JackSkelling10 said:
When I used Crackhead's method of fiberglassing (dipping strips of fiberglass in resin then attaching them) My piece was strong. When I tried to save myself time by gluing in the fiberglass then resining over it, it was not nearly as strong.
The problem I had on my first piece (a handplate) was that the spray glue prevented the resin from soaking into or "wetting out" the fiberglass cloth where the glue was. I'll try to explain this a little better:
You know how the fiberglass cloth looks kind of white before resin, but turns almost transparent once resined? Well, the finised fiberglass looked good on the inside of plate, but when I was sanding the outside it felt a little soft. So I sanded down through the layer of paper, and the fiberglass cloth still had that white look to it. What I figured happened was that the spray glue kind of "sealed" the fiberglass filaments and the resin didn't soak in.
JackSkelling10 said:
Do you guys think it's because of the method or just not enough fiberglass? EDITI decided to just re do a second layer over the existing fiberglass using crackhead's method. The only problem is Crackheads method uses ALOT of Resin
Not to take anything away from crackhead,(the guy who gave us the HD shins, thighs, & cod) but I have found that using less resin is actually better when glassing. On my second piece, a HD Mk VI helmet, I had alot of problems with air pockets in the cloth. I kept adding more resin to try to get the cloth to "stick", but the bubbles still came back. This was easily fixed by dremeling out the spot afterwards and patching with some glass & resin, but I wanted to stop it from happening in the first place. So off to Google for some answers.
What I found out, was that fiberglass cloth is classified and sold by ounces. The ounce designation is how many ounces of resin it takes to properly "wet out" 1 square yard of cloth. I've read that in critical applications, the square yardage of fabric is calculated, then resin is very carefully measured out to ensure th correct amount. Too little will leave dry spots, too much resin will signifcantly increase weight with minimal strength gain.
Armor building in not exactly a "critical application" but what I do is paint on a medium to heavy layer of resin, then lay 2 X 2 or 2 X 3 inch squares cloth on the wet area, and without dipping my brush again, tap the cloth with my brush until the glass starts to become transparent. Then I lightly dip my brush and hit any spots that look dry. As a result, my latest pieces are way lighter, just as strong, and way cleaner looking than my earlier attempts.
One con to this method is that I use alot more brushes, but you can get them
HERE for about .20 each and you can reduce the amount of hardener by a drop or two to give you a little more time with each small batch.
BTW: I have been told that the that the Bondo brand cloth I buy at walmart or home depot is 4 ounce cloth, just to give you an idea of how little resin is needed.
