FRP as hobby

Yes. Here's a supplier, though I don't know their minimums.

http://www.uscomposites.com/

what is the purpose of the container? if it needs to be strong, or watertight, or bouyant, food safe, fuel resistant, chemical resistant or bullet-proof will determine what the material, and/or thickness should be. more information will be needed--C-MAC

Like to add how much do you wish to spend and does it need to be conductive?

Whiskers, mats, chopped, wound, Prepregs and vacuum bagged.

Your option are dependant on your needs and wants.

Brad

Change the description to fiber reinforced composite.

The simplest form is paper mache. You just need a fibrous material and an adhesive of any sort. Birds do it with fibres and saliva (birds nest soup). In the old days walls were constructed using horse hair and plaster and houses were built of adobe - straw and mud (in the bible)

You then need to decide what fibre and what adhesive will siut the engineering requirements. Top of the pops is probably epoxy and carbon fire as the strongest and most chemical resistant.

Easy way to make your box - get six pieces of polystyrene and glue them together to make a mould. Coat the mould with a good latex/emulsion paints. when it is dry coat it with wax or oil and then lay up your box with whatever fibre/resin system you like you will need to make a hole in the outside and you can remove the former/mould by destroying it ans pulling it out through the hole. If the resin in the FRC (Fibre Reinforced Composite) will permit you can dissolve the polystyrene out with mineral spirits. (petrol tanks are made this way)

We use FRP to make boats and other things see explorermarine.co.uk - I would agree that using a foam as a base for the shape is a good start. But DO NOT use polystyrene if you then intend to follow it with a polyester resin!

Polystyrene dissolves in resin and all the layers required of latex etc to protect it are simply not worth the effort when POLYURETHANE foam is so readily available from most builders merchants. Polyurethane foam -the fine yellow stuff - is easier to smooth and does not dissolve in resin.

Buy a sheet of that and cut the 5 or 6 sides you want. Resin glue and pin it together - we use 6 inch nails - remove the nails, sand to shape and cover with your chosen FRP. Box done, quickly and reasonably cheaply. We base costs of Glass Reinforced Polyester on 4 GBP per kilo of finished weight. A 400 X 400 X 400mm box, depending upon usage would probably need a minimum glass content of 300g/sq m all over and double on the seams. That makes about 1.5 kg of glass and thus 3.0 kg of resin.

Hope this helps

Sorry - No problems with polystyrene if you coat it with a good quality water based emulsion paint before putting on mold release wax or film.

Do not lock on - the materials used will vary with the end use - so when we know what the end use is then we can explore the limitations. Does not have to be polyester - good for boats but not other things.

Again there is nothing in the book to stop the use of any fibrous material - depends on what you want. I saw GRP coffins, chairs & other materials made with jute as the fibre.