Box construction advice

[mhn3773]

just to add to that last bit...dont go grabing the resin soaked matt with ur hands..and dont do this in ur room where ur basicly HUFFING the resin lol this stuff is not good for u if u are totaly inhaling it or rolling in it like it is a pile of hundreds lol

just incase u didnt know it was harmfull

 

[hydroxy]

If he was rolling in it, he'd have to worry about other things then if it was possibly harmful to him... like how is he going to free himself once it hardens, and how on earth he would free himself from 'himself'...

Think of it as paint. Dont do it in a place you can't get messy, dont wear clothes you care about AT ALL, wear disposible gloves, put plastic down on the ground if need be, and do it in an open area.

 

[mhn3773]

If he was rolling in it, he'd have to worry about other things then if it was possibly harmful to him... like how is he going to free himself once it hardens, and how on earth he would free himself from 'himself'...
QUOTE]
imagine that call...=) i glued..myself to....myself =) hehe classic

 

[Cartman]

I had a couple of drops of resin fall onto the table I was working on and when I scrapped them off they were flexible - this is bondo fiberglass resin with the correct amount of hardener so I don't see how you can say resin is strong, it may not break easily but it remains flexible without the matt so the box will still flex.

 

[expo5.0]

that is exactly true

if you use a rubbermade container to mix the resin in, when the leftovers harden they are rubberish and can be pulled out of the rubbermade container

 

[icu400]

I dont know what they're talking about resin is useless without mat. It is PLENTY strong without any material in it. I got a couple drops on my bumper.... trust me, it's strong. It might not have as much strength or something without matt, but I dont think the matt adds any strength. My view of the matt is simply a medium which absorbs the resin which can then be molded into place. You can't exactly 'mold' a liquid into specific shapes without something to support it. The matt probably does help prevent something made of fiberglass to not simply fall apart when it is cracked - it adds some malleability to the object.

The only reason that there is 'special' matt is because it absorbs a very high amount of resin, thus when it hardens, it is as close to being pure resin as it can be - there are no hollow parts on the inside where the fabric didn't absorb all the way. (this is all my opinion - I could be completely wrong)

That being said - when you buy a gallon of resin, there are two little plastic tubes of 'hardener liquid' that come with it. There is also a small plastic bowl ontop. A small squeedge of the tube into the plastic bowl full of resin, and then mixed together will cause a chemical reaction which will start to harden the mixture. You have about 5 minutes tops in which to do something with the liquid before it hardens or gets too sticky to work with.

In your case - you could build the box, mix a small bowl full of resin, put the box on a side and pour the resin mix onto whatever side is on the ground. It would even out and put a layer of 'fiberglass' on top of the MDF. I would recommend cutting some fiberglass matt to fit each panel, then soak each piece in the resin mixture and lay that on the inside. 'paint' a small layer of the resin over the board before you put the resin soaked matt ontop of it.

thanks mate, that was extremely helpful, i think that is what I will tell him to do (I am building the box because I know how to nail/screw/cut stuff, he is doing the resin part)

 

[Glowin97x]

all it took was someone agreeing with what you had already made up youre mind about. without some sort of material to soak the resin in its gunna flex

 

[expo5.0]

its not going to do what you want-

adding resin to the box will seal it very well, but thats all it will do. And if you wanted to use 'glass to make the box stronger you'd end up with it almost as thick as 3/4 for 10x the price

the matting is precisely what gives it the strength, i'll take a picture of myself bending a 1/2" thick piece or hardened resin fi you want...

who's advice are you gonna take here? i know you've seen my work on my truck, i've bought 16 gallons of resin in the last 2 months, i know what i'm talking about.

 

[icu400]

he described nearly what the guy at the shop said, but in a lot more detail

its not just that he agreed with me, but what I have seen is that the matt is for molding the resin to create a form out of fiberglass, as hydrox pointed out, you can't mold a liquid....

but I would also point out that he mentioned adding a piece of matting to the resin in the box to add strength, that is probably what I will do

I am sorry if I am skepticle of the fact that the resin is flexible when it hardens, its not that I doubt your experience or anything, it is just hard for me to believe...

and I would also point out that I advised using 3/4 on this box, but he got 1/2 instead, i am trying to make the best out of a bad situation, if you will, and it turns out he has access to some resin from a construction site that a friend of his works at, so it won't be too expensive (or i would tell him to screw it since it seems complicated and just get some 3/4)

sorry if I pissed you off ex

but for the last time, how is that a piece of mat (really just plastic or thin paterial fibers unless I miss my guess) makes something suddeenly super strong? this is not something that is easily grasped by me i am sad to say. Hopefully this makes sense, just don't take me the wrong way please.

 

[Cartman]

Take a look at paper mache - none of the components are strong but when mixed and allowed to dry them become hard, same with some normal white glue, put a bead of it on some plastic wrap and it will remain flexible, put a bead of the glue onto some cloth (or anything that will absorb it) and the result is a hard substance.

 

[Glowin97x]

its the interwoven fibers of fiberglass and carbon fiber that give it its strenght. Also why resin on a tshirt or fleece works

 

[RFR2212]

Okay, how do they make concrete roads stronger? They add rebar and wire mat, similar to huge chicken wire... What happens when you add all that? The road is much stronger! Without it, it can't withstand nearly as much of a load. Is it such a big deal to whine over? Go buy some fiberglass mat material at the local auto parts store as a package costs less than 5 bucks and be done with it. It's the right way to do it, and it costs very little. On top of that, don't use nails, simple as that. They don't work. Use screws.

 

[icu400]

alright, explained that way, it does make sense

i am gonna go with him to get the catalyst (he only has the bucket of resin, no stuff to add to it) and I will make him to get some mat

so you only have 5 minutes before it starts getting hard? doesn't seem like very long to coat a bit of material and put it into a box....any tricks here? poor some resin in the box, lay the mat down, and then coat the mat with resin? then it should absorb from both sides, right?

and as far as nails...I hope I never said I was using them, i might have mentioned that I can use a hammer or something as opposed to my friend, but I have stopped using any form of nails or flat head screws as much as a year and a half ago, I prefer star screws over philips, but I could not find any star drywall screws at home depot a few weeks ago, so I went with philips

thanks, peace

 

[mhn3773]

whats wrong with philips???

its a sub box..not a bmw it doesnt need to have fancy bells lol

 

[icu400]

philips screws have a bad tendency to get stripped, especially when used with a power driver, stars do not, trust me, you would know that if you had built as many doors/windows/platforms and other pieces of set furniture as I have

 

[hydroxy]

Ok, I just poured the rest of my resin into a makeshift bowl out of tin foil. Made about a 1/4" pool. I put a 1.5x2 inch piece of cloth on one side, nothing on the other. Broke the piece in half where the cloth piece stopped.

I'm not making any claims, but the picture with my hand in it, I was trying as hard as I could to bend it, and it didn't give in hardly at all.

Edit: for all of you who dont live in the North, east coast - those are Cicadas and there are millions of them everywhere... I dont just have a buncha bugs around my basement door.

 

[mhn3773]

philips screws have a bad tendency to get stripped, especially when used with a power driver, stars do not, trust me, you would know that if you had built as many doors/windows/platforms and other pieces of set furniture as I have

i have used probably 15lbs od coarse thread 1 1/2" dry wall screws in the various boxs i have built and have NEVER had a problem with them stripping..and i use a 19v cordless craftsman drill i do however replace the philips heads when they look a bit warn so they dont destroy the screw head

the only place i could see using a star type screw head is on the sub itself since u wouldnt have the chance of slipping and hitting the cone

 

[expo5.0]

i would highly recommend using star or square head screws exclusively

 

[miken]

A sheet of 3/4" MDF was less than $20 last I checked. A gallon of resin was $30. So why go to the trouble of messing with resin and having an inferior strength box when buying 3/4" would be cheaper than trying to fix his mistake of buying the wrong wood? It's not going to save much space in the first place, and if he adds resin it will be even less. Even if he was going to use mat inside the box, fiberglass isn't very strong when it's flat. I think a good strong box with a small amount less air space would sound better than the slightly larger box that flexes.

 

[icu400]

i have used probably 15lbs od coarse thread 1 1/2" dry wall screws in the various boxs i have built and have NEVER had a problem with them stripping..and i use a 19v cordless craftsman drill i do however replace the philips heads when they look a bit warn so they dont destroy the screw head

the only place i could see using a star type screw head is on the sub itself since u wouldnt have the chance of slipping and hitting the cone

if this is the case, consider yourself lucky, however mdf is a lot softer material than the hard wood I usually deal with, infact mdf is virtually paper, so that probably has something to do with your good fortune