Has anyone made their own fiberglass style stock?

[jraney]

what kind of foam would you use, and where do you get it? also where can you get really thin fiberglass at a reasonable price?

[Westcliffe01]

Guys, for one off type jobs in composite without making a bunch of molds read this book: http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/bvpages/moldless.php Cost just over $16.
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/218bR1zHwAL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

The guy that invented the process used it to build several record breaking airplanes, which he sold plans for until the lawsuits from idiots became too much. Several thousand of these aircraft are meanwhile flying.

The first thing is to understand the loads and with that knowledge design the structure. Areas that have to take impact and high point loads will be built up with multiple laminations of glass fiber over a foam core. The glass layups take the tensile and compressive loads and the foam only spaces the 2 "flanges" the right distance apart. One of the tasks in the manual is making a "stick" about 2' Wide and 1/2" thick with a foam core and layups on both sides which after curing will support the builders weight when balanced on a broom handle. Even when the builder jumps up and down !! By comparison, a rifle stock is a much bigger item and does not have to endure nearly the same kinds of loads.

The book covers the different types of cloth and resin and stresses technique severely. It doesn't teach you to design a structure, but how to get the right glass/resin ratio, to keep the fibers straight (since they can't carry load otherwise) etc etc.

It is a fair amount of work, but the amount of material in a stock is not that great and the hardest part is the final finish. Most consumer type resins are not UV stabilized, so they have to painted adequately to retain their properties.