Can 3d printed and fiberglass enclosures be combined?
Printed inner and outer shell from weak plastic petg or pla with a epoxy resin fiberglass enclosure between the shells. The idea being you don’t have to extensively finish the fiberglass. Basically a mold that stays on.
The shells would 2 or 3 .2mm layers. The shells would be printed in 3 or 4 sections. Each section would slightly overlap and lock together.
The inner surfaces would be highly textured with spikes poking into the fiberglass cloth. This would help the bounding of plastic and epoxy, but might hurt the fiberglass’s strength.
The inside would be a typical fiberglass made in the bottom shell. The topshell would be weighted or clamped onto the wet epoxy. Then just trim the excess like any fiberglass enclosure.
The main doubt I have is about the strength of the bounds between the shells and the epoxy. Particularly if I use petg not pla.
Has anyone done this or anything like it?
I have seen someone test fiberglass reinforcing a printed strip, but never an actual application, and never in between two shells.
I’ve got an enclosure that is carbon fiber over kydex. Formed the shape with kydex then put a couple layers of carbon fiber over the top of it. Bonded pretty good, although I’m sure if I tried really hard I could separate the kydex.
Not sure what the reason would be for the outer shell though. If its just the cosmetics and not wanting to deal with finishing the fiberglass outer you can always spray it with bed liner. @rafaelinmissouri has a few (at least one) bed liner coated enclosures and they look pretty damn slick.
I very much doubt that weights and clamps will be sufficient, you would get lots of voids with this kind of layup, and they would be next to impossible to detect unless the plastic is clear. You should vacuum bag it, and do a test beforehand to see how thick your fiberglass layer will be. That way you can design the gap between the plastic layers to be precise, because any mismatch will pile up quickly when you have stiff plastic. As in, everything might meet up at the center and edges but you’d have no bonding in the corners.
I didn’t scuff the kydex before covering it with carbon fiber. During my triming of the edges I saw a little bit of delamination along the sides. Nothing concerning, as all the mechanical forces work to keep it together vs tearing apart, but enough that I now have a mental notes to fully sand the kydex on the next go round.
