GRP basic reading

[mmd]

There seems to be a lot of basic GRP boatbuilding questions recently. Maybe a reference llist of good books as reccommended by our learned forumites is in order. Feel free to contribute your candidate titles and a bit of a description, if you like. I'll start:

Your Local FRP Distributer - The technical sales department of these companies is usually very happy to assist you in your project, or steer you to helpful information. Call them or go on-line to their websites.

Build Your Own Boat - Building & fitting-out for sail or power - Ian Nicolson (Norton Press, 1982, ISBN 0-393-03273-6) a basic book that teaches how to do basic 'glassing. The author presumes that you will have bought a bare hull and are planning to fit out the interior, decks, and mechanicals. If you haven't done any 'glass work before, you should have this book before you get all crazy trying to decipher the more technical stuff.

Marine Design Manual for Fiberglass Reinforced Plastics - Gibbs & Cox, Inc. (McGraw-Hill, 1960) Old as the hills and probably out-of-print, this book is a gem for its clear descriptions of mould-making for hull structures, introduction to basic materials, and methods for engineering and design of laminate structures. It is worth your while to haunt used booksellers for this text.

FRP Technology - Fibre Reinforced Resin Systems - R.G.Weatherhead (Applied Science Publishers, 1980, ISBN 0-85334-886-3) For the serious student, a textbook that describes moulds, design, chemistry, and reinforcements. Not specifically targetted at boatbuilders, but tons of good technical information.

[Dutch Peter]

I can add to that:

THE GLASSFIBRE HANDBOOK
by R H Waring
The best primer on fibreglass around. Although not confining itself solely to boats this informative manual covers all the techniques of hand laying up glassfibre laminates and mouldings. This book covers an amazing length of ground and the home fibreglasser will find that any question that he or she may have with this medium will be answered within it pages.

The Gougeon Brothers on Boat Construction
Hardcover-297 pages.
Over twenty years of experience building with wood and epoxy are compiled in this fourth edition. Extensive chapters on lofting, safety, tools and construction methods are described with the aid of hundreds of detailed illustrations and photographs. Over 70,000 copies in print.

And I'd like to add that every manufacturer of glass or resin systems has its own folder with information on how to apply there system.
Although some properties like working temp, viscosity, pot life, etc. may be different. The general principal for working with these products is the same.


From my own experience I can tell that it pays to buy a repair kit (if available, in Holland that's a package with just enough glass and resin to repair a 20x20 cm hole) and play around with that. Make a bird's nest or something else, but experiment before you go for the real job!

[DGreenwood]

What about Eric Greenes Composites Manual ...free downloadable on the net...what a nice guy Huh?

[mmd]

... and the link would be???

[Jeff]

Marine Composites by Eric Greene

[DGreenwood]

Sorry I intended to put the link there ...must have been "post work traumatic stress syndrome"
Also I meant to say we should send a thank you with every download. I like to encourage this kind of knowledge sharing as much as possible. This collection of info could not have been an easy thing to put together.