Phoenix Gold Phorum

As some of you know, i wanted to buy some polyester resin, but all the damn local shops were asking crazy prices. I found a crazy shop in Montreal, and bought all of this :


5 Gallon of Polyester Resin


Couldn't resist buy some accessories!


3M Mask, to save thoses lungs, with an extra pack of filter and pre-filter


Graduated cups, so my girlfriend will stop killing me everytime i'm using her tupperware :p


A roller, some 1oz woven, and hardener that came in with the resin


Acetone, a must! And the brown package contain some 1oz mats, something like 2m x 1m, more than enough for now!

Total price : 330$ CAD

The protective mask and recharges is what cost me the most, appart from the resin, but if i start doing alot of fiberglass, i think it's a good investissment. My first project if to fix my subwoofer enclose, then i'll make another one for the other side of my trunk, and i'm planning on making a pillar pod to install my voltmeter

You should put those filters in a sealed bag or bucket when your not using them. The charcoal filters have roughly a 40-80 hour shelf life to exposed air. Also the "pre-filters" (particulate) has roughly 10-20 hours. I believe 3m says up to 30 days or something like that for the charcoal. The particulates, obviously would last longer then that if your not grinding/sanding much.

Thanks for the input! So i guess i'm gonna put the mask into a big ziploc bag each time i'm finished with it, unless you have a better trick

A heavy ziploc bag should be fine. You could probably find a bucket at your local home improvement store with a lid that seals (look for a gasket or rubber seal around the lid). But a ziploc bag should work fine, besides all you really need to seal is the filters. You can take those off and put them in the bag.

Another tip, clean it after your done using it and put it away, don't wait to clean it the next time you use it. I've also heard that rubbing alcohol can break down the rubber on the mask. I've never had any issues with using alcohol, but typically I've always used soap and warm water.

Oh and if you do seal up the mask in a bag/bucket make sure its dry before you store it away.

Thanks!

Also, is there any other accessories you're using that are worth buying?

They make respirator cleaning wipes for them, but they aren't worth it, but some of them have a nice smell to them.

Tape and plastic are definitely worth buying, and some gloves. If your doing heavy sanding on the glass, it would be a good idea to have long sleeves, or put some baby powder on exposed skin, unless you don't have any issues with glass irritation. If your roller gets "kicked off" or cured with resin, don't throw it away, 10 minutes with a propane torch can fix that.

Also I edited my previous post, not sure if you saw.

Yep, thanks for all of this!

Gloves, plastic and tape are already there, but didn't included them in the picture since it was not new stock. I used to work in a fiberglass place, as a lamineur (guy shot chopped mat and resin on a mold, and lamineur are the ones rolling them with roller). Nice trick for the roller tho, if i ever forget to put it in acetone!

And yeah, baby powder is a life saver, when sanding or cutting with a grinder

Its not as bad as some people seem to think. What did you used to make?

Biofilter

Basicly, a big reservoir that holds up everything that's going out of the toilet in places where there is no aqueduc services, like houses in the wood.

We were also doing waterslide pannel, but thoses were only like 6 months a year.

So basically a port o potty? Was it just the shell, or for the "contents"? Did you have any injection modling or infusion molds?

Honestly one of the funniest job i had, but we didn't had mask in there, and ventilation motors were almost always jammed due to bad maintenance. So styrene was killing me, i was always sleepy, ended up quitting, but would go back anytime if the ventilation was working, especially now that i have a mask!

I'd say the only shitty part of the job is when you have to get the bottom of the drum, so you get like 1qt and you're all messy, or when the guy shooting the chopping mat forget to adjust his catalyst pin, and you have to roll like hell before the fiberglass set

lol, do you know what type of resin you had?

jbob0124 wrote:So basically a port o potty? Was it just the shell, or for the "contents"? Did you have any injection modling or infusion molds?

Just the shell. It was basicly a big mold, we putted some wax on it, chop it, roll it, then there was hydraulic piston on the mold that you shot on air, the piece come out, take a lift to remove it, and the next department was installing vents on it.

Everything was chopped, no injection or nothing. You had to check the shooting guy, if he had too much beer last night you could end up getting sprayed real bad, since the mold was pretty big and he didn't see you everytime :p

Plus the resin was green, you can imagine what we looked like after one day of work :p

Can't say about resin type, i could try to ask one of the guy i used to work with, maybe he know. The provider was a compagny called Progress

Yeah, most fiberglass places don't enforce alot of rules that should be in place, such as requiring masks...Im assuming by the "green resin" you were using clear catalyst.

Catalyst was clear yeah, and it came in box of 4. Looks like a bleach container, but transparent. I remember the guy had to adjust the machine to shoot everyday depending on the temperature, he had to put a resin heater on or off, and he had some kind of pin to set the level of catalyst to send to the mix, and thoses damn chopping mat were jamming all the time

I know what your talking about, thats what I do for a living. Well, not the port o potty part, but fiberglass part.

That's great!

Just to know, if it's not too personal, how much an hour are you paid in US? Here, with no experience, i started at 12$ when the minimum salary was like 8$, but i've seen people at 15$ at the shop i was, dunno if it's good salary or if we were all ripped off. 12$ was great at the time, with my gf we were able to make a pretty nice salary to make a good living.

Where I work its roughly $11-20 an hour depending on how long you've been there and your performance. Someone new starting with no experience would make the same as someone new who had experience. Although the person with experience would advance much quicker provided he performed well.

Ok so it's basicly about the same...

Still a pretty nice job! I'm looking forward to find another shop to work in my local region

Its fun, if you think about it, you take 2 chemicals mix them with glass and you make a product. Your creating something, not simply taking something out of a box and assembling it. Thats just my view on it.

Yep and most of the time you're making something unique, cuz yeah there may be lots of similar products, but none of them is the same!