spinningmagnets said:
denisesewa, thanks for posting this! The next time you decide to tackle a fiberglass project, please take lots of pics, and if possible...perhaps each shot in front of a plain background? A tutorial of sorts, just like the awesome 10mm shaft-thinning you posted. A pic is worth a thousand words.
You seem to be the type of person who has investigated a variety of methods, and you ended up using the easiest way to employ fiberglass. I would trust your judgement over a random youtube on fiberglass, and I have liked every project you have posted. Keep up the good work!
I dont really have anything in the works as far as fiberglass is concerned, the easiest way to create a one-off fiberglass part is to shape it from styrofoam ( which means you must use epoxy resin), then layup several layers of cloth, I find laying out the cloth on plastic sheet and wetting it out with resin using a sqeegie the easiest, this allows you to see that you have fully wet the cloth, then just drape it over the styro mold and sqeegie it into shape working out all air bubbles and getting any excess resin off ( you will be able to feel the weave of the cloth rather than having a shiny surface), you can layup as many layers as you want all at once, for a really rigid part use fibeglass matt between layers of cloth, the cloth allows you to sqeegie the resin thru without distorting the matt, after the resin has setup enough to not be sticky use a razor blade to trim the excess cloth from the mold.
Once cured simply pour gasoline , laquere thinner or acetone on the styrofoam and watch the stryo dissapear, ( disspose of the residue properly), you are left with a part just bigger than the mold by the thickness of the cloth, all thats left to do is final trim the edges , sand and paint or put on a layer of decorative cloth such as carbon fiber, or in the case of this bike I used Texalium and then clearcoat. here is a pic prior to the final sanding , clearcoat and graphics ( which I havnt done yet, still looks pretty good though).
You can also use a hard material for the mold and use mold release like PVA ( polyvinylalcohol ) but you then must have a shape that wont trap the part on the mold which is why styrofoam is easier.
It really is just a matter of getting the materials and making a simple mold to do a test on, you will learn as you go, the above methods turns out a part without using paint brushes and more important, without having to sand the fiberglass itself therefore avoiding the dreaded seven year itch
I'll try to do a step by step at some point.