I am thinking of making a camera out of fiberglass. I can paint it black afterwards, but why not try to make the fiberglass opaque from the start? Do you think that I could mix in carbon black?
I am thinking of making a camera out of fiberglass. I can paint it black afterwards, but why not try to make the fiberglass opaque from the start? Do you think that I could mix in carbon black?
Science is what we understand well enough to explain to a computer. Art is everything else we do.
--A=B by Petkovšek et. al.
West marine should have something, think gel-coat on the outer layer of a boat hull.
Your project seems small enough to try different approaches without having too much money tied up in each experiment.
It seems to me that your choices are:
Pigment in the body of the lay-up, probably in the resin.
Black Gel Coat.
Black Paint over all of it, inside and out.
Drew Bedo
www.quietlightphoto.com
http://www.artsyhome.com/author/drew-bedo
There are only three types of mounting flanges; too big, too small and wrong thread!
Can one buy black pigment at art stores?
I worried that something that mixes in homogeneously might kill the fiberglass resin. My though was that carbon black would be more of a filler.
Science is what we understand well enough to explain to a computer. Art is everything else we do.
--A=B by Petkovšek et. al.
Carbon black as a dry powder will work, you would need a huge amount of it as filler and ultimately the
resin will be brittle or soft. There are polyester resin compatible pigments available
they're also compatible with epoxy resins, check large auto parts stores like auto zone or pep boys
for resin pigments, plastic stores may have them too, all the aforementioned are in small tubes
or squeeze bottles. You don't need a lot to tint resin. You can also try Fibreglast, Jamestown Distributors
for pigments also. Dick Blick may have it too, for use in small resin encapsulating projects.
You can also use carbon fiber cloth instead of white fiberglass cloth to help the opaquing process. I tinted/colored the epoxy resin for my sink build, use the manufacturers tints and observe the maximum concentration guidelines to avoid compromising the resin.
You may also consider trying to embed other thin opaque layers within the layup. Black paper, Black matboard, etc.
For fiberglass auto bodies we use gelcoat which is applied in the mold. It is durable and of all sorts of colors including black.Originally Posted by BetterSense
Fiberglass is hell to work with. Why not just use fiber-reinforced black phenolic (Garolite), which machines easily; of if extreme light weight is the priority, opaque carbon fiber. But whatever. I've sure had my share of stinky resins.
How about black plexi-glass - I used to work with plex-iglass in design projects. I will crack if you drop it but you can cut it with a table saw and drill it etc.
Plexi is relatively heavy and not truly opaque. Black ABS can be used but will also crack. There are lot better plastics out there if one insists on that route.
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