Which Fiberglass Cloth

[JohnC]

I am buying a roll of fiberglass to use for several projects in my rebuild; transom, deck, modify console, fabricate full transom with fish boxes… Most of the detailed rebuild threads on this site seem to favor 1708 for general structural work. I am not very experienced with glass work but like the idea of straight 17 oz. without matt, seems like a better strength to weight ratio. I will need several flavors of fiberglass to finish but wanted to know others thoughts on matt/no matt for structural work. Why not layup cloth with a piece of matt on the finish side? Everything I am doing will be with epoxy.

[shine]

Yes, plain biax without mat is stronger per equal weight than 1708. Since you are using epoxy, the only reason to use something with mat is to build thickness.

If the idea is to buy just one type of biax, then look at DB1200 for a good general purpose biax. DB1700 will be way too much for some of the applications you may need it for.

For transom skins, you need to build a thickness and its tought to beat 1708 for that.

I have the choice of whatever I want, and I limited the entire lamination schedule for my new 25' center console design to just DB1708 and DB1200. That boat is all epoxy as well - the 1708 comes in very handy.

BTW, our store has free shipping on orders over $150