Foam... hulls from scratch

[ebfoxbat]

To the guys that have built the hulls from scratch:

I'm looking to cover some shaped foam in (carbon) fiberglass. I just don't know where to get the foam I want. Obviously I want the foam to be floaty. I'm just not sure if I should get special foam.

Any close-celled foam should work fine. Any suggestions of foam dealers?

[avengersteve]

a long time ago i bought some from an apolstry shop to get the shape i wanted.

[ebfoxbat]

Did it glass over well? and do you have any idea what kind of foam it was?

[Stealth Assassin]

To the guys that have built the hulls from scratch:

I'm looking to cover some shaped foam in (carbon) fiberglass. I just don't know where to get the foam I want. Obviously I want the foam to be floaty. I'm just not sure if I should get special foam.

Any close-celled foam should work fine. Any suggestions of foam dealers?

If you do not have the 4" blue foam block wall Insulation at your local home depot buy this stuff!

http://www.acp-composites.com/acp-sf.htm

[ebfoxbat]

spyerfoam is only available up to 5.5" thick. That may not do it.

[Rex R]

just took a look at 'dow's' website under BUOYANCY BILLETS you can get them 24" x 96" x 10" thick!(look for dock construction materials)
rex

[Stealth Assassin]

Did you call them??? They told me differant! Also all you need to do If It was 5.5 Is laminate them toghther... BOOM thicker stock.

[ebfoxbat]

I'm not thinking that 5.5 is enough. I'm going to look more into it. Thanks for pointing me in a good direction.

[Rex R]

after doing a little poking around, I find that the 10" x 20" x 96" styrofoam runs about $100 usd shipping extra(and it will support 610 lb.s :)). 'lowes' might carry it.

[ebfoxbat]

This is what I'm figureing:
$30 for the Spyder foam I need.
$30 for the resin and hardening agent
$45 for the 3yards of cabon fiber cloth I need.

That puts me at about $100 plus shipping. Which is good because that's what I planned on spending for a hull. Of course that gives me zero room for screwing up the shaping so I'll have to be meticulous. I wish I know something about hull design. :p

[Darin Jordan]

I just use the pink Dow-Corning foam insulstion from Home Depot... Use Scotch 77 or a similiar spray adhesive to laminate blocks togther to get the desired thickness... Here's an example of how I used it:

http://www.rumrunnerracing.com/feforums/showthread.php?t=19946

Good Luck...

[ebfoxbat]

Boy Darin, that's pretty. Nice work. I wish I knew even a little about shaping a hull or building a boat. Granted my project is for a surfer, we'll see.

Making it self-righting is going to be really hard I think. There's more too it than making the center-of-gravity far below the water line. I hope to use a second set of batteries as ballast for that. But then I'm looking at 24 cells or so. So 24 cells and 30 or so inch hull, how am I going to get that to go 15-20 mph?

[Stealth Assassin]

Rex where did you find the 10" thick foam?

[Rex R]

number of places, just use BUOYANCY BILLETS as the search terms for google