What's is the strongest fiberglass fabric? | Boating Forum

Re: What's is the strongest fiberglass fabric?

Woven roving is not all that strong versus other arrangements of fabric . . . the 'stitched' fabrics (like "") tend to be stronger because of the multiple direction of strand orientation and the fiber density.

For your localized repair, I do not think that strength is going to be all that important . . . bonding may be the more important factor. Re: What's is the strongest fiberglass fabric?

Strongest .....depends on what was used to bond it. Standard fiberglass resin is adequate for any part of the boat however, epoxy resin is MUCH stronger when used.

What are you making? Repairing? Re: What's is the strongest fiberglass fabric?

I plan on using west systems epoxy. It's for a section of the stern where there used to be 1/2" balsa coring. I'd like to remove it all and build up a few layers of glass instead to eliminate any wood in there. Re: What's is the strongest fiberglass fabric?

I plan on using west systems epoxy. It's for a section of the stern where there used to be 1/2" balsa coring. I'd like to remove it all and build up a few layers of glass instead to eliminate any wood in there.

I personally would recore with balsa like the rest of your hull. it worked for 25 years. building up 5/8" thick fiberglass is just heavy and expensive.

also, I would stick with poly because you will probably want to gel coat the repair, and the west system is just really expensive. Re: What's is the strongest fiberglass fabric?

Coring requires more work materials and ideally vacuum bagging. I only have to build up 3/16 of fiberglass and resin. I already have the epoxy. Just need some suggestions on the cloth. I need a bi-directional cloth to transfer load at 0-90. What fabric arrangement would be best? does matt have to go in between layers? Gelcoating is non issue since this is internal work. This is the only balsa in the boat aside from the deck above the cuddy. I'd like to use some forethought and engineering to do a different repair from original and eliminate the wood. Re: What's is the strongest fiberglass fabric?

If your using epoxy (which I know very little about)you shouldn't use standard CSM, or called just mat by some. The epoxy resin will not dissolve the styrene soluble binder (often a chrome silane type) that holds the short chopped bundles of glass together. You need to find and use materials that will work with epoxy. Not against epoxy's by any means but it does limit your choices of reinforcing materials quite a bit compared to a resin that has styrene in it. So your question "what's the strongest" is a bit harder to answer. Re: What's is the strongest fiberglass fabric?

How did you come up with the 3/16th thickness?

No need for mat.

Building a solid laminate with epoxy to replace the core won't require the strongest glass you can buy, any knitted or woven fabric will do the job. Re: What's is the strongest fiberglass fabric?

I have Dave Gerrs book Elements of boat design n crunched a few numbers for a solid layup vs coring. It'll be a lot easier to build up abit of localized laminate vs recording it at least I think Re: What's is the strongest fiberglass fabric?

So what are you going to do about the wet transom? Are there any mechanical fasteners or attachments on the stern of the boat that penetrate thru the stern where these repairs are going to be made? With glass repair, there are times when bulk is important.