Fibreglass

One of our customers lives at Rugby, there arecplans to build 3000+ homes on the site.

Ultrasound works well for water, usually effective up to surprisingly long distances.

Peter

Worked with a guy a good few years ago that had previously worked at the Rugby site. Apparently, there was sufficient RF flying around that it was impossible to turn off fluorescent lights - with no mains supply they would continue to glow....

Regards, Tony

That's another 6,000 cars

-- Regards,

John Stevenson Nottingham, England.

If it was Wilmslow it would be 9000 cars!

Ian Phillips

I can testify to that, I had a tour round there when I were a lad (Born & brought up in Rugby), they had a couple of fluorescent tubes just lying about -presumably just to impress the visitors - no fittings, no wiring, & they were permanently lit!

Cheers Tim

Thanks for all the posts.

One more question, when I'm painting it will i have to use a primer?

What about ABL Stevens? The link is ... let me see...

that answers that question. Seemed like a good deal to me.

My previous experience with Epoxy was Araldite, and some alternative supplied for modelling, both of which are quite thick, viscous stuff.

Epoxy (from the folks above) was quite liquid by comparison, and didn't want to stay where I put it on a vertical surface. Which doesn't normally matter, but ... don't ask.

Any hints on thickening it up while still allowing it to set clear (not cloudy)?

Also it stays runny for about 20 minutes or so, then gets warm and (if allowed to get hot) sets quite suddenly in the pot. Keeping the pot in a cold water bath seems to help extend its working life a bit, and it thickens more gradually.

- Brian

Yes, cheap and cheerful, and it works.

Just that if you are only using a small quantity like for a model, and you are putting a lot of effort into it, then it's better to use something like West systems from CRS

or Ampreg22 from SP uk . It costs more, but it's worth while under those circumstances.

Sure, if you are building a canal boat you should use the cheapest reprocessed polyester resin that works, because you will save real money and having a not-so-good resin won't matter - but not for a model.

Ah, how things have changed. The difference between Araldite and a good fresh modern thicker glue-type epoxy such as the NHP range is huge. There are some other good ones about, but I use NHP Epoxy30 for glue, which works great.

Epoxy bought from ABL-S would probably be a laminating epoxy, which has to be thin so it can get into all the spaces in the cloth.

West systems is a general purpose epoxy - the stuff you normally get is thin too, so it is suitable for laminating, but you can add other stuff to it to change it's properties - make it into gelcoat, paint, varnish or glue, thicken it (see below), change it's density, strength, pot life, sandability, UV stability, and so on.

Ampreg 22 is a laminating epoxy, but SP do all sorts of epoxies. No kidding, there are a whole lot of them, download the pricelist from the link above and have a look. SP epoxies tend to be made for a single purpose, whereas West only make one actual epoxy resin afaik, but they sell a lot of additives, fillers, different purpose catalysts, and so on.

If you are using a laminating or general purpose epoxy resin the normal method is to thicken it with colloidal or fumed silica. Cab-o-sil is one common brand.

It won't normally affect the transparency unless you are using one of the really water clear resins, when it might and you should ask before you buy to make sure. Give it a trial before use too though.

Hot epoxy sets faster than cold epoxy, and epoxy gives off heat when it sets

- which makes it hotter, so it sets faster, and gives off more heat faster, which ...

When you have had a pot of epoxy get so hot in your hand that it chars and gives off black smoke, all in a hurry - well, you won't forget it. Scary.

Many people recommend that you use a tray rather than a pot to let any heat buildup disperse. As well as only mixing limited amounts at once.

The other thing about epoxy is that you have to be careful when applying more than one layer, it can fail to stick or "fish-eye" (make round holes in the outer layer) if you leave it too long between layers/coats. Read the instructions.

And of course it sticks to everything ...

-- Peter Fairbrother

The new moon is shining the angels are washing their windows Above the year whose jumble sale goes spinning on below

Eight of the big ones (820 ft) were demolished in June this year ago. Apparently it was planned to do it at about 22:00 to avoid accidents due to 'rubber necking' on the M1, but a fox disturbed the wiring to the demolition charges on one of the towers, so the job was a few hours late :-(.

It has changed the skyline around Rugby significantly. That and the replacement of the concrete Cement Factory chimney with a metal one almost cause me to get lost when driving home.

Mark Rand (not brought up in Rugby, but lived here for 28 years) RTFM