Fiberglas Panels

I cut the corrugated fiberglass panels for a sandbox cover some years ago with a fine-toothed blade in a hand jigsaw (reciprocating saw). No splintering, just a slight fuzz at the cut, which sands off very easily.

-- Ed Huntress

I use an automatic washer outer case over the A/C condenser unit all winter and over the snow blower all summer. Gerry :-)} London, Canada

First why use the fiber glass panels? They don't hold up well to the sun, they won't protect the mower as well as sheet metal would, and they're more expensive than sheet metal.

Now on to the question. It might surprise you but the best way I've found to cut fiberglass panels is with a pair of old fashion tinners snips. They do need to be fairly sharp but they're go right through without much fuss.

If you do decide to use a saw be darn sure to use a respirator. The worst thing I've ever done to my lungs was cutting up some fiberglass panels with a saw.

Wayne Cook Shamrock, TX

If you insist use a circular saw with a new SHARP carbide tipped blade w/lots of teeth

Wear long sleeve's and a sand blaster's hood if possible. Put on coveralls and duct tape your gloves on. Make sure you have a respirator.

Be ready to itch like crazy for a few days...

Oh yes, do it outside somewhere or in a neighbor's garage. Choose a neighbor you don't like or don't want to be friendly with any more.

"Grady"

Use polycarbonate panels and skip the misery.

that takes the fun out of it!

Went to the local Home Depot, and they did not even have fiberglas panels. It was either PVC or polycarbonate. and 8 foot long sheet of pvc was like 10 buck, the polycarb was double that. Think I will find a different method for my madness now.

"Blue Skies" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@golden.net... | If you insist use a circular saw with a new SHARP carbide tipped blade | w/lots of teeth | | Wear long sleeve's and a sand blaster's hood if possible. Put on coveralls | and duct tape your gloves on. Make sure you have a respirator. | | Be ready to itch like crazy for a few days... | | Oh yes, do it outside somewhere or in a neighbor's garage. Choose a | neighbor you don't like or don't want to be friendly with any more.

If you look at the panel you'll see a smooth side and a rough side, usually. The rough side is the side where you can see the most fibers. Tape up the smooth side where your cut will be and turn the panel rough side down. This way the saw teeth will cut "into" the rough side and the tape will help keep the fuzz to a minimum. The heavier the tape the better. A couple-three layers of masking tape ought to do the trick. If you can, get an old vacuum cleaner with a new bag and connect it to the outlet of your circular saw. You don't have to make it a perfect seal, but what you can do. Put the vacuum far away from you. If you can, gather all your household fans together and blow the extra dust away from you, toward that annoying neighbor. Dampen the yard just a bit to keep the dust from flying around and hose it down again when you're done to keep it out of the air the second time. If you have problems with the panel vibrating like crazy, put bags of dirt or something here and there to dampen/stop the vibration, which tends to make the edges even rougher. Anything you can do to keep the fibers from making contact with your skin is good. Painters' (tyvek) suits are cheap, and good. Have someone that loves you tape up _every_ extra opening except what your breathe through. You can either sweat from the heat, or itch from the fibers. Your call, unless you can provide some cooling air. Don't even think of using air from your compressor to breathe from! You might be able to make some flaps on your back to help air go in and out. Any kind of woven material will attract and hold the fibers, which are too small to see. Up here in the Pacific Northwest it's always cool and wet, which is actually a good condition to create that kind of dust.