New Fiberglass Method

[Skippster86]

I went with my mother (Who suffered a stroke in 2002) to get a new brace made for her leg.

They used this stuff called fiberglass casting tape which set up in about five minutes, was just dipped in water, and became solid (cured) in like ten. No respirator needed, just gloves.

Anyone experiment with this? Its fairly inexpensive and maybe someone could layer it for solidifying armor.

Just an idea!

 

[Achille]

Hmm, yes, possibly. A quick google search brought me to a site with it for a 4" by 4 yard roll for fifteen bucks; about the same as resin and 'glass. The only question would be whether or not it adheres to paper. I know it sticks to itself pretty well (I've broken a couple things; arms, backs, ankle, so I'm pretty familiar with casts.), and it adheres to cotton just fine. I may try picking some up.

If worst comes to worst, you could always glue it into the armour and paint water onto the tape. Even if the paper came off, all it would require is a lot of smoothing the make it look good.

Edit: Woah, just found on Amazon a pack of ten for 35 bucks. Not a bad price at all.

 

[smilie120]

It isn't fiberglass, Its just plaster. Look up Mod rock or plaster of paris. They use it on broken arms etc at the hospital. It isnt durable enough for armour purposes.

 

[Achille]

On another site I found:

Smooth and easy to apply, this high-action resin and fiberglass fabric provides excellent conformability.

It seems that it does come in the fiberglass variety. Same price (About) as before. Ten 2" X 4 yard rolls for 30 bucks.

And how would it not be durable enough? It's the stuff they use to protect broken bones, it's meant to hold up to wear and tear. You may need a few layers, but with ten packs being only 30 dollars, that's not a problem.

There's a potential that it's not waterproof in the end, but then you could just do either a quick coating of resin, or some plasti-dip, if needed.

 

[Keegan]

It isn't fiberglass, Its just plaster. Look up Mod rock or plaster of paris. They use it on broken arms etc at the hospital. It isnt durable enough for armour purposes.

Its fiberglass. After breaking my arm I was walking around in the room in which they keep it all, and reading the labels, and its definetley fiberglass. Its almost exactly like fiberglass resin.

 

[LastSpartan]

Yeah it's fiberglass. It used to be plaster bandages but now it's more fiberglass. Lighter and can take water. (Baths)

But I doubt it's as hard as polyurethane fiberglass.

 

[mchammertime]

Maybe if you just put it on in a couple of layers it would work

 

[Skippster86]

The woman making the cast, asked if my mother could feel the warmth of the casting tape curing.

Id assume it is similar to the resin/fiberglass warming up.

Its exciting to think we could have a new way besides standard glassing techniques or the cardboard and hotglue method or paper mache or moulding.

 

[Achille]

Especially for pieces that are meant more for display than use, this would be very useful. I have some Samus armour that I'm certainly not going to wear, but would like to harden on the cheap and easy. I'll try to get some of this in the next few days and write up a review.

 

[Razgriz]

I was reading an article in the paper a few months back about cast. It said that fiberglass is slowly replacing plaster as a material used to make cast. It's lighter and an overall better material.

Interesting though... I never thought about using fiberglass cast material. My father is a physician in an ER, I could see if he could bring me home a sample of the material.

 

[Sean Bradley]

I have a sculptor friend whose husband is a surgeon. She brought me a whole mess of medial casting materials (wrap and sheets) that cure simply when dipped in water. We messed around with it a bit in the studio. These materials can be purchased in various thicknesses, and strengths. The sheet material was approximately 1/8th inch thick and had holes punched throughout (I assume to help with the curing process.)

Yes, it is likely that this stuff can be used for reinforcing stuff, but you will first have to solve the little issue of your pepakura patterns being made of paper... otherwise you're going to just make a soggy mess.

The other problem in my mind about using this stuff for making Halo armor is that it is more expensive than resin by weight, and typically has to be special ordered via medial supply houses. Most people seem to balk at finding the right supplier for their casting resin/fiberglass... which is a whole lot easier to find than retail medial casting supplies. I think unless you've got a Doctor in the family, finding this stuff cheap and easily could be the next biggest hurdle.

The other thing I recall from working with it is that it adds bulk, more than strength... that is that the bulk it's adding kinda exceeds the strength it adds. You'd loose significant detail... which you wouldn't be able to carve into the porous material... it would need to be added ontop.

It might be something to explore, but I wouldn't invest too heavily in the material. Go with something tried and true. Don't like the toxicity? Use Aqua-Resin instead.

 

[xalener]

This is why I'm making my armor's base with CARDBOARD!!

This is a great freakin' find!


Now I'm torn between this and aquaresin...