Can i make my own usable Fiberglass strips?

[Rascal Man]

I have Kenny's plans and have begun making the forms.  I just talked to my friendlly fire fighters for some old 1 3/4 or 2 inch hose.  Can I make my own fiberglass strips?  I have done composite work in past.  Not being a bowyer, yet, it seems odd to apply pre-made fiberglass strips to the bow.  I bet I am about to learn why!  LOL

Rascal Man (Randy)

[fujimo]

firehose is usually porous- so as to allow the hoses to leak some- to keep the hoses wet-  so it a proper airhose that just looks like a firehose!!   :D   try big jim's he is a sponsor on here- he has the right hoses and plugs etc etc.
the reason why one uses pre made strips
1. easy
2. very accurate thickness- to a thousandth of an inch- your tiller and final weight depends on exact measurements and smooth transitions- any undulations in the surface will lead to bad tiller!
3.the premade glass is made with fibers that are pretensioned- saturated with the exact amt of resin and the finished strip has a consistant amt of glass in it- relating to a consistant stiffness factor
4, the glass also has no air bubbles etc in it.
sure others will add to this

good luck mate- and welcome to the insanity    
cheers
wayne

[Robertfishes]

I like to save money and make my own stuff when I can....The 1 1/2" hose and plugs from Big Jim are worth the $40 (more or less depending on legnth).. I have  a spare hose that is long enough for my longest form just in case of an emergency..

[Rascal Man]

Ahhh!  So, fire hose is really airhose and not really firehose!  I have made fiberglass strips in past for airplane construction.  We wanted to avoid bubbles and have a smooth surface so we vaccumed it slightly after the application of resin (epoxy).  We made one surface very flat by layiing on a glass surface.  If we layed some plastic on both sides we could manipulate the piece without making a mess easier - i.e. cut to width, etc while the resin was still wet.  You could strip off one piece of plastic and lay that surface against the receiving structure.  For a fine very bondable surface we would use peel ply on one surface (just thin nylon cloth removed after resin set).  That would leave a sightly rough surface for paint or further bonding.  The trick was to not let the resin fully cure for more than threes days before adding additional fiberglass or resin - that would require more dreaded sanding.

Thanks for all the info

Rascal Man (Randy)

[KenH]

Sounds like YOU, of all folks who have asked that question, have the potential to make your own glass.  Give it a try!

[Rascal Man]

Ouch!  That one came back at me! LOL  I will give it a try if were just talking fiberglass tape impregnated with resin and sanded to specific thickness.  Thing is that I have never touched nor seen the fiberglass laminates before, so it's hard to imagine for me.  I'm still trying to get the taper thing and "wedges" in the handle down.  I did cut out my template today.  I am watching Kenny's build along and one Jim Thorne did for "entertainment".  My wife is still laughing.

Rascal Man (Randy)

[Rascal Man]

Let me describe the process I am familiar with about how I would do it.  Then you guys can better advise me.
1)Place some plastic on very flat surface, wet the surface where the glass will lay, then add the glass and saturate it.
2)Place second layer of plastic on surface and squeegee excess resin out, probably can do this without bubbles, but vacuum
could be used if that were a problem.  That would yield a "strip" that could be cut to size.  I found that you can actually cut the strip while resin is setting to size using roller blade cutter.  I would remove one side of plastic and apply to buttered (more epoxy) object, in this case a bow.  I don't see or hear anything like that in these posts.  Am I reinventing the wheel so to speak!

[fujimo]

i am very pro experimentation- and dont believe that there is only one way to do things- i hail from a country( in africa) where resources are very scarce- so we just learnt to be inventive and to make do.- so i fully understand    

for me, right now, its just easier to buy the glass , its so cheap- comparatively to the value of a bow!!

even though i have had extensive glass experience( had a factory in south africa - making competition kayaks, safety helmets and paddles etc) but i just dont have any spare time to to re set up for glass- just got too much hunting, bow building, home remodel, sailing, fishing, womanizing/wife lovin', kayak building etc etc to get done.
but here are a few extra ideas, just from my thoughts- and please just take them as intended- an intent to be helpful, and not critical        
1.if you are going to laminate up to the wood during the toffee stage( do i understand you correctly here?) the 60 psi pressure in the laminating stage may, or may not effect the glass.
2.do a search on the bench here- there was a fella who did make some glass- and he seemed to have a pretty good measure of success- i will see if i can find the link as well- intead of vac bagging it- he used a weighted pressure strip layed on top
3. the glass strands- need to be tensioned pre- wet out- he did devise a system- now i would imagine that this is quite critcal to bow design consistency- different tensions on each different piece of glass will show a variance in the glass performance- will this be noticeable in a bow- DUNNO- but a simple scale type system attached to the tensioning device would be good. - overall his system was pretty good- thats the only place i would have made an improvement- with a scale!
4. peel ply and all that stuff is great for commercial runs- and might just be an unnecessary cost for small runs- good release wax, is all i would use- you are going to sand it anyway- on the negative side.- just my opinion- but guess if you are gonna bag- then the peel ply will be imperative anyway.

good luck mate- keep us posted- i think all these projects are cool!!!!
cheers
wayne

[Rascal Man]

Thanks Wayne for the input - you obviously have more experience with composites then myself.  Pretensioning the strip, type of glass (unidirectional, etc) would probably make this not very cost productive for sure.  I'll look into it.

Rascal Man (Randy)

[Nezwin]

I did a buildalong of how I make my pretensioned fibreglass lams in this thread -

 http://tradgang.com/noncgi/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=125;t=012125;p=1

It works out only marginally cheaper than buying them, but you do get the satisfaction of having done it. Good luck!

[fujimo]

there we go- thats the thread i was talking about!!!

[jsweka]

For $15 per strip ($19 for clear) from Big Jim, I really can't see how attempting to make your own glass is worth the effort - JMHO.