posted
Okay this is a bit down the road yet, but I have a plan for building my custom sub box.
A friend of my dad's owns a shop called Hudson Boat Works, they make fibreglass racing boats that like silken lamen and them use to race (she used one of his boats in the last olympics i tink) anywho he owns this big shop that among other things has this giant milling machine... I have decided to get a huge ass chunck of styrofoam (something like the blue stuff) and program the size and shape of the box into the computer. The machine could then carve the box shape out of the styrofoam. I then want to take the styrofoam box and put it in the trunk of my car, and manually carve out any areas that need carving (to avoid smaller obstacles in the trunk). Then finally I can do the fibreglassing on the box which I am gonna learn soon. After that I pour some acitone (sp?) into the box and the styrofoam melts leaving the fibreglass box. Sound like a plan?
Couple other questions about fibreglassing... How many layers of fibreglass will i need to put on to get equal the strength of 1.5" of HDF board?
Finally, the box is going to have some curves and all rounded edges on it, I want it to be smooth and seamless, what should I use for a covering? Is there some kind of epoxy I can put on it or what?
Use regular Automotive Paint on the enclosure. Just get a color you like, or match it to your vehicle color, and paint it. Or have it painted if you don't have the equipment or knowledge to do it yourself. I'm sure the boat building place could help you out though?
Good Luck.
------------------ Kevin Smith SS 1-2 teamROCS #010 - www.teamrocs.com
Posts: 1168 | From: Tucson, AZ, U.S.A. | Registered: Jun 2000
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Just remember when you are using styrofoam products for fiberglass forms, you need to use epoxy resin and not polyester resin.
Polyester resin+hardener and Styrofoam are both styrene-based.. the chemical name for Styrofoam is polystyrene..
Anyways, this means when you use the polyester resin on the foam, the foam is going to dissolve.
I think the blue stuff might actually be a different compound of foam, not a styrene at all so it might be OK... be sure to ask the guys at that boat shop.
There are a million compounds of foam out there so you can never be real sure.. hehe
I use a polyurethane foam for my fiberglass work. There isnt a chemical in production that can destroy this stuff, which is good for me but bad for you since you want to remove all that foam when the piece is done. =)
Since that may take quite a bit of acetone to dissolve that foam, you might want to locate a hot wire foam cutter to cut large chunks of foam out quickly. The boat shop might have one or maybe even McMaster-CARR.. http://www.mcmaster.com
------------------ Mike Pipes Digital Illusion Custom Graphics
R POT Designs - Carbon Fiber Watercraft Performance Products
Posts: 431 | From: Lake Havasu, AZ | Registered: Jun 2000
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posted
another thing that you might want to think about is this.....acetone also will dissolve fiberglass. depending on the thickness of your fiberglass enclosure, it could eat the fiberglass through, or significantly weaken the walls.......
------------------ Team Sick Bastard rebuild, it's a rebuild, it's the everchanging sound system......(to the flintstones tune) doobie doobie doooo...beware the penguin(he's a sick bastard)
Posts: 2155 | From: Stanton, MO | Registered: May 1999
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