I want to reinforce some plywood I am making, and I want to reinforce it - purely for crush resistance, kind of like running steel reinforcement bars through cement.

Beam 100 wide, 3mm thick gets stood on in the middle... glass fiber converts compression into tension - has tensile strength a illion times higher than the wood - that kind of thing.

So I went looking, looking, looking - through basalt, carbon, kevlar and some of the fiberglass cloth suppliers.

What is unusual about this fiberglass cloth that it weighs about 14 grams for a piece that is 1.27 meters wide by 3 meters long.

It really looks like glad wrap... Here is a picture of it.

Anthony's Pete-N-Planes Fiberglass Cloth 1/2 oz 50 - Fiberglass Cloth 1/2 oz 50"(127cm) wide 3m long - Fiberglass Cloth & Resins - RC Model Planes and RC Hobby Supplies for Airplanes and Buggies, Radio Control Model Plane and Hobby Supplies Brisb


And I was thinking OK I can use solvent based polyurethane to glue the whole slab together, and some light pressing - between some warm platens, and to then leave it sit for a week in a pretty warm place.

So that is good.

But the thing is that this fiberglass is sooooooooooooo thin that is could be applied to very thin timber components, like chellows that are "exceedingly thin" on the big wide sound board.

So next time some one takes a tumble on it, it won't break.

Check it out - there are also other weight fabrics as well.

It might also go very well in other timber composites and reinforcement and repairs.


It's so thin that I think it may be even possible to apply it to the surface of instruments - for impact and gouge resistance - under sprayed on enamels - most certainly - maybe even under shellac - I mean Frog Polishing.

So anyway - back to making 2.5 - 3mm thick ply from 0.6mm hardwood veneer composites.