yet another thrifty skin idea!

[eddie6775]

Hi every one, I've been reading about different ways of skinning your trailers, and am probably going with the canvas over tb2. But then....the other day I was snooping around Ollie's Outlet and discovered some rolls of weed control cloth. This stuff seems pretty soft and flexible and absorbent. I bet it would suck up paint real nice, and stick to glue like canvas would. at 5 bucks for a 4x25 roll, it got me thinking....hmmmmm!

What are your thoughts on this everyone?

[Wolffarmer]

I think the cloth is made of plastic fibers. The fibers themselves will not absorb the TB2 but then neither will fiber glass suck up the epoxy. It might work.
Randy

[sagebrush]

It is #@%***%# tuff if you get it wrapped around a roto-tiller or post hole auger!1 Don't have any idea how it would take paint or glue tho.....

Will

[eddie6775]

I'll have to try this one; heck if it doesn't work I still need it for the garden this year! The stuff I came across wasn't shiny plastic but looked more dull like cotton.(?) I think it was the "biodegradable" variety. it's worth a try though, rite?

And yeah, I've hit that stuff with the tiller my self...no fun!

[Miriam C.]

You can always make a model. Try a card board box. You will know if it is waterproof as it won't hold water.... TB should stick to it's self and encapsulate the fibers...

[Wolffarmer]

You might have a good idea for the skin. But I wonder about your hat.



Randy

[the other side]

The hat that will keep on "giving"! Cute though!!!

[eddie6775]

Yup, I liked the massage I got from the little fella too. I inadvertently rescued him from my cat one day! I was the closest thing he could find to climb as he ran across the yard trying to escape death by kitty. I couldn't get him off of my head!lol....My wife finally told me to just go stand under a tree close to a branch and that did the trick.

Any way, I'll be trying my experiment with the weed mat this evening. Travelling for a living really cuts in on allot the time I can tinker but It's the week end now!

[eddie6775]

ok every one, sorry I got a little busy and haven't done my experiment yet but am heading out for it tonight. I do have a question though; would it be better to JUST glue this weed fabric in question the the test wood and leave it out in the weather? or go ahead and paint it too? my test piece is actually going to be a small piece of Masonite the same thickness as what I plan on using for my roof. I'm also considering more than one layer of the stuff. It's cheap enough, and very light weight. By the way...The stuff I have is cotton, and is sold as the earth friendly biodegradable stuff. The one thing I'm a little apprehensive about is the fact that this fabric is 'kindasorta' flexible and I wonder just how strong it is but then I guess that's why we do r+d rite?

[Wolffarmer]

Just glue it on so that you are only testing one thing at a time.

Randy

[GPW]

Eddie , if you’re gluing it to wood or similar , seems like you could use most any glue to adhere ... just a thought ...

[eddie6775]

Ok, here's what I discovered last night.... I tried 3 different pieces of material: plywood, Masonite and card board.It stuck to all three and almost felt like working with fibre glass. This morning I went out to try to peel them off the pieces. It put up a fight and the parts that weren't glued down separated from the rest of the cloth with about the same effort you would rip a blue rag with....maybe a bit more but what was glued to each material stayed put. I took and tried to rip the card board in half, and it tore pretty easily until I reached the fabric and glue and it got really tough to tare as compared to just card board or just fabric. I'm impressed with that so I'm thinking multiple layers could POSSIBLY do it.. I also like the texture of the cloth as it's fine. once it was glued on while still glossy and wet it reminded me of denim.
I'm still not sure about this, and am still leaning towards canvas for the strength but I think this weed fabric has potential for some other little projects I have in mind. Mabey I should do a 4 layer experiment eh?


As for using any wood glue? I believe your rite but happen to have tight bond out there from another project left over and absolutely love the stuff. I've used Elmer's as well and have had good luck but as I recall standing in Lowe's TB was less expensive for the size I wanted to buy

Hope my rambling made some sense!

[Wolffarmer]

Good tests. Do you have any outdoor latex paint to experiment with?

I was just looking on line for some of this. There are so many choices. I figure you are not talking about the non woven cover. There is different colors. I would stay away from the black for my tastes. And there are different weights, how lite is to lite, how heavy is to heavy, And there is weed fabric, Ground covers and soil stabilization.



Fabrics

That is just one place I found with out doing much work.

Randy

[eddie6775]

Cool link Wolffarmer! I like the 8' wide burlap.

[GPW]

That jute burlap should make a fine skin ... very Strong , easily stretches to conform to compound shapes ... Inexpensive ... We’ve used that in the past (on the bias) as a backing for longbows .... never broke one that was Jute backed ...