While I have only done a couple of fabrications and that, a long time ago I do have a friend who used to make caps and campers for mounting on the back of pickup trucks in a modest commercial fabrication plant.
You make either a negative or a positive mold and it doesn't much matter which. If you will have difficulty getting it into place you will probably want to make it in two parts, this gets a little more tricky. I am guessing you will want the finish surface to be on the inside? Usually they will use almost anything to get the shape and contour wanted. I suggest Styrofoam and maybe plywood, probably quarter inch stuff . Line the inside of the area where you want to form the glass fiber with Styrofoam panels, cut, grind, what ever you need to do to form the shape. If all voids don't need filling, maybe a space in the floor or something then just bridge it with the rigid foam. You can glue reinforcing pieces to brace and hold the shape and you will probably want to fabricate some plywood or other sturdier members to further brace and reinforce the inside of this positive mold. Once satisfied, you remove the mold and refine it with files, rasps, what ever is appropriate. Now you apply what ever texture you may want. If it is a very smooth texture you may wish to apply thin plaster if the form is rigid enough or melt and apply paraffin wax over the form with which you can fill in any voids or rough texture on the foam. What ever the case you will have to protect the foam as the polyester resin will dissolve it. There are grades of foam apparently which are resistant but I have never found it. This preparation stage cannot be too carefully done. Wax is pretty good material because it can be rubbed and smoothed and even massaged with warm hands to get very precise textures if necessary and it will, albeit with some effort, break away from the shell when done. Remember that you will have to get the mold out of the shell so pay some attention to the shape. The quality of the finish here will be very exactly duplicated on the finished surface. When satisfied, you apply gel coat, probably a couple of layers. Where you have irregular shapes or rounded corners I really prefer to use random mat glass. You stretch it and pull it into shape. The woven sheet or tape will not conform well, needs to be tucked and folded and cut and all sorts and in the end is heavier and actually not as strong as random mat. It does perform well along edges or where things are nice and flat and square and might be useful for reinforcement but even there, random mat cut in strips and folded will do very nicely too. So, you lay out your mat or your fabric over the gel and roll the resin to it. You want to thoroughly saturate the glass be it fabric or mat. I like to use those two or three inch 'J' paint rollers, they make it reasonably easy for a blind man to roll on loads of resin. I also like to use those plastic margarine tubs to mix up the resin and hardener, fairly easy to hold if you must, fit the roller and no loss to throw away. Same with the rollers, just toss them. If there is a way to clean up after that stuff I don't know it. The resin will hold to the finish gel coat provided the mat is well saturated. You don't require a gel coat but you won't get a nice finish without it. You can lay on as much glass and resin pretty well as you want. If things go a little wrong a belt sander, axe and chisel are about the sophistication of tools you need. You can partially fold strips of mat or tape to form sort of hollow triangular cross section tubes and resin them down and permeate them to form reinforcing like adding channel iron, you can stick wood or steel reinforcement including steel brackets for bolting down. It is very malleable stuff a bitch to clean up after. Make sure hair is secured and impossible to get stuck into the work, I suggest long sleeves which you don't ever have to be clean ever again, you will want gloves but not acrylic, the tips will disappear. Work in good ventilation. Unless it is cold, go careful on the catalyst. It will set up too quickly and get pretty hot, can even combust although in cold conditions a little extra will help set it up in more reasonable time. You can include colour directly in the resin and this is a good way to keep the product looking good. Commercial molds you can rent for making things like canoes can be rented. Here too, the secret to a good outcome is layers and layers of wax well buffed and polished. Breaking out of the mold is usually tough, getting a little air between the product and the mold so they will separate. Commercially they don't usually use fabric or mat but a sprayer which sprays the resin and chops glass fiber rope into the stream applied to the mold. They do begin with a gel coat though then spray over it to the desired thickness. They may do it in stages, for example the top half of a boat shell will often have a baffle of wood formed into it part way down to stiffen it, this will be inserted then more spray applied to stick it thoroughly into the structure. Give this some thought and knock it about a bit and you should be able to come up with a solution. This is a big container you are making. work it out thoroughly before you begin. The resin doesn't dry by evaporation, it sets up by chemical reaction. once it begins to go off, it happens pretty fast. Usually you only need a few drops of catalyst per quart of resin depending on the formulation of the particular product and that can be a little tricky for the blind, well me anyway, a small syringe or eye dropper might help here. If you work to a wet edge you can stop and mix up more and continue so long as you have worked the resin well into the fabric. It won't penetrate through already set resin and you don't want voids in the finished product. I can't think of anything more just now, hope this helps. Dale Leavens, Cochrane Ontario Canada [EMAIL PROTECTED] Skype DaleLeavens Come and meet Aurora, Nakita and Nanook at our polar bear habitat. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Larry Stansifer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <blindhandyman@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Wednesday, August 30, 2006 7:02 PM Subject: [BlindHandyMan] Fiber Glass > Hi Guys, > > Since you all did such a good job on cutting the whole in my hood, I'm > going to become a real research pain in the 32nd Vertebrae > I need to build a fiberglass inclosure approximately 28 inches deep 24 > inches high and 6&1/2 feet wide. This inclosure will fit behind the front > seats of my El Casino to house batteries, engine management electronics, > the air compressor for my air ride suspension, on board fire suppression > system and miscellaneous equipment. > The area to be utilized is by no means square and plumb so what ever > molding material I use will need to be malleable enough to compensate for > a > variety of angles and irregularities. > I got an estimate of $1200.00 to have it custom built but I think I can do > it myself. > I would really like to hear from anyone with a background in fiberglass > structural molding and fabrication. > > > Regards > > Larry Stansifer > > Toll Free 1 (800)-527-9572 > Voice: 1 (435)-688-1391 > Fax: 1 (435) 628-6981 > Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > -- > No virus found in this outgoing message. > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > Version: 7.1.405 / Virus Database: 268.11.7/433 - Release Date: 8/30/2006 > > > > > To listen to the show archives go to link > http://acbradio.org/handyman.html > or > ftp://ftp.acbradio.org/acbradio-archives/handyman/ > > The Pod Cast address for the Blind Handy Man Show is. > http://www.acbradio.org/news/xml/podcast.php?pgm=saturday > > The Pod Cast address for the Cooking In The Dark Show is. > http://www.gcast.com/u/cookingindark/main.xml > > Visit The New Blind Handy Man Files Page To Review Contributions From > Various List Members At The Following Address: > http://www.jaws-users.com/handyman/ > Visit the new archives page at the following address > http://www.mail-archive.com/blindhandyman@yahoogroups.com/ > For a complete list of email commands pertaining to the Blind Handy Man > list just send a blank message to: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > > > > > -- > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > Version: 7.1.405 / Virus Database: 268.11.6/428 - Release Date: 25/08/2006 > To listen to the show archives go to link http://acbradio.org/handyman.html or ftp://ftp.acbradio.org/acbradio-archives/handyman/ The Pod Cast address for the Blind Handy Man Show is. http://www.acbradio.org/news/xml/podcast.php?pgm=saturday The Pod Cast address for the Cooking In The Dark Show is. http://www.gcast.com/u/cookingindark/main.xml Visit The New Blind Handy Man Files Page To Review Contributions From Various List Members At The Following Address: http://www.jaws-users.com/handyman/ Visit the new archives page at the following address http://www.mail-archive.com/blindhandyman@yahoogroups.com/ For a complete list of email commands pertaining to the Blind Handy Man list just send a blank message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! 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