willworship
Gold Member
- Joined
- Jul 19, 2009
- Messages
- 1,191
Well, I decided to try my hand at making some micarta last night, after watching a few YouTube vids. I thought I would share the experience, along with what I've learned. I apologize in advance for the blurry iPhone pics, but it was what I had on hand.
Here's what I started with: approximately 12" x 4" strips of tan and black denim and brown linen, stacked in the order I wanted them in the finished product (2 tan, 2 brown linen, 2 tan, 2 black, repeat until the end):
To do this, you use some form of resin. I used Bondo fiberglass resin:
To make the resin harden, it comes with a tube of hardener. I used less than required to make the hardening time slower, making work time longer. (I did approx 200 drops for 20oz. of resin. Next time I will do even less because I was hurried at the end).
Make sure to use something like these, because the junk gets hot, and it also doesn't feel too good if it gets on your skin.
DON'T use this stuff for the wrapping and base. It was completely stuck to the finished product. Use wax paper, as that is the only thing I have seen people use without too much sticking.
Here's the setup. I ended up bypassing the foil pan in the process.
For the actual process, I couldn't really take pictures very well with fiberglass resin all over my hands, so you'll have to take my word for it, or watch some of the vids on YouTube. Here's the rundown:
1. Lay one board down (larger than your strips of canvas/linen/denim/construction paper), and cover with a large sheet of wax paper (to keep the resin from sticking to the board). Flip your stack of material upside down, so you can just flip them over onto your wax paper, bottom piece first.
2. Lay your first strip of material face up on top of the wax paper.
3. Mix the resin and the hardener and stir thoroughly.
4. Pour some resin on the first strip of material, and with your gloved hands, spread it out and cover the material completely.
5. Lay the next strip on top of the first, smooth it out, and pour some more resin on top and spread thoroughly.
6. Repeat the process for each strip of material. Work quickly, because you only have about 10-15 minutes before the resin hardens and becomes unworkable. If you use linen, it doesn't require as much resin to soak it, so I was able to just lay the pieces out on the previous layer without adding much resin.
7. When you have laid your final piece down and soaked it with resin, wrap the wax paper around the stack to keep the resin contained.
8. Put the second board (of equal size to the first) on top, and clamp with 3-4 large "C" Clamps (I had two 8" and one 6"). Start in the middle, and then add the outside ones. Tighten them until you hear the top of the wood creak/crack just a little.
9. Leave it alone and come back tomorrow. (This is the hard part, because I'm pretty impatient).
Here's what it looked like after the wrap and clamping:
When I came back this morning and attempted to unwrap it all, I ended up having to cut the sides off with my jigsaw to get a peek at it. Here are the layers from the side:
As I get it cut down and shaped some this weekend, I will add more pics. These are going to be handles for one of my BK2's or my Camillus BK9. I'm pretty stoked to see how it all turns out.
It's not as hard as I thought. But I was pretty nervous before I started. Give it a shot!
Thanks,
will
BH #018
Here's what I started with: approximately 12" x 4" strips of tan and black denim and brown linen, stacked in the order I wanted them in the finished product (2 tan, 2 brown linen, 2 tan, 2 black, repeat until the end):
To do this, you use some form of resin. I used Bondo fiberglass resin:
To make the resin harden, it comes with a tube of hardener. I used less than required to make the hardening time slower, making work time longer. (I did approx 200 drops for 20oz. of resin. Next time I will do even less because I was hurried at the end).
Make sure to use something like these, because the junk gets hot, and it also doesn't feel too good if it gets on your skin.
DON'T use this stuff for the wrapping and base. It was completely stuck to the finished product. Use wax paper, as that is the only thing I have seen people use without too much sticking.
Here's the setup. I ended up bypassing the foil pan in the process.
For the actual process, I couldn't really take pictures very well with fiberglass resin all over my hands, so you'll have to take my word for it, or watch some of the vids on YouTube. Here's the rundown:
1. Lay one board down (larger than your strips of canvas/linen/denim/construction paper), and cover with a large sheet of wax paper (to keep the resin from sticking to the board). Flip your stack of material upside down, so you can just flip them over onto your wax paper, bottom piece first.
2. Lay your first strip of material face up on top of the wax paper.
3. Mix the resin and the hardener and stir thoroughly.
4. Pour some resin on the first strip of material, and with your gloved hands, spread it out and cover the material completely.
5. Lay the next strip on top of the first, smooth it out, and pour some more resin on top and spread thoroughly.
6. Repeat the process for each strip of material. Work quickly, because you only have about 10-15 minutes before the resin hardens and becomes unworkable. If you use linen, it doesn't require as much resin to soak it, so I was able to just lay the pieces out on the previous layer without adding much resin.
7. When you have laid your final piece down and soaked it with resin, wrap the wax paper around the stack to keep the resin contained.
8. Put the second board (of equal size to the first) on top, and clamp with 3-4 large "C" Clamps (I had two 8" and one 6"). Start in the middle, and then add the outside ones. Tighten them until you hear the top of the wood creak/crack just a little.
9. Leave it alone and come back tomorrow. (This is the hard part, because I'm pretty impatient).
Here's what it looked like after the wrap and clamping:
When I came back this morning and attempted to unwrap it all, I ended up having to cut the sides off with my jigsaw to get a peek at it. Here are the layers from the side:
As I get it cut down and shaped some this weekend, I will add more pics. These are going to be handles for one of my BK2's or my Camillus BK9. I'm pretty stoked to see how it all turns out.
It's not as hard as I thought. But I was pretty nervous before I started. Give it a shot!
Thanks,
will
BH #018
