In Reply to: Re: homemade outboard posted by machnumber2 on March 26, 2003 at 00:03:47:
hehe yeah your end product is starting to look a little Uhh,, Rough. Pretty standart for a prototype. hehehefibergalss can be purchased at any mareine supply store, Walmart, and your better hardware stores. at least around here. Auto parts stores like napa also carry it.Make sure you get resin,hardener and mesh cloth. DO NOT buy tigerhair fiberglass for this.
Here is a quick fiberglssing lesson, at least,, this is how I do it, and My glass jobs have never failed.
A- clean area to be glassed.
B-rough up the area to be glassed with a med to course sandpaper.
C- Lay a clean empty 2 litre plastic bottle on its side and cut a large Oval hole in to serve as a disposable mixing containter.
D- Wear rubber gloves
E Cut your mesh at least 2 inches wider and longer then you need to cover the area.
F-mix resin and hardener in the cut open bottle, drop the cloth in and stire and kneed it til it is fully saturated. ( be fast, speed counts )
G- wrap soaked mesh around the pipe and smooth out as best you can. Speed is more important than neetness. You can always sand for neatness. Try to work neat, but speed is really the key.
H - Let dry a few hours then sand.Some notes here. Once the mesh is laid, do not peel it back up. You can slide it a little but its best to place it where you need it first shot. It would probably be a good idea to put the piece you cut away back in place before fiberglassing. how much hardener you use determines how fast it will set. too much it will set super fast, Too little and it wont set at all. it is better too use a little more then not enough if unsure when mixing. for your aplication 1 layer should be enough, 2 would be better, 3 should be stronger then the pipe itself. I think after you use fiberglass once, it will become part of your standart bag of construction tricks.
One other note about working with fiberglass, it will produce a certain amount of heat due to the cemical reaction to the hardener. this is normal, and sometimes feels very warm, but not enough to burn you.
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