it look very easy. Anyway I tried doing it with matt and that is too hard. I am doing mine with fg cloth. I thought it was a lot easier, but will take a lot more layers but worth it. Also, Howq do I load pics for you guys to see so you can give me some tips?

Thanks

Rick

Click to read more...

 

[Shyne151 10+ year member]

What are you having problems doing?

 

[ra4u2nv 10+ year member]

every time I worked with FG Mat it would bubble up to much. I would saturate it with resin but I couldnt get the bubbles out. So I'm just using FG cloth. Till now have not have much problem with the cloth.

 

[Shyne151 10+ year member]

I don't know what kind of box you are doing but all the ones I've done/helped with we usually just cut out mdf rings and mount them, then stretch fleece over them and saturate it with resin.

 

[Insomniac119 10+ year member]

Yeah, most people that have problems with the matt don't with the cloth.

Also, Howq do I load pics for you guys to see so you can give me some tips?

First you buy a digi cam. After taking pics, you plug it into the computer with internet access* using the supplied USB cable into the USB port. Save the pictures to the computer's hard drive. Using an FTP server** upload the files to the internet. Copy and past the given address for the pictures to the text box in the post reply page of the bulliton board on the internet. Put image tags around it***.

*Windows XP with plug and play, anything else you must install the supplied softwere.

**Free FTP servers include photobucket, imageshack, putfile, etc.

***Example:

[img=xxx]

 

[jujumantb 10+ year member]

Practice practice practice! I could give you tips all day but they wont do shit until you try it yourself. Its really all about experience, my first couple projects were less than perfect, now that I've done 5+ projects, I am able to think ahead and know what techniques work for me. I would never recommend anyone do a big project (kicks/sub box) as their first fiberglass project, unless they are aware it most likely wont turn out well and will be a pain in the ***.

 

[fo0manchu 10+ year member]

alright, so it also depends on the shape of your box. Does your box have weird curves or sharp angles? If so fiberglass matt will be easier to work with because you can simply tear the matt and layer them wherever you want to. Are you putting this on with a brush? When using matt, you can first lay it down with a brush and if you want to get the air bubbles out, they sell special metal or plastic rollers which flatten out the matt to get the bubbles out. This tool is great, and you can find them online, a fiberglass store, or on ebay. Just look up fiberglass roller. But if you dont want to get the tool, you can get away with jabbing the matt with a stiff brush. Dont make long stiff strokes with a brush on matt as it will spread the strands everywhere. With cloth, you can actually use a squeegie to spread the resin. Also, remember that gravity also works against you if your laying up something upside down, so if your molding something to the panels of your car a trick you can use it to tape corner of the glass or use a bit of spray glue then resin it. You can also add more hardener so the resin "kicks" faster then after you have one layer, take it out of your car when it dries and add more layers. With fiberglass, dont put too much resin on the piece. Fiberglass is strong because of the fibers and not the resin. Too much resin will actually make it weaker and more prone to cracking. Good luck!

 

[ruckus]

only bubble I get are deep curves and stuff and I use mat. I tear it into small pieces 4" squares at the biggest and you dab the resin on it not brush it on. How thick of a mat where you using?

 

[ra4u2nv 10+ year member]

I have no Idea I got at a marine supply shop I guess it was pretty thick

 

[nametaken 10+ year member]

Probably 1.5 oz, ive gotten fiberglass from 2 different boating stores, both were 1.5 oz. I like mat better, doesnt bubble up as much but im getting better with both.