Anyone experienced with fiberglass? (help)
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hey steve,
thanksi've done (am doing) some of what you suggested already.. i cut back the glass which wasn't curing then used some acetone to get rid of most of the goop.. i'll be down to bare wood again soon.
another guy at a boat building forum has said epoxy will stick to polyester but not the other way around..
i'm thinking of either a) finishing off the railings posts with the polyester (which i already have) but staying away from the joints.. then using an epoxy resin in those areas which i'll be able to overlap onto the polyester..
or b) doing the entire second coat with an epoxy resin instead of polyester (probably the best idea but i just don't have the supplies on hand to do it right now)
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Hey Jeff, I was assuming that the joints were done with epoxy and the glassing was done in
poly' is that correct? If that is so, I think if the cleaning is done sufficiently well, the remaining epoxy will be in such small amounts (in the cells of the wood) that the polyester will not be effected and the poly surface will have enough integrity to keep it at bay. Spiders in gear knobs are set in poly, not sure what the comparability of spiders and Polyester are. I would just make sure I would not overwork the areas around the joints though. -
I know this is a bit late but....
why not cover the railings prior to assembly?
Use a vacuum, release film and bleed cloth to really give a nice finish to them.
I spent years working with glass, carbom & kevlar on planes. That polyester resin isn't suited to this if you ask me. If you can grab some Epocast 50A then you'll find that quality stuff that's quick to cure and easy to apply.
Also there's a ratio for glass/resin. If you apply too much resin to the fabric then it become more plastic than GRFP and more likely to shatter. Peel Ply (~type of cloth) will remove excess resin and leave only what's needed.
boring enough for ya?
Try masking off areas with sellotape ask the resin can't adhere to it.
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@steved said:
Hey Jeff, I was assuming that the joints were done with epoxy and the glassing was done in
poly' is that correct? If that is so, I think if the cleaning is done sufficiently well, the remaining epoxy will be in such small amounts (in the cells of the wood) that the polyester will not be effected and the poly surface will have enough integrity to keep it at bay. Spiders in gear knobs are set in poly, not sure what the comparability of spiders and Polyester are. I would just make sure I would not overwork the areas around the joints though.yeah, you're right -- the joints are epoxy and the glass is poly..
but what's weird is that the epoxy was done prior to the glassing (already hardened etc) and is mostly inside the joint (the mortise is 3/4" deep x 1.5" x 2").. the joint is also a bit loose (around 1/32" gap) due to the way the separated parts needed to be assembled (there had to be a bit of wiggle room in there for everything to slip together properly.. this is why i used epoxy in the first place as it doesn't require super snug joints/clamping for a solid bond whereas wood glue would require that type of fit)
point being, there's only a tiny amount of the epoxy which is being exposed to the poly -- it's the thin line around the railing where it goes into the post and that's what's causing the problems for me.. and that little strip of epoxy is causing the poly to fail up to 1/2" out in all directions
so, i'm very hesitant to put any more polyester near the joints
(edit)-- granted, there was some squeeze out of epoxy during assembly which I scraped off.. I'm sure this is probably the stuff causing problems and it's not spreading outward from those tiny gaps alone.. I imagine if I'd of sanded the epoxy off instead of just scraping up the obvious stuff, I'd have much less of a problem here)
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@rich o brien said:
I know this is a bit late but....
why not cover the railings prior to assembly?
please go back in time a few days and tell me this !
but yeah, too late now..@unknownuser said:
Use a vacuum, release film and bleed cloth to really give a nice finish to them.
I spent years working with glass, carbom & kevlar on planes. That polyester resin isn't suited to this if you ask me. If you can grab some Epocast 50A then you'll find that quality stuff that's quick to cure and easy to apply.
Also there's a ratio for glass/resin. If you apply too much resin to the fabric then it become more plastic than GRFP and more likely to shatter. Peel Ply (~type of cloth) will remove excess resin and leave only what's needed.
boring enough for ya?
Try masking off areas with sellotape ask the resin can't adhere to it.
i'm pretty sure i didn't put too much resin on.. the plywood soaks it up quick and there are no drips or puddle looking things on the first coat..
i can get the epocast around here but i'm trying to get my supplier to swap my remaining poly (i have an unopened gallon) for some of their epoxy resin.. if they're not into it, i'll look into the epocast more seriously as it's considerable cheaper than the stuff i'm looking at (about $170 for a gallon/hardener + shipping)
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on a lighter note… check out my 6yr old assistant..
who woulda thought a fur vest & short skirt were such good fiberglassing clothes?
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@unknownuser said:
on a lighter note… check out my 6yr old assistant..
who woulda thought a fur vest & short skirt were such good fiberglassing clothes?
a ghostly apparition
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Ah
the masters...
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lol.. nice
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@steved said:
I would remove the retarded 'gel' initially, mechanically by scrapping with a Stanley knife blade to remove the polyester/Epoxy mix bulk, and then and then thoroughly clean with GP thinners (the thinners will not effect the thermoset resin, sure you know that though) let it dry and sand the whole thing to give it some tooth. I would then coat it with polyester resin again, sand, re coat, sand, final coat. Not an Industrial Chemist but that's what I would do.
well, in the end (I hope it's the end), I went with this suggestion..
got rid of all the goo.. grinded all around the joints.. layed down another coat of poly..fingers crossed its going to cure properly this time
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Hey Jeff how did it go?
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@steved said:
Hey Jeff how did it go?
pretty good.. there are two spots which didn't fully cure but they are tiny.. 1/4" x 1" strips on bare wood..
much better than the mess the first time around (24 joints-- failed cure 1/2" out in all directions leaving pliable fabric)i just wiped the area with acetone and put epoxy there instead..
all in all -- a bit of a nightmare but it's good now..
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