In using a reciprocal saw to cut into fiberglass (forthcoming winter project) do I want to use a blade marked "wood-clean scroll" or one marked "metal-medium" or does it make any difference?
I'll be using a 'made in china' Chicago Electric rated at 2650spm....Is that adequate?
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a "fine" toothed blade will work fine, don't "push" the saw, let the blade do the work.
wear gloves, a long sleeved t-shirt and a dust mask!
if you're cutting a surface that is seen (outside of car, dash, like that) cover the cut-line with a piece of masking tape which will protect the surrounding area from saw-base scratches. The tape will also prevent some surface splintering from happening.
if your cut starts in the middle of an area, not at an edge, drill a hole large enough for the blade of your jigsaw to fit into, then start your cut from there.
...and pants...
Carl,
Do yourself a health favor don't use a cheap painters paper rubber - band mask, use a replaceable filter type mask they a reasonable at around $20. . Fiberglass ingested into the lungs is dangerous in any quantity, wear clear eye goggles . If you have a fan you can run to move clean air utilize that also. Same cautions apply for rattle can paint and contact cement exposure.
Now you're starting to sound like my mother.....
But it's all good info, Carl, so listen to these guys and do what they say.
On the recip saw blade, go for the smallest teeth and the most of them - 18 teeth per inch or more, for metal or wood (but I think you;ll find that blades for metal will have smaller teeth) - and then, if possible, run the blade at a medium/low speed with gentle pressure as Will said. If it's a single speed saw, just push very slowly on the blade with very low pressure.
Dremel cut-off wheels work well, too, as do small metal rasps in either a Dremel or hand drill, but they'll all make a fair amount of fiberglass dust so that replaceable-filter dust mask becomes more important. Remember someone you know on oxygen before you start. Doesn't matter how he/she got there, just that they have so much trouble breathing and YOU don't want to be like that from Fiberglass dust.
Good luck with your cutting.
Hey, many thanks for the tips on the 'characteristics' of the blade...speed and pressure of the drill; and I never would have thought of cutting through masking tape for a cleaner slice. Now I won't tackle the project like an ignorant bull in a china-shop. My lungs will thank you too, for I thought a 'painter's mask' was adequate.
Since minimum pressure...slow and easy...is the way to go I may now consider a more maneuverable single-handed Dremel / cut-off wheel...and maybe a small rasp for the tight radius corners. It's comforting to 'look a project in the face' with the assurance that all bases are covered...and that I can pull it off.
If Rich Derwek has the patience to successfully coach me in how to add photos to my postings I'll provide you guys with before and after images of Carey Hines unique, bodacious, and snarly louvers spliced into my engine lid.....and maybe, just maybe, the elimination of that visually irritating front wheel 'gap' on my VS.
Fiberglass cuts pretty easy and pretty clean whether with a jigsaw, hacksaw, cutoff wheel, Rotozip/Dremel, etc. About the only thing I do not recommend is an ax.
It will be stinky and dusty though. Especially with the rotary tools.
You can pull it off.
BTW, what are you doing?
Will Hesch posted:...and pants...
Why pants? 
craig posted:Will Hesch posted:...and pants...
Why pants?
To keep the fiberglass dust off your legs.
...off your willy!
Carl,
Are you replacing the entire outer skin of your engine lid? I have done that and it's fairly easy. I used one of Carey's louvered skins and bonded it to my inner lid. I used a 18 tooth blade and cut thru the edge, around the perimeter of the lid. You don't have to be extremely accurate because you will fill this area with bonding material. Make sure you get the skin aligned with the inner lid in all three directions, left, right and elevation.
After bonding, I wrapped a layer of fiberglass cloth and resin around the edge. Then I filled voids and leveled with kitty hair. I used Evercoat brand fillers, it's a very good product.
Cover all skin on your body! Use baby powder all over then cover up...trust me!
JEEZ!!!....You people are a treasure-chest of information and advice that I would never have thought of. Like bright sunshine breaking through the clouds of ignorance!
James, perhaps you've just simplified my life by uncomplicating my priority Winter project. My louvered engine lid skin, identical to yours, is also from Carey. Later today I'll be composing a PM to you with (in depth?) technical questions concerning what you've done....and what I intend to do.
Totally agree with Ed - Working with fiberglass is pretty straight forward, just take your time. The worst job is drilling a hole through brittle gel coat so if you do, use a new or known-sharp drill run low speed and apply VERY little pressure until you're through the gel coat. Going too fast just generates too much heat and the gel tries to expand and then all hell breaks loose and you get a cracked divot around what should have been a clean hole.
Here's an ace fiberglass worker (me) making the holes for Lane's tail lights. Currently doing clean-up with a small file, but the holes were made with that hand drill on the floor, using a rotary rasp at moderate drill speed. The masking tape works well for holes, but I've never needed it with lines cut with a rasp. That's Karl Macklin rear left, and I think Wild Bill is under the car messing with suspension. I cleaned up the headlight bucket material with a Dremel and small rasp, free-hand.
"sharp and slow"....got it!
Oh, and Will, I never thought about NOT wearing pants...but now I'm thinking a rational addition would be one of those hard plastic 'gonad protectors' that football players wear
I drill in reverse first starting with smaller bit.
Also, grind the gel coat with a stone (cone shape) to get through the gel coat then drill.
My car is brittle and that has worked for me. Others results may vary!
Carl Berry CT. posted:"sharp and slow"....got it!
Oh, and Will, I never thought about NOT wearing pants...but now I'm thinking a rational addition would be one of those hard plastic 'gonad protectors' that football players wear
If you think you might lose control and "run into something" then I suppose a cup might help, but for most fiberglass work I think pants will suffice...
A pair of coveralls works best since there is no place to tuck in your shirt which gives the fiberglass a place to land and make it's way into your, dare I say, booty crack. And that sounds like it'd make a real bad itch. Put on the coveralls, use tape down the front to close the gap where the buttons or zipper is at and tape the cuffs; both hands and ankles.
This should do it:
And don't forget to put cotton in your ears!
crhemi (Bill) posted:And don't forget to put cotton in your ears!
Condom? Just in case you forget the pants?
Needs arm holes so you can reach the car.
And he's still got bare legs...
shorts and T-shirt.......common guys, Where have all the good men gone? And where are all the gods? Where's the streetwise Hercules to fight the rising odds?
Isn't there a white knight upon a fiery steed?
fine blade for steel works 100% and yes........mask a must. The rest.......eh.
The crew of SOC getting ready to drill a hole in a speedy.
Ingesting toxins i.e. airborne particulates, fumes etc. of any type and even minimal concentration end up in the bladder and kidney. Any medical professional will confirm and convey the consequences of than. Personally I have dealt with two related issues in the past and lucky I am still here and healthy.
I may monkey around with clothing when it comes to cutting fiberglass, but with a mask and eye wear, I don't screw around. I've always used 3M 8511 N95 masks, but without the removable filter as I use them for a day and then toss them away.
Of course, NONE of used any of that protective stuff when we were kids, young, dumb and "immortal".
Realized mortality has a way of slapping us up side the head - which gives us a modicum of "instant common sense" - that small basis of intelligent life.
flatfourfan posted:shorts and T-shirt.......common guys, Where have all the good men gone? And where are all the gods? Where's the streetwise Hercules to fight the rising odds?
Isn't there a white knight upon a fiery steed?fine blade for steel works 100% and yes........mask a must. The rest.......eh.
The crew of SOC getting ready to drill a hole in a speedy.
Now THAT was funny!
Guy on right with yellow suit, black gloves is definitely an SOC'er thinking about drilling a speedy. Look at the bulge in the front of his suit. 
Gordon, PERFECT call on the cartoon. I love it.
...classic SOC drift....
...where are we headed Scotty? Who knows, but Kirk's still sleeping off last night, let's just push the GO button and see where she takes us!
Hey, maybe IF as kids we'd been aware of, and protected from, air-born toxins of our super marvelous industrial age I wouldn't have just exceeded my statistically calculated 'allotted life span'. Simply not as robust as I remember once being, and sort of balancing at a 'tipping point' .....So I'll most certainly take advantage of this 'extended time' and mask-up like an astronaut when tackling my fiberglass projects.
Carl Berry CT. posted:Hey, maybe IF as kids we'd been aware of, and protected from, air-born toxins of our super marvelous industrial age I wouldn't have just exceeded my statistically calculated 'allotted life span'. Simply not as robust as I remember once being, and sort of balancing at a 'tipping point' .....So I'll most certainly take advantage of this 'extended time' and mask-up like an astronaut when tackling my fiberglass projects.
My second job out of college was working for Northrop Corp. making inertial guidance systems for, ummmmm........"stuff". We had a "Class 1" clean room (1 part per million of unknown stuff in the environment) because a piece of dust the size of a "mote" would instantly stop a gyroscope the size of your index finger or smaller. They were assembled in these clean rooms, and we all had to wear this outfit inside and go through this air shower going in and going out. The enter/exit process took no less than 15 minutes - often more):
I wish I had my iPod back then - Blasting "Grand Funk Railroad" or "Aerosmith" in that helmet would have been friggin awesome! No idea how I would have reached the volume control, tho......
Fixed and sanded many surfboards back in the day with board shorts and slippers...
I am bad about this and need to get better. I've been very lucky, so far.
edsnova posted:I am bad about this and need to get better. I've been very lucky, so far.
Are you sure we aren't related, Ed?
I've been visiting an osteopath for several years, getting really expensive quarterly blood-work, etc. to determine the root cause of myriad low-grade chronic problems.
We're getting down to it:
I've lived in the middle of heavily sprayed row crops my entire life. I've drunk water from largely untested wells or small-town water systems the entire time. I've taken exactly zero precautions with what I eat, breathe, or stick my hands into. I've sprayed myself and my homes with known carcinogens and toxins in an attempt to eradicate 6 and 8 leg "visitors" for the benefit of my wife.
I drank pots and pots of black coffee and gallons of aspartame-sweetened diet pop every day for 30 or more years. The net/net is that my endocrine system is in a fight for it's life.
My son wears gloves and a mask, hearing and eye protection. I'd like to say I've begun to consistently use them as well, but I still spray Round-Up on the construction site in shorts and flip-flops, etc.
I learned all this he-man, tough-guy, get-'r-done garbage from my dad-- you know the guy who has lived through 3 cancers. I'm pretty sure background (and foreground) chemicals are responsible for at least half of what has ailed me and probably more.
Harbor Freight sells nitrile gloves for about a dime a pair. Real respirators are 20 bucks.
I'm trying.
Being "lucky, so far"?... such a time-table calculation as 'so far' is relative.
Inhaling. ingesting, any unprotected exposure to 20th century toxins has an insidious long arm before health maladies become apparent. Dick Powell directed a four color robust outdoor feature film starring John Wayne and Susan Hayward. He was assured by the US government that it was 'safe' filming in the scenic desert downwind from what had been above ground atomic bomb testing....Duh!... Out of 200 crew and cast over 90 of them contracted some form of cancer. Some sooner, some later, but over 40 of them died, (Wayne, Hayward, Powell & many supporting actors) Most of them suffering horribly, and all of them before their 'statistical life expectancy' time-table was reached.
Now fiberglass dust may cause temporary itching on exposed skin, but for heaven's sake, keep it out of your lungs........Oh, and don't go hiking in the scenic desert south of St.George Utah.
Did you need Valium to wear that suit? I would have ... too claustophobic for me. No thank you.
The problem with the world is that it is full of stuff that will kill you. Some immediately, some over time. Some is unavoidable and some we bring on ourselves.
There is a choice at every turn, and you can't make the right one every time.
Thus says me, with a an uncanny grip on the obvious.
