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Building Tips and technical articles. => Building techniques => Topic started by: dave siegler on June 03, 2010, 03:35:56 PM
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I need some tips on finding foam for foam wing cores locally. I can get 4x8 sheets of 2" ,( realy 1 3/4) EPS, but that is not easy to cut, becaue there is not much extra top and bottom. Works fin for smaller stuff. I would really like a few sheets of 3" or 4" foam.
I can get the local building supply place to get me a whole pallet, but I don't have the space. A few sheets would last a long time.
Oh yeah, I don't want to pay 15$ to ship 5$ work to foam either, there ought to be a way to get a small bundle locally.
Can I glue up 2 - 2"sheets to get enough thickness?
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You might try calling local insulation contractors, or see if you can bypass the Home Despot and talk to an insulation distributor.
At worst, get that pallet load and sell some to other modelers!
I'm a foam-core-cutting wannabe (one new skill at a time, please!), but my understanding is that you want to use virgin foam -- the home stores generally sell recycled foam, which has some hard spots that can mess up a core. If you order from a distributor, you can specify virgin foam.
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And if you have a profile and shape of the wing I have a CNC hot wire cutter at home.
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Dave,
See if you can find a HVAC contractor that sets those big units on the roof of buildings. Those units come packed with big 5 or 6 inch 4ftx4ft blocks of foam.
I got a pickup truck load for free, and they packed the rest in two 40 ft dumpsters full of them. Made me sick to see all those foam wings going to the dump. :'(
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Thanks that is what I am looking for.
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I bought mine at an insulation supply place in Seattle area. 1lb virgin foam (EPS) Transporting it was interesting.
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I think I remember Bobby Hunt saying he had to get help to get the foam home he bought. I think it was 4 ft X 4 ft X 16 ft block. Maybe he will jump on this. I know it is fun haulling 2 in X 6 in x 12 ft lumber on my Ford Explorer. I had 24 peices up on top. H^^
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I did a breif stint as a youth working at a foam manufacturing plant, I only lasted about a week.
If you weren't grabbing 4' X 4' X 8' blocks of freshly molded foam while istening to " and DON'T BANG THE EDGES!!!- the boss screamed all day, you were grinding scrap / defective foam to make raw material for the non-virgin style. We looked like snowmen in the middle of summer, covered with white strofoam dust.
But I was fascinated by the hot wire cutter, rows of a tough wire with variable spacing for different thickness sheets, a feed belt and an ancient looking Vari-AC to control the heat.
The virgin stuff made from tiny beads that expand in the mold cut much nicer than the " recycle" stuff.
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I noticed the question about gluing together two sheets for greater thickness. Yes if you are careful and use a glue that will set up without air like epoxy or maybe better yet poly glues which are activated with a very fine mist of water to the surface you dont put the glue on. Then lots of weight to hold the two together tightly till the glue sets up. This is kinda like sheeting a wing in that you really want the minimum of glue. That much foam will have some weight though and you probably need to consider coring it.
There is quite a bit of good info on the web if you search using "foam wing cutting" including a video a friend and I did a few years back that my son now sells for me. Cutting your own foam is fun just plan on doing a few "test" wings before getting the hang of it. That said I have hand cut hundreds of wings mostly for combat models in the past 15 years. The techniques are not hard to learn it just takes a little time and practice.
Bob