Does this make a difference? I went to my store and they only had the mat so i began laying it down. The tutorials say fiberglass cloth will this be a problem should i redo it with fiberglass cloth?
Its a bit harder to keep layers of mat even also a little more work adding the resin to the mat. With cloth you don't have to work the resin so much. The mat you will need to work the paint brush coated in resin in a dabbing motion while trying not disturb/move the mat around to much. Lastly the finished product is likely to have more sharp points requiring more sanding.
Personally i think cloth is stronger they are weaved together..cut out a 4x4 of each one and pull them apart see which one comes apart first....the disadvantage of cloth its that is harder to fill tight angles or small thing..is more for a bigger surface area.
I don't think this is a fair assessment of the cured strength. It would be similar to saying concrete isn't strong because its a bunch of water, sand & limestone.
I would guess that Mat is stonger for all the reasons stated in the posts above. And BECAUSE it is easy to pull apart, it lets the resin completely saturate and surround the fibers (Like rebar in concrete).
However, reguardless of which is stronger, I don't think it is worth redoing your work. The strength difference has got to be minimal. I'd suggest using whatever you are comfortable working with.
for this project it's better to use mat, and you also have to take "weight per square foot" equation into consideration. But the important piece here your resin. Do not soak your mat with too much resin or it will get brittle. Just get the mat wet and not saturated.
All depends on how you layer it, type of cloth and thickness. In the end resin trumps them all, if you use high end cloth material ( carbon fiber, Kevlar) and use low grade resin then it will not hold up or be very strong, the resin is the x-factor
Thanks for all the help guys. I'm going to lay down the resin on top of the mat in a little bit and I'll use all your tips. This is my first time using this stuff and i have watched the vlogs from stealth but you know how it is on your first one. you're all nervous that you're going to mess up at every turn lol. But with all the help of you guys here at the rpf I'm able to do this stuff so i thank you all.