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Old 10-22-2013, 07:27 PM   #4 (permalink)
redpoint5
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I'm throwing in the towel.

On the first attempt, my concrete friend tried to wet lay the fiberglass directly on the porcelain with no mold release. The mold was a bit stubborn coming out, but the basic shape was there, although way too flimsy with just a single layer. There were a few air pockets, mostly around the corners, that did not lay flush with the contour of the sink.

After an hour of scraping the old resin out with a razor blade, I prepped the sink with carnauba wax and applied a layer of PVA. The PVA seemed to bead up and pool in the bottom of the sink, despite trying to put as thin a layer as possible on. The green stuff in the sink of the picture above is the pooled PVA. It doesn't create an even coat.

My second attempt at fiberglassing was again a wet lay. Again, we attempted to lay the fiberglass in a continuous piece, cutting a relief where extra material formed. The problem with wet laying is that the fiberglass strongly adheres to any surface it comes in contact with. Once that happens, pressing the fiberglass into the contours and corners becomes impossible.

I'm thinking the correct way to do this is to lay the fiberglass in strips, just a small section at a time. With just 8 min to work with the resin, you can't do large areas fast enough.

I'll take the sink to a fiberglass shop and see how much they would charge to make a mold. If it's more than $100, then I'll just buy an undermount stainless steel sink and give up the idea of having a 1 piece countertop/sink.
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