Hey makers - got a call from someone wanting to know if we could make 4 ft tall 3D letters for a permanent outdoor installation, she was thinking fiberglass kind of like the different-patterened keeper statues you see around town. I told her we didn’t have that capability but we’d brainstorm and maybe find out who to ask. Any ideas?
could something like what this person wants be made on the shopbot in the woodshop? maje the fronts, sides and backs to the letter out of opaque plexiglass and then glue them? just a bone id toss out there…
thoughts?
Who said we can’t do this? Just because we don’t have a fiberglass letter area doesn’t mean we can’t do it.
They just need a basic mold, and apply the mats, dabbing the resin on. I googled diy fiberglass and found a YouTube video.
I’d do a thin first layer with color epoxy the backfill with normal stuff, but I’ve never done this. I’m sure with some googling and failures they will get what they need.
We really need more details to pick the best solution. But if it’s fiberglass they want, I’d think about using a simple hot wire cutter to cut out the foam core for the letters shapes and then cover with fiberglass cloth and resin.
Here’s an example of basic hot wire cutting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oOT-I7P12A.
But what would really be cool is to build a CNC version for cutting intricate shapes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdNOgjC4laE
Curt
Also, after fiberglassing the foam letters, if you want to you can dissolve the foam away with solvent, leaving just the fiberglass. To get super smooth finish you either have to sand before painting. Or you can create female molds first, which would be a lot of work.
I’ve do some small scale fiberglass fabrication and, you are right, it
could theoretically be done. It would, however, be a pretty large and
time consuming project and actually quite expensive. All of that would,
I suppose depend on the actual dimensions of the letters (not only
height, but also depth and width) and then how many letters and how many
of those letters are duplicates.
Another factor is that it would require the use of materials that we
might not really want floating around the makerspace without proper
facilities.
Steve
Would anyone like to be put in touch with the person who inquired about our capabilities here?
Unfortunately, I’m already overbooked. - Curt
Do we have the capacity to do vacuum forming of acrylic around a wood template? My other makerspace used and air hockey table…so we had a game and a vacuum forming tool.