I have a number of Owens Corning 703 panels and a partial bolt of Guilford fabric left from a previous project.

Has anyone tried hardening the edges / corners of 703 by dipping them in a polyurethane?

Then I can stretch and glue the fabric over the frameless 703.

I was considering just spraying them with aqua net.

Liquid fiberglass is what I have heard. Never have done it but.....

Yep, polyester resin should work, just like building a surfboard or a boat.

never thought about hardening the edges with a chemical. what I did was get some angle aluminum, the white Armstrong pieces that mount to the wall for the perimiter of a drop ceiling installation and cut it to frame out the 703.

That is a great way to do it.thumbsup

Just to clarify - it's the resin that hardens, and that's what you want. The fiberglass fabric used with resin for boats etc is not needed here.

--Ethan

Doing a test with fiberglass resin on a small piece of 703 tonight. Will know in the morning if it will work for doing frameless panels. If it gets hard enough, I can simply stretch the Guilford over the 2x2 panels, use 3M spray adhesive to secure the fabric and done.

If it works, I imagine you could bevel the edges before stretching the fabric for a more designed look.

The Fiberglass Resin seems to work fine on a small piece of 703, though it does take quite a bit to harden a 2" edge. I'll see how long it takes for the odor to go away.

Dark liquor and rough women?

Frank

Works for me. Dark women and rough liquor works pretty well too. heh

Where do you get that stuff? The resin??? Hardware store? I've never seen it.

Thanks

Being in the boating biz for a long time, and very familiar with fiberglass resin, etc. You will want to shape your 703 first, as once the resin hardens, you'll need to use a decent sander or cut it if you want beveled edges.

Most hardware stores will sell the resin too. There are some other products too, but the resin will be the cheapest... maybe $15 for a gallon.

This actually sounds like a good idea. Btw, the stuff is really heat sensitive and will cure overnight at 65 degrees or in an hour at 80 degrees.

Good tips. thumbsup

The polyester resin is a mess. I tried this with lousy results. Brushing it on tends to shred the board in the process and you can't use a foam brush. It soaks into the panel and does not really give a hard edge. I used about 6 oz. of Boaters Resin (close to $40/gallon with hardener) to do a 2'x4'x2" panel with results no better than basic polyurethane. I think it could be better if I used more or applied another coat but if you have a bunch of panels to do it will take a long time and a lot of that nasty toxic goop to get it done (but what a head-rush! ).

I would love to hear some other opinions because I am still at a loss on this technique and I've tried a few different things...

Maybe you could use contact cement to glue thin cardboard strips over the beveled edges, then apply a thin coat of fiberglass over the cardboard to make a nicer smooth surface?

--Ethan

lay some very thin fiberglass cloth or mat and use a cheap paint brush (then throw the brush away). Those foam brushes don't hold enough resin in them and are used for painting, etc.

I like Ethan's idea of laying something smooth on it first. Fiberglass work isn't rocket science, but there are some short cuts, etc that if you've used the stuff, you can get some great results.

Another thought is to spray something on. All I can think of now is something like gelcote, as it would be tough to thin the resin. You can get disposable sprayers (Preval power sprayers, for instance) that are a couple bucks each, and with spraying you can get a much smoother surface.

and $40/gal !! wow.... yeah...if we sell it in our Ship's Store... sure.. go to Ace Hardware or something like that. Next to the acetone. You're paying because it's "marine use" so to speak.

Reviving an old thread that may be helpful for someone (like me) doing a search on the internet trying to figure out what to use for hardening the edges of Owens Corning 703 for DIY acoustic panels. I recently wallpapered a room and used Roman Pro-543 adhesive. When I went to find polyurethane resin as people recommended for the edge hardening on my OC 703 panels, my local hardware stores couldn't recommend anything so I ended up buying some expensive stuff call No-Frame Edge Coating from Buy Insulation Products.com that with shipping was about $25/quart. When I received the No-Frame Coating it was in generic cans with a super generic label that looked like it was printed off a home printer. When I opened up the can, it turned out to be Roman adhesive! From what I can tell they thin out the Roman a little and put it in these generic cans. The big difference is the Roman adhesive can be bought at most hardware stores (including Home Depot in the U.S.) for about $25 per GALLON and you don't need to pay for expensive shipping. Roman also makes a heavy duty version called Pro - 838 that probably works even better than the 543 I used when I ran out of the No-Frame Edge Coating. You can thin it out by adding water if you want it to absorb into the panels more. The Roman worked great for me. I hope this helps someone out!

Here you go...
No Frame Edge Coating | Fiberglass Coating | Buy Insulation Products
This stuff is going to do the trick....better late than never...
not a problem if you impale mount your panels...frames are better for air gap mounting...

YYMV

Light

Temple

I'm interested to see how this turned out. Did you use the product from Buy Insulation Products, or did you substitute the Roman-543 product mentioned above that thought to be the same if thinned?

How did it work? How long to dry?

Many TIA.

Thank you. Exactly what I am looking for.

They make edges harder to do exactly what you want to do. https://www.buyinsulationproductstor...-edge-coating/ However, this stuff is 80.00 a gallon. I found I got the same results ( because it’s the same thing) with a gallon of Elmer’s glue diluted about 1:1. Elmer’s is only about 15.00 a gallon on Amazon plus your diluting agent (H2O) adds another .000001¢ for a total of $15.000001 per 2 gallons of hardener. I just did about 50 panels of OC 705 this way. Just my 2¢ worth.

Elmer's is PVA. Thanks. Will try it out.