Homemade Bulletproof Armor - Fiberglass

I wanted to see how difficult it would be to build a relatively lightweight armor plate that could stop pistol bullets. The summary video how I built this armor is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v= !o"w#$%m&' This armor is constructed by layering multiple plies of fiberglass cloth called woven roving. (oven roving is a heavy weave of bundled glass fibers that is very strong) cheap) and available from boat building suppliers. *owever) when not cured with a resin) it is very fle!ible and unravels/frays when cutting using ordinary household scissors. Instead I am using a utility +nife to cut it on a wooden board) this wor+s well. ,cotch tape applied first along the cut line holds the strands together on the freshly cut edge.

-fter cutting to si.e) the sheets are layered) soa+ed with polyester resin) and pressed together using pieces of //01 plywood with clamps until cured. The pieces are 2 inch larger in both directions than the final si.e of the plates) to allow for final trimming. In this case the final armor plate are to be 2314251) so the plywood peices are 2/1!221.

The plywood needs some sort of mold release applied 6I used saran wrap7) otherwise when the resin is cured the plywood peices would be glued permanently to the armor. The resin is mi!ed with the 8'9$ catalyst in the proper proportions according to the directions) but I added slightly less catalyst to increase the wor+ing time. 'ach sheet was layed in place) brushed with resin to saturate it) and then a new sheet was added. I am fairly sure that every other sheet could have been saturated

to save time) with a dry sheet in between. The pressing action of the plywood distributes the resin throughout the layers well) which I tested by leaving the last sheet dry before pressing. %nce the sheets were put in place) I clamped around the perimeter of the plywood 1sandwich1. The e!cess resin lea+ed out on the edges) so I put some newspaper underneath to catch that. It was left overnight to cure. The polyester resin ma+es heavy fumes so needs to be used with good ventilation. The result is this once curing was finished:

The saran wrap peeled off easily from both sides of the armor. I was very happy with how well it wor+ed as a mold release. The resulting plate is very strong.

It is ./0/1 thic+. It contains 3/ layers of the woven roving cloth and used a pint of polyester resin. I thin+ that probably 2/3 to 3// of the resin could have been used instead since so much s:uee.ed out. The armor may have too much resin in it ; commercially available fiberglass armor used for buildings is more opa:ue than what I produced) indicating 6I would thin+7 less resin saturation) which will help with de;lamination. It could also be that commerical operations add something to the resin ma+ing it opa:ue) but not necessarily for appearance.

<inal trimming would need to used a diamond grit =igsaw or circular saw blade because the plate is e!tremely tough. %ne note here is that fiberglass armor stops bullets by de;laminating to absorb the energy. The layers 1catch the bullet1 in the same way that a soft +evlar vest does. -s a result) epo!y resin should not be used. It is much too strong to allow the sheets to separate and the bullet will more li+ely punch through the armor. In this thic+ness) the plate hopefully will be able to stop most shotguns and pistols. Updated Test Results: The armor test video is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch? feature=player_embedded&v=o$va>s;mibc The armor successfully stopped ?mm &all <8@ bullets with multiple shots fired from a pistol barrel.

Homemade Bulletproof Armor - Ceramic / Fiberglass Shard

This armor is a ceramic;fiberglass composite constructed from an ordinary bathroom tile and fiberglass woven roving which are glued together with polyester resin. 'ither porcelain or ordinary ceramic tile can be used. Ahec+ out the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v= /If#i:2oc' The basic design is to encapsulate the tile in a sheet of fiberglass and resin) where there is at least one layer on the threat side to +eep it held together and control fragmentation) and many more layers on the bac+ side to capture and prevent spall. The idea is that the hard tile will fracture or blunt the incoming bullet so it can be stopped with fewer layers of fiberglass than an armor that is made from only fiberglass. The fiberglass fabric is cut to the right si.e with a sharp bo!;cutter blade) the tile centered on the ply) and the e!cess material is folded around the bac+. This gives 2 layer of fiberglass on the front) and B layers on the bac+ due to the folds. This will thic+en the tile by about 2/Bth of an inch. The shard is saturated with resin and clamped between two wood sheets using saran wrap as a mold release. -n additional armor shard was constructed with two sheets of woven roving which gives 3 fragmentation layers on the front and 2C spall layers on the bac+. This was done to provide another

test piece in case the first armor piece failed to stop the bullet. The armor pieces can be any si.e) which is dictated by the si.e of the tile used. The two armor pieces were created with a tile that 0.3D1 s:uare. The armor 1shards1 can either be incorporated into a larger solid panel) or perhaps used individually in an overlapping configuration to create a fle!ible vest. 'ither way they are easy to construct and test in bul+ without using much material. Test Results and Anal sis: The first armor tile with 2!B layers successfully stopped a single ?mm <8@ bullet fired from a pistol;length barrel. The second piece also stopped ?mm without any issues. Therefore it was determined that a single ply of (E is all that is needed to ma+e this armor stop one round of ?mm <8@. 8ultiple shots to the same piece were not tested. The video of the test is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=,Fp"#Gi?.8o The 2!B tile below with the bullet fragments e!tracted from the front using a pair of needle nose pliers. The full metal =ac+et bullet was completely mushroomed and bro+e into multiple fragments within the tile itself ; I didnHt find any evidence that the fragments even reached the spall liner.

There were numerous granules of the ceramic tile in the impact crater as well. The combination of the bullet and armor fragments 6spall7) and have been easily caught by the layers of woven roving on the bac+ of the tile.

It would be interesting to see what additional pistol bullets that this armor could stop. ,cribed by mindtomachine at 22:D/ -8 Go comments: in+s to this post