<div dir="ltr">On Sun, Oct 12, 2008 at 6:34 PM, byzytym <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:byzytym@att.net">byzytym@att.net</a>></span> wrote:<br><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
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<div>Would you spell out FRP please ? </div></div></blockquote><div><br>Fiberglass reinforced plastic.<br> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
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<div>Michelle suggested plastic sheets as well, but I didn't mention it because
of the drawbacks. </div>
<div>Both fiberglass and plastic breakdown and get brittle in the sun after a
few years. </div></div></blockquote><div><br>Not entirely true for fiberglass. That all depends on exactly what resin the panel is fabricated with. Polyester will break down, epoxy can if it's a low grade and/or doesn't have a UV inhibitor, vinylester will last virtually forever, as will urethane. Properly selected polyester or epoxy, with the right UV inhibitor or gelcoat, will last longer than the steel it's attached to.<br>
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<div>The stress of moving the showers could crack an old panel...
especially in cold weather.</div></div></blockquote><div><br>ABS gets brittle at somewhere around 0 degrees. UHMW or nylon aren't an issue. Delrin would last until the SCA is considering the 20th century period ;)<br>
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<div>If it fades or scratches it could start looking pretty
bad. It is hard to get paint to sick to it in long range terms.
It peels after a few years and has to be completely scraped off.
That can be a nasty job.</div></div></blockquote><div><br>Latex paint will stick to fiberglass better than you can get anything to stick to steel. Fiberglass, scuffed like I mentioned before, doesn't even need primer. It's a perfect substrate for painting.<br>
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<div>Ten pounds a sheet is still heavy compared to thin sheet metal, but not
overly.</div></div></blockquote><div><br>A 4x8 foot sheet of steel that weighs 10 pounds would be 35 gauge, which is roughtly .008" thick. No chance that'll hold up. I'd guess that the minimum we could get away with would be 24 gauge, which is .025" thick and around 32 pounds/sheet. Steel on building walls and roofs is around 18 gauge, .050" thick and 64 lb/sheet.<br>
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<div>How much is the cost of a 4x8 sheet. Can we get larger sheets that
cover an entire side ?</div>
<div></div></div></blockquote><div><br> It's been a few years since I bought any, and I wasn't the one paying the bill, so I don't really want to give my guess. Cheaper than steel, though. Last time I bought steel was a very long time ago, and $80 for a sheet of 16 ga. Steel has gone waaaaaaay up since then.<br>
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<div>I'm not trying to be negative. I'm just trying to look at all sides
of suggested materials. </div>
<div>Wood is too heavy, expensive and rots after a few years</div>
<div>Fiberglass or Plastic becomes brittle in the sun and does not like
paint.</div>
<div>Metal rust.</div></div></blockquote><div><br>Metal dents, too, and doesn't like paint any more than plastic. The stuff that will stick is expensive and has to be put on with stuff we can't handle at the site (air compressor, HVLP gun, lots of nasty chemistry, and so on).<br>
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<div>What ever we use should be light weight and be able to withstand being
loaded onto a trailer and moved to a different site if need be. <br></div></div></blockquote></div><br>Most of that will be in the design, not specifically the material. What we do at the shop is come up with what we want it to do, figure out how to make it work, pick suitable materials, and use a (not "the") correct fabrication process for the project. We know what we want it to do, now we need to decide on a design, then pick the materials. We can take the last step out of order and use that as a factor in deciding on materials.<br>
--<br>Gundy, who is good at this stuff :)<br></div>