Panty hose glassing???

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peestick

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Anyone ever use panty hose to glass a tube? I'm curious how well it works especially sanded.
 
No clue.

Nothing holds up well to sanding. If you sand into the fabric you weaken it. Usually you fill in the weave and sand the filler.

Socks of fiberglass / Kelvar / Carbon fiber are used to slip over a tube. https://www.sollercomposites.com/ sells quite a selection.
 
Panty hose has been used like that for years, but it's a very poor substitute for glass fiber. Fiberglass has been treated to make epoxy wet out well. Also, fiberglass bonds very well to epoxy. Nylon does not, so although it's possible to embed nylon in epoxy, it's nowhere near as strong as a glass and epoxy composite.


[emoji1010] Steve Shannon, L3CC [emoji1010]
 
What do you mean by using it to glass a tube? Using it to hold fiberglass in place, or using it as the structure itself?

I cannot imagine the latter does much other than add weight.
 
Buy fiberglass sleeving; works better with improved results.
I knew some who have use pantyhose for this but, they won't stand up to some of the chemicals that you use to prep with.

JD
 
Thanks for the input. I'm trying to avoid the hassle of rolling a 3" tube in glass. I'm working with an Estes tube which is thicker than their regular stuff trying to make it strong enough to handle H-I motors. The idea of using a sock like panty hose would sure make it easy. I originally considered using a Kevlar sock then putting the panty hose over it to get a smaller more sandable weave.
 
Thanks for the input. I'm trying to avoid the hassle of rolling a 3" tube in glass. I'm working with an Estes tube which is thicker than their regular stuff trying to make it strong enough to handle H-I motors. The idea of using a sock like panty hose would sure make it easy. I originally considered using a Kevlar sock then putting the panty hose over it to get a smaller more sandable weave.

The three inch Estes tubes I have are ruined after a moderate ejection charges or a shear pin, but I fly H motors with it all the time without issue.
 
We used some Kevlar sock material to reinforce a 4" MMT. It worked really well and was quite easy - I did it in a 45 minute session with five middle-school girls.

We built a sort of homemade "lathe" out of some scrap plywood and a 1/4" SS rod. I cut some bulkhead plates out of more scrap plywood and stuck the rod through the pilot holes. We hand turned the setup to wet the cloth (Aeropoxy laminating resin). We then wrapped it with a layer of baking parchment. Finally we wrapped the whole thing with a tightly stretched layer of electrical tape to squeeze out excess resin.

After it cured we chucked the rod into a cordless drill. While one kid ran the drill another used a palm sander - we had the 16" piece of tube sanded smooth in a few minutes!
 
Can't believe no one has linked to this yet: https://giantleaprocketry.com/products/components_composites.aspx#Easy-Glas_Sock

The answer to a minimal sanding job is to wrap it in mylar or any of the other paper products people use, see videos below:

[video=youtube;_gTxwEVK6IY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gTxwEVK6IY[/video]

[video=youtube;bjZNyXsd8gw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjZNyXsd8gw[/video]
 
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Glassing is too fun to take shortcuts.
The joy of working with the lightweight stuff that I use is that you can simply apply an even coat of epoxy to the tube, and it will absorb fully into the cloth, meaning relatively little filling or sanding, and no need to distort/screw up the weave pattern by "Wetting out".
I pretty much use John Cokers method, but on a smaller scale. His tips about the plugs in the ends of the tubes and using the Teflon tape work awesome!!!!
 
I used Johns method to do a 29mm tube. It worked great but I would have to buy couplers and extra 3" tube and I was trying to avoid the extra expense. I will probably end up going that route.
 
Rick Boyette has a method called quasi-glass which uses panty hose that is used on a tube with polycrylic. Then some lightweight filler then a coat or two of laminating epoxy. It works well. Is lightweight. Adds some strength. And with minimal sanding you can get a really nice smooth surface. I have used this method many times and with those Estes tubes you speak of and it holds up really well. I know of level 3 projects that have used the same method and have held up.
 
Another thought is to soak the heck out of the inside of the tube with Minwax sanding sealer. Mike Fisher of Binder Design swears by it as 'poor man's phenolic'. I've tried it and become a convert to it as a step between bare tube and glassing cardboard.

As an aside, I punch my un-reinforced Leviathan with CTI H's all the time, no issues.
 
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Another thought is to soak the heck out of the inside of the tube with Minwax sanding sealer. Mike Fisher of Binder Design swears by it as 'poor man's phenolic'. I've tried it and become a convert to it as a step between bare tube and glassing cardboard.

I always saturate the inside of tubes with either super thin CA or finishing epoxy. I don't want BP residue drawing moisture into the bare un-treated cardboard.
That was the death of many of my rockets when I was a kid. They would be great for sometimes as many as 50+ flights, then all of the sudden the tube would turn to mush from the BP ejecta drawing moisture into the inner wall.
All inner wall surfaces are now sealed. No more soggy rockets.
 
When I first heard about 'pseudo glassing' with pantyhose and Minwax Polycrylic, I gave it a try. I applied it over Estes BT-80 tubing. It does make the tubing a lot tougher, but can not be compared to fiberglass and epoxy. One thing that impressed me is how well it held up to water. It dropped in the middle of a large pond. As I was searching for a rowboat, I noticed the wind was pushing it to shore. It was obviously full of water but to my amazement, it air dried and showed no lasting ill effects. The motor tube was Giant Leap phenolic, so it was good too.
 
I tried it exactly one time not to strengthen so much but as a way of creating a uniform surface which should have been easy to finish. What a nightmare. So unless you enjoy stepping on rusty nails, banging digits with a hammer or listening to Kayne West then I would not recommend this method.
 
It was slow to finish but the result was a smooth as plastic. Maybe because it was essentially that. Water resistant or not I recommend everyone try it exactly once. I happened to have both components readily available.
 
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Anyone ever use panty hose to glass a tube? I'm curious how well it works especially sanded.


Rick Boyette had an article out there called Quasi-Glass doing the precise thing you mention: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...ioiV9W7R4jJK-7j0klFhuw&bvm=bv.119745492,d.amc

If one wants to add a little strength to a modroc or MPR it's ok but there is a weight penalty. Going with HPR it's best to use a standard fiberglass cloth and laminating epoxy. I've tried it and it helps a bit on longevity for rocket resilence but I haven't used it in years due to the fact I moved on to larger sized rockets.
Kurt
 
Rick Boyette had an article out there called Quasi-Glass doing the precise thing you mention: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...ioiV9W7R4jJK-7j0klFhuw&bvm=bv.119745492,d.amc

If one wants to add a little strength to a modroc or MPR it's ok but there is a weight penalty. Going with HPR it's best to use a standard fiberglass cloth and laminating epoxy. I've tried it and it helps a bit on longevity for rocket resilence but I haven't used it in years due to the fact I moved on to larger sized rockets.
Kurt

Its a good chance that was what I referenced.
 
Anyone ever use peanut butter for fillets? Just curious how that worked out.
 
As I contemplate, I realize my fillets would be horrendous as I like chunky peanut butter. :sigh:
 
I couldn't find "extra chunky Jiffy" under the finish options in OR to get a proper sim. You may need to throw cavecentral's squirrels in a vice and have them grind down a decent radius.
 
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