d9canada
Just keep pluggin' every day and it'll get done!
And now for my next trick - a word about fiberglass materials and absorbency.
If you attempt to fiberglass something by wetting a surface and then getting glass materials stuck into it and then try to get the material "wet out" well and all air entrapment removed, you'll find that's not a simple task, especially in tight bend areas. And you'll often see on TV, guys use a foil pan with resin and soak fiberglass cloth and then apply it to the work. You can't do this with mat as easily. So here's what's at issue:
All fiberglass materials are produced using "sizing" - a synthetic material like starch. In fact, way back in the late 50s when I was a toddler, my Dad fiberglassed our sundeck and at that time, the material was actually formed with cornstarch. So imagine you want to wet out glass with resin which is much thicker than water or paint. The first thing that has to happen is that the sizing must dissolve. When you put a piece of material into resin, even in a foil pan, it takes a few moments for the material to become translucent, indicating all air removed and it's saturated. If a piece of material is added to a mold surface, even if the surface is already wet, it takes a bit of work dabbing with the tip of a stiff brush or using rollers to caress the material into the resin. The thing to avoid is too much resin and yet that's the beginner's solution to air in the material or material that won't lay flat - hammer it with more resin. Ideally, you should have at least 60% glass to resin, even with epoxy resing.
Lastly, you can do a very cheap effective "vacuum bagging" of your work using a shop vac and some special materials you can get from fiberglass supply shops. Basically, you lay a non-stick sheet over the wet part of the work, then a layer or absorbent material (an old blanket works), and you can also put some foam scraps or bubble wrap on top to ensure an even distribution of the vacuum loading. Provided you have no sharp edges, you can use ordinary poly sheet for the external bag. I've used a simple shop vac (you must use a shop vacuum because the motor is independently cooled, not by airflow through the suction, because obviously, you're not going to have much flow. I use adapters to a small hose, then an ordinary ball valve with a short piece of PVC on the end - that PVC is cross drilled so it's not easily plugged up and that is inserted above the absorbent area with another layer of absorbent on top. Turn on the vacuum and you'll have effectively 3 - 4 pounds PER SQ IN pressure on your work. This helps a lot to force materials into complex shapes and remove air entrapment. You can Google vacuum bagging and even more advanced resin infusion (where the vacuum setup is enhanced with ports on the mold connect to your resin pot, so the vacuum pulls the resin through the work - and yes that takes planning!)
So there yah go, a bit more blah blah about glassing
If you attempt to fiberglass something by wetting a surface and then getting glass materials stuck into it and then try to get the material "wet out" well and all air entrapment removed, you'll find that's not a simple task, especially in tight bend areas. And you'll often see on TV, guys use a foil pan with resin and soak fiberglass cloth and then apply it to the work. You can't do this with mat as easily. So here's what's at issue:
All fiberglass materials are produced using "sizing" - a synthetic material like starch. In fact, way back in the late 50s when I was a toddler, my Dad fiberglassed our sundeck and at that time, the material was actually formed with cornstarch. So imagine you want to wet out glass with resin which is much thicker than water or paint. The first thing that has to happen is that the sizing must dissolve. When you put a piece of material into resin, even in a foil pan, it takes a few moments for the material to become translucent, indicating all air removed and it's saturated. If a piece of material is added to a mold surface, even if the surface is already wet, it takes a bit of work dabbing with the tip of a stiff brush or using rollers to caress the material into the resin. The thing to avoid is too much resin and yet that's the beginner's solution to air in the material or material that won't lay flat - hammer it with more resin. Ideally, you should have at least 60% glass to resin, even with epoxy resing.
Lastly, you can do a very cheap effective "vacuum bagging" of your work using a shop vac and some special materials you can get from fiberglass supply shops. Basically, you lay a non-stick sheet over the wet part of the work, then a layer or absorbent material (an old blanket works), and you can also put some foam scraps or bubble wrap on top to ensure an even distribution of the vacuum loading. Provided you have no sharp edges, you can use ordinary poly sheet for the external bag. I've used a simple shop vac (you must use a shop vacuum because the motor is independently cooled, not by airflow through the suction, because obviously, you're not going to have much flow. I use adapters to a small hose, then an ordinary ball valve with a short piece of PVC on the end - that PVC is cross drilled so it's not easily plugged up and that is inserted above the absorbent area with another layer of absorbent on top. Turn on the vacuum and you'll have effectively 3 - 4 pounds PER SQ IN pressure on your work. This helps a lot to force materials into complex shapes and remove air entrapment. You can Google vacuum bagging and even more advanced resin infusion (where the vacuum setup is enhanced with ports on the mold connect to your resin pot, so the vacuum pulls the resin through the work - and yes that takes planning!)
So there yah go, a bit more blah blah about glassing