Fiberglass body armor test thread

Goofyfoot2001

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Ok so I saw the youtube below and was kinda blown away...er.....

I decided to test this out for myself. So far I have it cut out and looks decent. I think next time, if there is a next time, I wont crank down on the clamps as hard. I used two different kinds of clamps and I believe that is why one side is thinner; threaded clamp vs hand press type. Also, he had a hard time cutting the fiberglass. I used an angle grinder with metal cut off wheel and it went through like butter.

Weight is 34oz which is light as a feather. Thickness varies from 13mm down to 5.5mm. Ill shoot it with several 9mm at different spots.

Materials are a 4x6 fiberglass welding blanket and a can of fiberglass resin.



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Curious to see how it performs!

When I looked into this a little I read that alternating layers by 45* increases strength as does using epoxy resin.
 
These are prolly all which way not on purpose. Epoxy is probably twice the price. There is probably better fiberglass than the blanket and cheaper and less prone to unravelling when cutting. It wasnt bad but doesnt let you get as close a cut as you would like.

I probably could have managed a couple more layers.
 
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Classic cost vs benefit, makes sense. The fact that this can be made in anyone’s garage, with easily available materials for so cheap is the main appeal to me.


And if it works...again we'll see, you could do bicep plates forearm, thigh and shin plates. That dude recieving Kyles little gift could have used some arm plates.
 
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Looking forward to the results of your testing. Not sure this is where I would try to save money on cloth or resin though :eek:
 
This looks very cool and I'm impressed with the results. But also it looks like a good way to get a lung full of glass dust.
 
I saw this done a few times on YouTube and I've been meaning to make a set, since you can't get plates for guys my size lol
 
Fabbing these may not be a cost savings if you include your labor.
  • I see the one, did you have 2 pieces of armor to squeeze the glass?
  • Without already having 2 plates, is there another option that'll produce a similar curvature?
  • Was a welding blanket cheaper than glass cloth?
When cutting, sanding, grinding glass, cover yourself with a jumpsuit, gloves, head covering, respirator and duct tape the suit to your gloves and tape your ankles (not together). I also use an industrial fan in close to blow the dust into the yard.
 
Fabbing these may not be a cost savings if you include your labor.
  • I see the one, did you have 2 pieces of armor to squeeze the glass?
  • Without already having 2 plates, is there another option that'll produce a similar curvature?
  • Was a welding blanket cheaper than glass cloth?
When cutting, sanding, grinding glass, cover yourself with a jumpsuit, gloves, head covering, respirator and duct tape the suit to your gloves and tape your ankles (not together). I also use an industrial fan in close to blow the dust into the yard.

I have one ar500 plate and just used sheet metal for the back side. Squeezing it shaped it to the AR500 plate.

I used two t-shirts with a mask in the middle for a respirator since someone has my real one grrrrr. I had a box fan blowing everything away from me and it really wasn't bad at all. The fiber of the welding mat is more like rope than fibers. I've worked with surfboards and small fiberglass boat repair and it's not the same. The grinder produces a very fine powder which blows straight away because of the fan. I was outside under a carport.


Oh, probably took an hour for the whole thing maybe.
 
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Ok, the range was packed so I ended up just pulling over the side of the road (forest rd) and putting two rounds in.

First at the bottom was a speer gold dot hollow point. The second up higher was the ball. These were from 3 to 4 feet away. Point blank as it were.

Holy Toledo, barely even a bulge on the back! This us the thinner area of the plate as well!

I am in shock my friends, shock.
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Im curious if a sammich type layering of sheet metal and glass would be even more effective. Layers of different hardness materials are how bullet resistant glass and armor for vehicles is made.
 
Im curious if a sammich type layering of sheet metal and glass would be even more effective. Layers of different hardness materials are how bullet resistant glass and armor for vehicles is made.

Indeed... maybe even go to ceramic tile retailers and get the busted tiles and crush them into a slurry with water and apply levels of that too..... very very good work!
 
Good experiment. We used woven roving and chopped strand and vacuum resin infusion on several types of armor in production. Trauma inserts that picked up more rounds than standard IIIA soft armor.

CHRIS
 
Are you going to shoot it with any other pistol rounds?
It would be interesting to see how many rounds it takes before it fails.
Thanks for posting this.
 
Are you going to shoot it with any other pistol rounds?
It would be interesting to see how many rounds it takes before it fails.
Thanks for posting this.

The guy in the video hits it with bird shot, buck shot and a 12 guage slug in addition to several 9mm strikes and nothing went through until .223
 
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Wonder if no plates available to use as molds you could use a propane tank plus a piece of sheet metal and use ratchet straps. The marine supply has mold release agent (a type of wax) that might also be good for this instead of the packing tape. I think wax paper works for this too.
 
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Could one laminate this ONTO an ar500 plate? If so, would it be an enhancement?
 
I'm interested in this as a car door/firewall option... Thin enough you could make panels to fit out of the window track's way...
 
Be careful it doesn’t channel the bullet up or down between the segments, seen that with armor stacked before. Bullets do funny things.

Thats true, didnt think of that.

But, if it could be done and the risk could be mitigated, Id imagine it could be a way to atleast slow down something, like say, 55gr 5.56mm that may otherwise punch through an ar500 plate.
 
I'm interested in this as a car door/firewall option... Thin enough you could make panels to fit out of the window track's way...
That’s exactly where my head has been since seeing this about a year ago. Budget DIY vehicle armor.
 
I'm interested in this as a car door/firewall option... Thin enough you could make panels to fit out of the window track's way...

If you look at my test piece, those rounds were stopped by 6mm of material AND, it didn't get anywhere near through that, so yes. Given that the door would itself absorb some of the energy, I bet only 10 ply would be needed. There is probably plenty of room in a door for that.
 
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Some HVAC stores have a fire/solder barrier cloth that is about this size which would be easy to use to make these. I’m not sure what I paid a couple weeks ago but it was not expensive. If it can take 1550 degrees of heat for 10 years it’s pretty darn good.
 
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