How does one work with Fiber Glass

Okay, I have never attempted to do anything in fiber glass.. just I guess I'm afraid of doing it. Does or has anyone work with fiberglass before.. I mean I have seen some killer lids mad out of fiberglass.. but is that done by using a mold? If so, how are molds made...blah, blah, blah. I guess what I'm after is a step by step plan on working with Fiber glass and making mold.

Hopefully someone can step up and give me a helping hand. thanks

I'm going to move this post to the Propbuilding Methods and Materials section. You'll probably have better luck there.

To answer one of your questions, yes, fiberglass helmets are made in a mold. Molds are made by pouring silicon or urethane or plaster, etc over a master-sculpt (a helmet mold would likely be done in 2 halves-front and back)...it's really too complex to go into a great tutorial here.

There are some good sites and good books on the subject:
The Propbuilder's Molding and Casting Handbook

Smooth-On tutorial on Molding and Casting

I recently did this to make my gauntlets, it is really easy. I would suggest you practice a few times to make sure you can get a bubble free casting. That was my mistake. And also remember to mix your resin in SMALL amounts, i wasted alot because i mixed too much at once. If you want a tutorial i might be able to put one together in a few days. just send me a pm.

Hi there

What is it you want to make ?

I work with Fibre Glass in my job, there are lots of different ways of going about things, depending on what your trying to do !

If you can be a little more 'spicific' I may be able to help !



CD

Hi just made an oval shaped ring and used a small metal candy container. I rubbed vaselin inside the container and then mixed fiberglass resin with fibers and rubbed into the container.

I let the mixture harden and took the pice out. No problem.

Yeah, one of my next projects will be a fiber glass backplate. The one I have is made out of sintra. It's not solid enough, because the weight of my fiber glass Jet Pack. Maybe should I try to reinforce the new one with metal parts between the layers of fiber glass ... Could be heavy .