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Re: Material: DIY Kayak using foam as the core
By:Ken Blanton
Date: 10/16/2009, 5:49 pm

I've used that pink stuff before ... used it to add flotation and stiffness to the internals of my Church WoodySki. It was a little problematic though.

Maybe it varies with the production run but the surfaces of each sheet of the stuff I used was not flat ... the faces were curved ... the center of the faces was about 3/8 inch thicker than the edges. So if ya wanted to stack it you had to sand the faces flat to get a good glue joint. I'm not talking sanding of a few thousands here ... I had to sand off as much as 1/4 inch off the high spots.

Because it's closed cell ... you can't glue the stuff with any glue that requires off gassing to cure. It wasn't a question of time either ... glue joints were still uncured a week later. I tried aliphatic resins and 2 different types of construction adhesive that were formulated to be used with foam. So ... I used epoxy and expanding foam of the type used for flotation.

It's to be expected with foam but the sanding dust gets everywhere and sticks to everything with a static charge ... so it's a bit of a pain to clean up.

It was hard to find in my area ... I guess other types of foam compete with it.

Ken Blanton

: Here is what one guy did using Kayak Foundary and printing his stations for
: every few inches (thickness of his foam). I'm sure you could easily adapt
: this idea for a sot. The guys handle on Ross's Blue Heron Kayaks bbs is
: whataboutbob. A simple search will show his posts.

Messages In This Thread

Material: DIY Kayak using foam as the core
DIYKayaker -- 10/14/2009, 11:15 pm
Re: Material: DIY Kayak using foam as the core *LINK* *Pic*
Chris Ostlind -- 10/17/2009, 11:33 am
Re: Material: DIY Kayak using foam as the core
Brian Scarborough -- 10/16/2009, 10:58 pm
Re: Material: DIY Kayak using foam as the core *LINK*
xplorz -- 10/16/2009, 11:47 am
Re: Material: DIY Kayak using foam as the core
Ken Blanton -- 10/16/2009, 5:49 pm
Re: Material: DIY Kayak using foam as the core
Toni V -- 10/16/2009, 4:40 am
Re: Material: DIY Kayak using foam as the core
Sam McFadden -- 10/15/2009, 10:38 am
Re: Material: DIY Kayak using foam as the core
Bill Hamm -- 10/15/2009, 4:29 am
Go for it.. just get the right density. Epoxy only
Simeon -- 10/15/2009, 11:11 pm
Re: Go for it.. just get the right density. Epoxy
Bill Hamm -- 10/17/2009, 12:43 am
Re: Go for it.. just get the right density. Epoxy
Bill Hamm -- 10/17/2009, 12:40 am