people who have experience in both mineral wool and rigid fiberglass..

[treymonfauntre]

i need to start treating my room. i need to hang 6 2x4 panels from my walls. i will also be making 3 more to make a gobo. the gobo will be moving around a lot.. i'll probably throw the 3 panels in the back of my truck to take it places that i record. i'm afraid if i make it out of fiberglass i'll get itchy everytime i touch it to move it. is that a reasonable concern or should i just stop being a baby and get a carton of it?

[Halion]

If you mean not to put any fabric around the rigid fiberglass, then yes, it will get itchy as hell. However, it will also stay very fragile and probably become ruined after a couple of sessions. However, if you make a decent (wooden for example) frame, and cover the fiberglass with fabric, the itchyness won't be an issue as the actual fibers won't come through the fabric.

I myself have used rockwool instead, because the rockwool panels were a little more rigid than the fiberglass panels I could get. However, I still have to wrap them in fabric to get rid of the itchyness (plus it looks a lot better) and the frame is to support it, because in this case riggid isn't really that riggid at all. It's riggid enough stand again't a wall without collapsing, but it's not riggid enough to not break when pushing my hand on it.

I suggest either getting the most riggid stuff you can find, and then treat it with fabric and a decent frame at the very least. Your only other option (that I can think of) is getting actual acoustic panels.

[treymonfauntre]

oh yea i'd make a frame and cover it with fabric. just wasn't sure if handling it with my bare hands would be an issue. the rigid fiberglass i see everywhere has foil on both sides, you should peel this off right? or is this just the wrong stuff entirely?

[Halion]

If it's aluminum foil, then you are probably going to buy the wrong stuff. The foil (as far as I know) is there to keep the stuff together, but more so to keep the heat in/out of the house (when used in roofs and such). It reflects like hell, so you do not want that stuff on your fiberglass. There's also fiberglass that has a thin naturally looking membrane across it, which is only there to make it more rigged and lets itchy but does let sound through fine. It doesn't make it THAT riggid though.

When working with it I very much suggest gloves. This stuff isn't actually going to hurt you but it's itchy as hell when handling alot of it you will very likely be sorry. Any gardening gloves will do though (2 bucks a pair in the budget section at your local DIY store). Cut it with a breadknife and you'll be fine.