I'd like to build a 4x10 fiberglass on foam core panel. Medium to
light duty cover for a center well. I plan to sit/row on top of it
and use it as a roof for a canvas cabin. Can I use the blue or pink
closed cell foam from home depot or do I need special foam.

I realize I can order end grain balsa or specialty foam but the home
depot stuff would be a lot more convenient and I'd like to keep this
experiment cheap. Will the expoxy/glass stick and will it have the
properties neccessary to function in this capacity?

Thanks in advance.

Tom

This link might answer most of your questions. Good luck with your project!
:-)

http://www.boatdesign.net/articles/foam-core/index.htm

--
Karin Conover-Lewis
Fair and Balanced since 1959
klc dot lewis at centurytel dot net


"Tom Best" wrote in message
om...
I'd like to build a 4x10 fiberglass on foam core panel. Medium to
light duty cover for a center well. I plan to sit/row on top of it
and use it as a roof for a canvas cabin. Can I use the blue or pink
closed cell foam from home depot or do I need special foam.

I realize I can order end grain balsa or specialty foam but the home
depot stuff would be a lot more convenient and I'd like to keep this
experiment cheap. Will the expoxy/glass stick and will it have the
properties neccessary to function in this capacity?

Thanks in advance.

Tom

On 21 May 2004 18:11:29 -0700, (Tom Best) wrote:

I'd like to build a 4x10 fiberglass on foam core panel. Medium to
light duty cover for a center well. I plan to sit/row on top of it
and use it as a roof for a canvas cabin. Can I use the blue or pink
closed cell foam from home depot or do I need special foam.

I realize I can order end grain balsa or specialty foam but the home
depot stuff would be a lot more convenient and I'd like to keep this
experiment cheap. Will the expoxy/glass stick and will it have the
properties neccessary to function in this capacity?

Thanks in advance.

Tom

Home aircraft builders like to hot wire cut foam sheets to a profile
which can give a smoothing effect. They like to butter the surface
with loaded resin to enhance the skin adhesion.
Curves are strengthening, as always.

Brian W

Resin will eat the styrofoam panels you mention in your post. You can get
urethane foam in whatever thickness that will serve your purpose and is
compatible with epoxy, or polyester resin, and probably vinyl.
MAC
"Tom Best" wrote in message
om...
I'd like to build a 4x10 fiberglass on foam core panel. Medium to
light duty cover for a center well. I plan to sit/row on top of it
and use it as a roof for a canvas cabin. Can I use the blue or pink
closed cell foam from home depot or do I need special foam.

I realize I can order end grain balsa or specialty foam but the home
depot stuff would be a lot more convenient and I'd like to keep this
experiment cheap. Will the expoxy/glass stick and will it have the
properties neccessary to function in this capacity?

Thanks in advance.

Tom

On Tue, 25 May 2004 19:03:41 GMT, "MMC" wrote:

Resin will eat the styrofoam panels you mention in your post. You can get
urethane foam in whatever thickness that will serve your purpose and is
compatible with epoxy, or polyester resin, and probably vinyl.
MAC

"Tom Best" wrote in message
. com...
. Can I use the blue or pink
closed cell foam from home depot or do I need special foam.


Where would one procure urethane foam cheaply and easily?

Ookie Wonderslug wrote in message . ..
On Tue, 25 May 2004 19:03:41 GMT, "MMC" wrote:

Resin will eat the styrofoam panels you mention in your post. You can get
urethane foam in whatever thickness that will serve your purpose and is
compatible with epoxy, or polyester resin, and probably vinyl.
MAC

"Tom Best" wrote in message
. com...
. Can I use the blue or pink
closed cell foam from home depot or do I need special foam.


Where would one procure urethane foam cheaply and easily?


1. Resin will NOT disolve the polystyrene foam if the resin is epoxy
resin. It is the styrene in the polyester that melts the polystyrene.
2. Under pressure from the crowd :-), we tested (again), blue
polystyrene insulation foam with epoxy and glass. Resin bond is
perfect but the foam has no shear strength and the sandwich has no
peel strength. Under stress, either the core falls apart or an outside
layer of the insulation foam will break. We took pictures and will
show them soon either at BoatBuilderCentral.com or at our tech.
support web site Bateau2.com
3.I have 30 years experience building and designing foam sandwich
boats and would never use anything else than quality marine foam:
Airex, CoreCell, Divinycell etc. Airex is expensive and outperformed
by others. It has a low heat deflection. Corecell was my preferred
foam until the compnay ATC went bankrupt a few months ago. SP bought
them but production has not resumed. Right now, we sell Divinycell
(same as Klegecell).
4. It's not cheap, you can't find it cheap and if you find a cheap
one, it's no good.

Jacques from bateau.com

On 21 May 2004 18:11:29 -0700, (Tom Best)
vaguely proposed a theory
.......and in reply I say!:
remove ns from my header address to reply via email

Hello Tom

Getting some good replies here. Where are you? Unless you are Okkie
Wunderslug, in which I am sorry........for many reasons.

(1) A centre well is not necessarily "light duty"
(2) Use only structural foam. Not urethane
(3) Ever tried rowing a 4' by 10' panel?

I'd like to build a 4x10 fiberglass on foam core panel. Medium to
light duty cover for a center well. I plan to sit/row on top of it
and use it as a roof for a canvas cabin. Can I use the blue or pink
closed cell foam from home depot or do I need special foam.

I realize I can order end grain balsa or specialty foam but the home
depot stuff would be a lot more convenient and I'd like to keep this
experiment cheap. Will the expoxy/glass stick and will it have the
properties neccessary to function in this capacity?

Thanks in advance.

Tom

************************************************** *****

Sometimes in a workplace you find snot on the wall of
the toilet cubicles. You feel "What sort of twisted
child would do this?"....the internet seems full of
them. It's very sad

Hello Tom

Getting some good replies here. Where are you? Unless you are Okkie
Wunderslug, in which I am sorry........for many reasons.

(1) A centre well is not necessarily "light duty"
(2) Use only structural foam. Not urethane
(3) Ever tried rowing a 4' by 10' panel?


I'm in Austin, Texas. From what I've seen, the hardware store foam is
not a great idea. Also, the structural foam seems extraordinarily
expensive. I may change my plans and use 1/4 plywood or balsa.

Thanks to all.

On Thu, 27 May 2004 09:22:34 +0800, Old Nick
wrote:

On 21 May 2004 18:11:29 -0700, (Tom Best)
vaguely proposed a theory
......and in reply I say!:
remove ns from my header address to reply via email

Hello Tom

Getting some good replies here. Where are you? Unless you are Okkie
Wunderslug, in which I am sorry........for many reasons.


And what reasons would those be? I wanna know.

I made a 4x16' jonboat using the same process as Carolina Skiff uses
which they call a 'box-beam'.You can go to the U.S.patent office site
and pull up the Car.Skf. patent (#4,495,884) to see how it's
done.Basically it's 2 fiberglass skins connected by perpindicular(?)
fiberglass ribs which are formed against foam 'beams'.The foam itself
doesn't contribute much, if any, to the strength of the sandwich. In
my jonboat I used 2x3" beams and ended up with a bottom 2" thick with
ribs every 3".I used polyester resin so I couldn't use styrofoam type
stuff.I went to a commercial insulation peddler and he sold me a
urethane type foam that was used on commercial roofs either under tin
or as a base for 'hot-mopping' flat roofs.It was about 1/2 the price
of the equilevent amount of urethane foam from Home Despot.It could be
had in any thickness up to 6" or more.It was 'structural' in the sense
that it could be walked upon a reasonable amount in the course of
roofing without crushing.I sawed it up on a hot day wearing just
cutoffs and discovered that evening that it also had fiberglass hairs
laced all through it for strength.The mold for the boat I made from
'tile board',a 1/8" masonite type board with a white smooth surface
used as a cheap shower or bath liner,also from Home Despot for about
$10 a 4x8 sheet.