$40 Home depot custom enclosure

oh, right that deck is fighting you.
You need to set up so that it looks like this:
The edges of the waxpaper don’t wrap around. Also if you look at the tail section, you’ll notice spot that would not stay down. I had to cut and patch that section. So saving your shape is possible, but it’s hard to tell until it dries.

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@whaddys that almost worked, don’t give up :joy:

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I’m thinking about just getting more glaze coat and pouring it over tomorrow to get those stray fibers and then call it a day…

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as long as you can fit those bolts on the edge, its all good.
Even the roughest fiberglass mess can be shaped down and fixed

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I I know, we’ll see lol

I put a fairly concise how to here. The draft of your form is really working against you. I just watched your vid and if your glass is at a similar place as far as setting goes use a chip brush if you have any to tap it down and remove as much air as you can. The resin will set up and get stickier. As it does keep tapping the glass down. You should be able to get a lot of it down with a bunch of babysitting.

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I did the enclosure too. In my case I made the side not 90 degree. In this way the follow the deck shapes and it’s much easier to shape it. You can also use wax if you have it or for the first layers I cut thinner strips for the side. So that the force is much less. When you reach one of the 4 corners, a trick I saw in a video tutorial is to cut the fiberglass matt at the corners following the diagonal of the shape you male. To you can fold the mat much easier.
To remove bubbles and help the mat to stick, a small roller is a must.

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Goddamn @rey8801 that enclosure looks boss! Well I think I may have found a solution–periodocally as it’s curing I’m resting the edges, which is going to pull the fibers, but the edges will be good, so I will dump another glaze coat on tomorrow to flatten the stray fibers and hopefully that creates something workable

There’s enough edge there now to be usable, just gotta dump another coat on the fix those strays.

Between documenting my backwards battery builds and failed enclosure attempts, I’m hoping to really help some others out not making the same mistakes :joy::joy:

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I have always done vac bagging, when I have tried to make enclosures so haven’t had this issue.

Just a different idea, but couldn’t you cover a rectangular (slightly rounded) block with packing tape and clamp it over the wet out glass on the flanges of your mould to hold that shit in place? Sure, it would only do the long edges, but should pull off easily when all cured.

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Turns out you can’t just add another coat on and have the resin soak up the stray fiberglass. Did a second coat, here’s the results:

With alot of sanding I do thunk this is usable. I do however think I’m gonna have another go at it. If if do use this enclosure, the main concern is delt with–BATTERY FITS

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haha, awesome! I made TWO enclosures that didn’t fit my battery the first time I did this. Now is the time to cut and shape while the resin is set but not hard yet. Cut and sand stray fibers and cut your edge. I think you can totally use that enclosure, worst case, you shape that down and end up with some holes. Then just throw more glass at it :+1:

edit: you can patch from the inside but make sure to remove the mold wax that’s left on the inside first

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Haha!

Im.not good at FG either but same.issue on small ass.parts around contours… I found just cutting pieces of mat to fit each edge worked for the first layer then as I built up.sum layers I could get.it.to stick.more later with longer bits of mat… But I’m still a newb on small projects.

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Your foccers aka Cheap FOCer v2s? Could you share which heatsink it is? I have been searching for heatsinks for mine :smiley:

And one more question, when should I make the cutout for the heatsink? While its soft or after it hardened?

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haha, Focboxes, lol
I think it’s an evolve upgrade plate. Not sure who made them.

I start with the holes after its all hardened. Keeps the carbon fibers from pulling and tearing makes them cut cleaner. The big stuff (like the jagged edges) I razor off after it’s kicked but not hard yet (the morning after) because razors are super sharp compared to drill bits.

If hard, I always put tape down and then mark the hole. Then cut with a drill bit, auger bit or router. then, before I peel the tape, I sometimes seal the edges with a small amount of epoxy and remove the tape just as it’s kicking, but after the excess drips off. this way the resin along the taped edge has time to settle back down and disappear into the rest of the work :+1:

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My second time doing this and it’s still just as annoying. Lol. Enclosures r def my least fav part of DIY for sure.

I did three coats of wax this time. Set the board in front of the utility fan to let each coat dry before applying the next one

Theees always some spots that are thin, so I went over those a couple extra times

I also taped wax paper on the underside of the board this time to prevent sneaky bits of resin from getting out. Last time I got some drops on the expensive rubber mat my roommate just bought for the garage. Lol woops

I folded the fiberhlass in half and just laid it on there after pouring the coat on. Once that shits poured on it’s almost impossible to control where it’ll go, so don’t just pour it allá on right away. Save some some so after you lay the fiberglass down, you can pour more on top on the parts that need it. The corners once again we’re fuckin difficult. Also, I didn’t cut the mat to size at all, I just thought I’d leave a ton excess over the edges to make sure it was big enough. Bad move. When the resin soaks into the outside edges of the mat, the weight of it pulls it downward and makes it difficult for it to stick along the edges of the mold. Had the same issue last time too. What I did was in a frenzy grab a pair of scissors and cut the edges of the mat so they wouldn’t pull away from the mold. This worked really well. I just sort of kept going around the enclosure pressing the edges down with my fingers (wearing gloves) until the finally stayed down. It pulls the fibers out and makes a mess but those fibers can be pressed down again once things start to dry. Scissors are donezo tho lol.



After about 4 to 5 hours the resin gets dry enough to where it’s tacky, and you can press all those excess fibers sticking up down with your fingers. Did it here, and it looks pretty ok now. Hoping they will settle into the enclosure while it dries

The corners were still a friggin nightmare and I still haven’t figured that out. What I ended up doing is, from that excess that I cut off that was soaked in resin, I started cutting little scraps off of and sort of sticking them where I thought there was holes or thinner parts. Did that on a couple corners too. Well see how that works out when shit dries. For some reason this part just did not want to adhere to the mold and I just left it eventually cause it’s close enough

Sorry I think I posted that pic twixe, can’t tell I’m posting on my phone. But you can see that didn’t adhere to the mold. On well. Let’s see how this looks when it’s dry…=/

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Maybe at this moment when it’s tacky, add another layer with a new mix of fresh epoxy? Just a thought. I’m no composites expert.

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Epoxy won’t stick to some plastics.

If you need to smooth it out, when it’s wet, why not lay a sheet of plastic over it and roll that out smooth and leave it until it’s cured. Then peel it off.

Or buy a vac pump, some plastic and some butyl tape and vac bag the fucker. (Problems solved)

[this is more than $40 - sorry]
[[do tools count in the budget?]]

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With the exception of that one edge that wouldn’t stay down, I’m pretty happy with how it looks. @b264 I thought the same thing about the extra coat. I’ve only got enough resin left to mix for a final coat and don’t feel like spending on another new set of epoxy, so sticking the fibers down is good enough for me now!

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Fair call. I made a vac bagging setup straight up and have only made stuff using that, but am super happy with the process and results.

It feels a bit more foolproof for me (hence why I went that way - removes some of my user error) :joy: I have typically used peel ply and good amount of bleeder fabric to soak up excess resin.

Lessons learnt it’s probably not that expensive;
(Excluding shipping):
Diaphragm vac pump $120NZD
FX4200 control switch $40ish USD
Rubber tubes and brass connectors $25ish NZD (maybe more depending on how u set it up)

Consumables cost varies depending if you go premium or budget.
Maybe:
Plastic film $5ish per part
Peel ply $2 per part
Bleeder layer $3 per part
Butyl sealing tape $2/metre?

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Damn, well initial start up cost is higher but then you got the goods to make enclosures for $25ish. Which is worth it if you’re making many enclosures. Might make the leap…:thinking::thinking:

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