Fantastic!!! Very helpful, thorough, perfectly paced and well spoken tutorial. No annoying background sounds or excessive unrelated content. I’m so impressed and will be sharing your channel with all my DIY buds. Thank you!
Great stuff. My favorite part about this project (and probably the intimidating part) is that there will probably always be something to improve on. There are just so many things working together.
Hello. Nice project, very interesting. At 2:38 the viscosity of the resin is high, not low. The more viscous it is the more it resists deformation. At 4:56 the viscosity of the resin is low, not high. It is not easy to make a perfectly round sphere !
+Michel PASTOR My bad. You'd think I'd know better. I'll add some annotations. Thanks for pointing it out. And I'm with you on that, re the difficulty of making perfectly round spheres. I'll continue sanding it as time goes by, tweeking it whenever I see where I can improve it.
+electronicsNmore Surprisingly there was very little odor with these resins. Though that might have had something to do with the two ventilation fans in the window running day and night for the 3+ weeks it took to do all the pieces. As for 6:39, it looks dangerous but it wasn't. I considered it at the time. The grooves made by the dremel made it quite safe, plus the angle of the blade really wasn't right to cause harm, even if the globe somehow rolled away. I wouldn't have cut it like that if it were just a plain cardboard globe though! That would have been less controllable.
The paper templates were made by laying a sheet of paper on the ball and drawing a rough line for where I wanted to cut them -- nothing more complicated than that.
+deslomeslager Thanks! No, it would take too long for the amount of power required. I'm using two drill batteries that are velcroed to the base of the drive system to make to easy removal. You can see them in my part 1 video here th-cam.com/video/BCXH4AN2aog/w-d-xo.html.
If you Google "The Epoxy Book System Three" you will find a free book on epoxy. It is a great resource for learning about epoxy. Most of it applies to any brand of epoxy.
Hey RimstarOrg how much did this project set you back in terms of creating the ball? I want to make a 3 to 4 foot 8ball and am really considering making it out of cardboard, resin, and fiberglass. How much resin and fiber glass do you think I will need?
That's hard to say since I didn't keep track of how much resin I used and I was just using up leftover resin from two different sets of containers. So I don't know the resin costs. The fiberglass cloth was $20 for 20 sq ft (6 oz) bought from ebay. I guess you can use the formula for the area of a sphere to estimate how much you'd need (mine was 12" in diameter). Don't forget the cost of all the sandpaper you'll need.
You did an _incredible_ job, given that this was your first real fiberglassing project. I'm jealous, my first one didn't go nearly so well. And mistakes with fiberglassing can be extremely painful on the wallet. It's a good thing you knew to get the tweed fabric. Plain-weave fiberglass would've been a huge pain to force to drape right, and fiberglass mat has it's own host of aggravations, including that it doesn't play as nice with the epoxy-resin. For this project, 3 layers of that weight of fiberglass is overkill, but that's OK. Now it'll outlive whatever you throw at it. When you are doing your rounding and smoothing, don't worry about adding fiberglass, like you did with those little patches. just add to your low-spots with automotive filler putty (Bondo). Alternatively you can add sandable thickeners such as talcum powder to your existing resin, but that's a boring and messy process. The trouble with adding fiberglass is when you add it in excess, such that you have to sand it back down (which is honestly what you always want to do), the fiberglass fibers _murder_ your sandpaper. You want something that will sand easily but still be durable. Bondo is specifically designed to do exactly that. In fact, you'll likely want to coat the entire outer surface with Putty. It's tough to tell at this stage, but that fabric texture is thicker than one might think. You could add gel-coat instead, but for whatever reason, that stuff seems to be much more expensive. Since you're making a sphere, if I were you, I'd be pretty tempted to set up a makeshift lathe and smooth the putty layer down by turning the thing. As long as you can chuck the thing up so that it's nice and secure, smoothing a sphere in this manner is a pretty painless process. Every time you do a video on this project, you make me extremely tempted to start on my robotic tire project again. Cursed being responsible with money, why must you always get in the way of fun?
+verdatum I was familiar with the drapability of the fiberglass I had and had encountered mat but this is the first I've heard of plain weave. Looks like I got lucky there. Regarding 3 layers or less doing the job, I wanted to do all fiberglassing before cutting open the globe, since I figured once I opened it I couldn't be sure of having as round a sphere to add more layers too. So I had to guess. I was actually planning for 4 layers but figured that would be too heavy so I took a chance on 3. You say that 2 layers might have done it, and it sure would be nice to have one less layer's weight. But I don't think I'll try another globe unless the weight becomes an issue. You'd be surprised at how much the mass affects the shape though. It's sitting on the ball at only two points at the sides of the drive system, near the equator. I'd heard of filler putty but would like to avoid buying more products. These BB-8 droids run some people up to $1500, something I don't want to do. I'm finding a lot of small things are needed that add up quickly. I kept all the trimmings from cutting the fiberglass and might use that chopped up as filling if needed. I like the lathe idea. That sure would be a more painless way of smoothing it! Robotic tire project... sounds awesome. We want to see it! Do it! :) How's that for adding to your temptation. Actually, if you're thinking of an actual car tire, or some such, that seemingly roles around on it's own, that is a cool idea.
RimstarOrg I certainly understand keeping a budget; I'm still pretty terrible at that. A quart of Bondo putty is $12 from Home Depot, or you can get a bottle of talc to mix with your resin from any pharmacy for something like $5, just to keep it in mind. Only add chopped fiberglass scraps as filler if you explicitly need to add serious strength to something. If you're just leveling and smoothing stuff out, it will only serve to frustrate you. And yeah, it's literally a spare car tire rolling around on it's own with black fabric concealing the working parts inside. An effects team made one for a horror parody movie called Tire. About...a killer tire. I wanted to make one the moment I saw the thing. I'm putting an RC-actuated pendulum counterweight in the top half, allowing it to veer to the left and right.
If all you want is the globe then they can be had for free from websites like my.freecycle.org/. I've also gotten then for $5 to $20 from local thrift stores, craig's list type websites, local classified ads, local people selling them on ebay. I don't think you can get cheaper than that. If you want to then coat it with fiberglass then that's where the costs add up. Other than that, I don't know of anything cheaper.
Wait a second.... "East Systems" Epoxy????? What's the scoop with that? When building model rockets, everyone recommends that the best epoxy comes from "West Systems" Epoxy. Are they the same company, or is this one of those cases when someone makes a "knock off brand"? Aside from that... Cool video. Watching your learning process is fun, and I'm sure it is helping teach people that mindset.
+Chemu Kef For the second resin that I used it was by weight with a ratio of 4 to 1 (e.g. 88 gr of resin, 22 gr of activator). For the first resin that I used is was by volume with a ratio of 5 to 1 (I don't remember what volumes I used).
+Ryan Tooher (Zynthesis) I've added annotations about it. Funny thing is, if I'd used the term "viscous" instead of "viscosity" then I would have realized right away that what I was saying was backward! :) Thanks for bringing it up.
+TheDutyPaid I thought about that while I was doing it but I wasn't getting any in my face so I didn't bother getting the mask. But when I did some sanding indoors I definitely needed, and wore, a mask.
Fantastic!!! Very helpful, thorough, perfectly paced and well spoken tutorial. No annoying background sounds or excessive unrelated content. I’m so impressed and will be sharing your channel with all my DIY buds. Thank you!
Very cool! I like how you showed the learning process and the trials as well
+David Lam -flamingsword1 Thanks! And yeah, it seems I can't help but show my trials, even if I try not to. It'd be like leaving out the best part.
Great stuff. My favorite part about this project (and probably the intimidating part) is that there will probably always be something to improve on. There are just so many things working together.
Hello. Nice project, very interesting. At 2:38 the viscosity of the resin is high, not low. The more viscous it is the more it resists deformation. At 4:56 the viscosity of the resin is low, not high. It is not easy to make a perfectly round sphere !
+Michel PASTOR My bad. You'd think I'd know better. I'll add some annotations. Thanks for pointing it out. And I'm with you on that, re the difficulty of making perfectly round spheres. I'll continue sanding it as time goes by, tweeking it whenever I see where I can improve it.
This is a really high quality tutorial. Thank you!
4:56 Viscosity always confuses me. Wouldn't it be a lower viscosity for the material that moves more easily?
+RC-1290 Yes you are right. The more viscous it is the more it resists deformation.
+RC-1290 It turns out it confused me too! I'll add annotations. Thanks for pointing it out.
The only problem is the odor from the resin. Great results. Just be careful you don't cut off your lower unit at 6:39!
+electronicsNmore Surprisingly there was very little odor with these resins. Though that might have had something to do with the two ventilation fans in the window running day and night for the 3+ weeks it took to do all the pieces.
As for 6:39, it looks dangerous but it wasn't. I considered it at the time. The grooves made by the dremel made it quite safe, plus the angle of the blade really wasn't right to cause harm, even if the globe somehow rolled away. I wouldn't have cut it like that if it were just a plain cardboard globe though! That would have been less controllable.
RimstarOrg I was only joking around at 6:39. :-). I've done far worse in the past.
electronicsNmore
I figured you were. It does look dangerous though - scary movie! :)
Thank you so much for sharing your work with us ! :)
Can you explain how you measured the pieces of cloth to cover the sphere? Please i try to do exactly the same and find trouble at this stage
I marked and cut pieces of paper as shown around 3:47 in the video and used them as templates.
That's a great deal of work to appreciate! Great job!
I was wondering how you got/designed the template for cutting the fiberglass resin
The paper templates were made by laying a sheet of paper on the ball and drawing a rough line for where I wanted to cut them -- nothing more complicated than that.
hi some one please tell me where to buy globe
Very nice howto, thanks!
Are you thinking of charging it wireless? That way you can close the horizon perfectly.
+deslomeslager Thanks! No, it would take too long for the amount of power required. I'm using two drill batteries that are velcroed to the base of the drive system to make to easy removal. You can see them in my part 1 video here th-cam.com/video/BCXH4AN2aog/w-d-xo.html.
If you Google "The Epoxy Book System Three" you will find a free book on epoxy. It is a great resource for learning about epoxy. Most of it applies to any brand of epoxy.
+RickMakes Thanks!
Hey RimstarOrg how much did this project set you back in terms of creating the ball? I want to make a 3 to 4 foot 8ball and am really considering making it out of cardboard, resin, and fiberglass. How much resin and fiber glass do you think I will need?
That's hard to say since I didn't keep track of how much resin I used and I was just using up leftover resin from two different sets of containers. So I don't know the resin costs. The fiberglass cloth was $20 for 20 sq ft (6 oz) bought from ebay. I guess you can use the formula for the area of a sphere to estimate how much you'd need (mine was 12" in diameter). Don't forget the cost of all the sandpaper you'll need.
You did an _incredible_ job, given that this was your first real fiberglassing project. I'm jealous, my first one didn't go nearly so well. And mistakes with fiberglassing can be extremely painful on the wallet. It's a good thing you knew to get the tweed fabric. Plain-weave fiberglass would've been a huge pain to force to drape right, and fiberglass mat has it's own host of aggravations, including that it doesn't play as nice with the epoxy-resin.
For this project, 3 layers of that weight of fiberglass is overkill, but that's OK. Now it'll outlive whatever you throw at it.
When you are doing your rounding and smoothing, don't worry about adding fiberglass, like you did with those little patches. just add to your low-spots with automotive filler putty (Bondo). Alternatively you can add sandable thickeners such as talcum powder to your existing resin, but that's a boring and messy process. The trouble with adding fiberglass is when you add it in excess, such that you have to sand it back down (which is honestly what you always want to do), the fiberglass fibers _murder_ your sandpaper. You want something that will sand easily but still be durable. Bondo is specifically designed to do exactly that.
In fact, you'll likely want to coat the entire outer surface with Putty. It's tough to tell at this stage, but that fabric texture is thicker than one might think. You could add gel-coat instead, but for whatever reason, that stuff seems to be much more expensive.
Since you're making a sphere, if I were you, I'd be pretty tempted to set up a makeshift lathe and smooth the putty layer down by turning the thing. As long as you can chuck the thing up so that it's nice and secure, smoothing a sphere in this manner is a pretty painless process.
Every time you do a video on this project, you make me extremely tempted to start on my robotic tire project again. Cursed being responsible with money, why must you always get in the way of fun?
+verdatum I was familiar with the drapability of the fiberglass I had and had encountered mat but this is the first I've heard of plain weave. Looks like I got lucky there.
Regarding 3 layers or less doing the job, I wanted to do all fiberglassing before cutting open the globe, since I figured once I opened it I couldn't be sure of having as round a sphere to add more layers too. So I had to guess. I was actually planning for 4 layers but figured that would be too heavy so I took a chance on 3. You say that 2 layers might have done it, and it sure would be nice to have one less layer's weight. But I don't think I'll try another globe unless the weight becomes an issue. You'd be surprised at how much the mass affects the shape though. It's sitting on the ball at only two points at the sides of the drive system, near the equator.
I'd heard of filler putty but would like to avoid buying more products. These BB-8 droids run some people up to $1500, something I don't want to do. I'm finding a lot of small things are needed that add up quickly. I kept all the trimmings from cutting the fiberglass and might use that chopped up as filling if needed.
I like the lathe idea. That sure would be a more painless way of smoothing it!
Robotic tire project... sounds awesome. We want to see it! Do it! :) How's that for adding to your temptation. Actually, if you're thinking of an actual car tire, or some such, that seemingly roles around on it's own, that is a cool idea.
RimstarOrg I certainly understand keeping a budget; I'm still pretty terrible at that. A quart of Bondo putty is $12 from Home Depot, or you can get a bottle of talc to mix with your resin from any pharmacy for something like $5, just to keep it in mind.
Only add chopped fiberglass scraps as filler if you explicitly need to add serious strength to something. If you're just leveling and smoothing stuff out, it will only serve to frustrate you.
And yeah, it's literally a spare car tire rolling around on it's own with black fabric concealing the working parts inside. An effects team made one for a horror parody movie called Tire. About...a killer tire. I wanted to make one the moment I saw the thing. I'm putting an RC-actuated pendulum counterweight in the top half, allowing it to veer to the left and right.
Would you know how to make a cheaper perfectly round sphere instead of buying a globe?
If all you want is the globe then they can be had for free from websites like my.freecycle.org/. I've also gotten then for $5 to $20 from local thrift stores, craig's list type websites, local classified ads, local people selling them on ebay. I don't think you can get cheaper than that.
If you want to then coat it with fiberglass then that's where the costs add up.
Other than that, I don't know of anything cheaper.
You're correct about the respirator and eye cover warning... but then you step outside and sand fiberglass without any!
I considered it while outside but with the wind, I wasn't getting any in my face.
Wait a second.... "East Systems" Epoxy????? What's the scoop with that? When building model rockets, everyone recommends that the best epoxy comes from "West Systems" Epoxy. Are they the same company, or is this one of those cases when someone makes a "knock off brand"? Aside from that... Cool video. Watching your learning process is fun, and I'm sure it is helping teach people that mindset.
Good job. I seems it will be better.
please to notify that the ration is by weight, this is im[ortant. so for 20 gr of A = 1 gr of B
+Chemu Kef For the second resin that I used it was by weight with a ratio of 4 to 1 (e.g. 88 gr of resin, 22 gr of activator). For the first resin that I used is was by volume with a ratio of 5 to 1 (I don't remember what volumes I used).
you meant very thick or high viscosity.
yeah you have your idea of viscosity backward.
otherwise you have done a bang up job brother.
+Ryan Tooher (Zynthesis) I've added annotations about it. Funny thing is, if I'd used the term "viscous" instead of "viscosity" then I would have realized right away that what I was saying was backward! :) Thanks for bringing it up.
+RimstarOrg You're welcome sir, love the vids. Keep this BB-8 build rolling brother.
Looks great! Also first
Never work a knife towards your body kids. :D
Could see a hospital visit big time!!!
You my have wished to wear a mask when sanding.
+TheDutyPaid I thought about that while I was doing it but I wasn't getting any in my face so I didn't bother getting the mask. But when I did some sanding indoors I definitely needed, and wore, a mask.
6:39 cringe
+TheDutyPaid No kidding, like cutting the wrong ball! There's probably a Uranus joke somewhere to be had...
Ugh same here.
he is smart but clumsy