Re: How to deal with fibreglass

[ferret]

Great photos! That's what I need and want to know. That meant the application of resin to fasten the fibreglass matt on the wooden surfaces needed to divide into quite few stages for the whole wooden tank. Do I need to wait for the resin to dry at one side before I can proceed to with the other side for laying the matt?

[zum14]

I never did but probably should have. You need to be careful as the wet mat tends to basically act a little like wet tissue paper only it doesnt tear (if that makes sense) , wrinkles, the weave will open up, end pieces start sticking to you and you peel them like yarn and is a bit frustrating. You will have to make sure theres no sharp edges and may want to feather the edges a bit for a smoother transition. Its probably more work but a smarter way to go in the end. Takes longer to lay the mat but less work with filling later and you dont have to worry about working bubbles out between two pieces of wet mat. I did this over a couple weeks, did the base then cleaned and filled, did the sides, then cleaned and filled then did the final coat. I would do it the safest and best way you can if your going to put hundreds of gallons of water into this in your house. The epoxy will stick to the wood as long as its clean and dry, it soaks in pretty good. Lots of people I have seen build there tanks out of just plywood and use a couple of coats of just epoxy inside to seal. Im not a huge fan of this and like at least a 3 mil layer inside to give the epoxy a little more to hang onto and help out a bit. Like i said im going to do a strip of carbon fibre in the corners only to really beef it up but my middle name is overkill so.... hmm maybe some kevlar e-glass too..... You basically need to build a boat inside out.

[ferret]

Thanks & I'll give it a try.