Preparation is key Jamming the Grateful Dead...adding a touch of grey The mad scientist We shall see how this works out in the morning...
Yes. Love em! ...but that entire bench is a down draft spray booth. When I crank it on, I have to tether myself so the breeze doesn’t suck me in.
No joy. 4 oz of materials... not enough. Foam has to fill the entire mold and go into compression or it shrinks on curing. Upping to 6oz
The real problem with this stuff is that it continues to contract if the core structures don’t develop density... Just in the two hours since it left the mold, it’s curled up like a potato chip. FYI will cover ...downdraft fan doubles as dust removal with the flop of a flap.
If you take a look back at some of the ~2006-2008 vintage threads on the my tirpitz build, you can see a bunch of parts built from the foamit stuff. I had very good results with the 25lb/cu ft stuff. It did not seem to be this sensitive to fill, as the only problem I had with low fill was a slight porosity in the surface. While I never went as far as to actually make the mods to the molds i intended to, it was sufficiently durrable at only 1/4" thickness that I had intended to basically make molds that held wall thicknesses to 1/4"-3/8" and use it. I actually used the scrapped parts as bouncing rifle targets before that was a big thing and they held up remarkably well even to that.
This stuff must be closed molded. Once I get the proper amount measure for materials, parts come out rock hard and very light. This smokestack was made 15 years ago and still looks great. Mold gets clamped closed and the foam sets up too packed in to shrink
Pulling the bases off the molds to build pressure lids. While a rack full of powerboats (and the PE) in gel cure.
All caught up on powerboats... time for some fun at attempt #2. With a good part from 15 years ago as inspiration.
Pre-heating the materials makes a big difference with this stuff. 71 degrees in the shop, so I’m kicking it up to 80
