I'm curious how come most here seem to use the woven mat and epoxy resin instead of chop strand and polyester resin? The polyester is cheaper and the mat comes in 50 inch wide rolls. Also you don't have to sand between coats.
Fiberglassing Plywood best/ easiest method?
- Thread starter yzf450motoxrider
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- aquarium fiberglass plywood
Getting ready to do this same thing myself (as soon as the heat lets off a bit). My project (a 10x7x3 and 9x6x2.5) is being outfitted entirely by Mike's (the guy in that video) company. I'll be laminating chop strand and biaxial mat. The chop strand allows you to get a nice thick layer of the resin (as opposed to just laying multiple coats of resin directly to the wood only) and the patterned cloth provides structural strength.
I'd recommend watching some of the videos from this guy as well:
You're going to be getting a ton of comments here that say that polyester resin is going to leach chemicals into your water and kill your fish. AS LONG as you follow Mike's advise and use wax in your final layer, whether it be gel coat or just poly, ALL resin used in laminating will be chemically inert (because science!; the wax will starve the resin of oxygen which will allow it to cure to completion).
One note, depending on what cloth you use for your project, your final coat may still have 'bleed through' meaning that the surface will not be entirely smooth, so you may still need to sand and re-coat if a smooth surface is required.
Using the mat/cloth will also add cost to your project, not due to the cost of the cloth, but rather due to the amount resin that will be necessary for the project. So all in cost should be somewhere between $1.5-$2 per gallon. Worth the price, IMO.
Hope this helps, and good luck.
