Fiberglass mat or cloth on plywood tank with pond shield

Niners4952

Candiru
MFK Member
Jan 17, 2016
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I got the first coat of pond shield on my 600 plywood tanks and will be adding the fiberglass strips tomorrow. I watched Joeys video and he used cloth and it worked fine for him, I know on the pond shield videos they use the mat. I was going to use the cloth but others on here used the mat and feel its stronger. I would rather use the cloth as it will be easier and my structure is really solid and do for see any flexing, just wanted to get some input before I start
 

iamwilso

Feeder Fish
Apr 5, 2016
2
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I plan on using 5" fibreglass cloth on my build as i can get it from work cheaply and it is easy to work with, as for strentgh ive found the cloth to be sufficiently strong and have used it in many different applications.

Heres similar type of cloth that I will be using, nice and tightly woven just cut off the desired length, wet down the area, lay it in, more epoxy and roll

images-1.jpg
 

Niners4952

Candiru
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Jan 17, 2016
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Thanks for the reply that is what I am planning on doing hopefully later this afternoon
 

Homer Siped

Jack Dempsey
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Aug 30, 2015
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I glassed entire inside of mine, doubled all the corners, when I get home from work, going to give it a final sanding. I used pigment in the resin, didn't really get results I wanted, wish I had painted plywood then glassed over it. What are you going to use for your glass seal? I'm up in the air with this one, was thinking of rtv 108, read a bunch of forums and seems a lot of folks use this
 

Niners4952

Candiru
MFK Member
Jan 17, 2016
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Are you talking about the momentive brand rtv 108? I actually bought 10 tubes of that to glue together my 300 before I decided to build the plywood tank. I was hoping I could use that but haven't researched it yet
 

Homer Siped

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Aug 30, 2015
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Yea, I was thinking of that stuff, the posts I read say itsgot a stronger adhesion than regular silicone. I'm still doing some reading about it, not really something I want to have to redo lol. And recommended cure time is minimum of 2 weeks. Some use ge1 silicon as well, or aquarium sealant
 

Pharaoh

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I may be a bit late to the game, but I've seen both mat and cloth used. I personally like the additional woven strength of mat versus the blown glass cloth. Might not make too much of a difference as I haven't researched the strength comparisons, but I figure there's got to be a reason that woven mat is so commonly used in carbon fiber materials.
 

Niners4952

Candiru
MFK Member
Jan 17, 2016
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Yea, I was thinking of that stuff, the posts I read say itsgot a stronger adhesion than regular silicone. I'm still doing some reading about it, not really something I want to have to redo lol. And recommended cure time is minimum of 2 weeks. Some use ge1 silicon as well, or aquarium sealant
Im using pond shield do you think the 108 will work with that? I am going to sand it down first of course. I was wondering why more people don't use the 108 as its more of an adhesive, probably going to start a thread to make sure as I plan on installing the glass Monday
 

Homer Siped

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Aug 30, 2015
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Definitely going to be interested in others opinions on that. I'm doing my glass in 3 weeks so I have a little while. I've never dealt with pondshield, that dries solid right? Kinda like a rubber coating I'm guessing, read on a fourm that 3m5200 adheres better to rubber than the rtv does
 
Last edited:

flukekiller

Piranha
MFK Member
Aug 2, 2014
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pond shield gets hard as a rock,, im using it on my build and i like it so far...but then again i did not do an all plywood tank
 
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