Welcome to the forum and congratulations on getting thru the massive thrifty thread. You are now an exclusive member of the foamistas.
Check your understanding of the science of mechanics. A member’s reaction to load (be it a wall panel, trailer frame member, piece of I-beam, etc.) will always rely on the outer most fibers with relation to its center of mass (in the context of a wall panel, the innermost and outermost skins) to determine its ultimate strength, be it in compression, tension, or torque. That is where the most leverage occurs.
Assuming that your wall panels will only be loaded from the inside out and that the outer skins will only be in tension is folly. On the same hand, assuming that your inner skins will only ever be in compression is also folly.
Think about it. Your walls might see loads from the inside from you lying against the wall, you trying to put your head or foot thru the front wall or bulkhead, or an outside load being transferred through the cabinets and/or bulkhead from the opposite side of the trailer. Even from a bored youngster kicking at the wall.
Loads from the outside in can be from wind load, a person leaning against the side wall, or, in the case of an off road camper, trees and bushes rubbing against the outside, et al.
Take it from me, the foam has very little strength in and of itself (see my thread where my wall fell over in the shop and broke itself).
What makes you think that the inside surface of the wall will only ever see compressive loads? Oh by the way, the foam dents very easily from even minor localized concentrated loads, it is only good in compression when loaded evenly over a broad surface area. Believe me, I have used more than my fair share of spackle filling dents and dings. Paint won’t help this much at all. You need to protect the inner walls (and anything else foam) from incidental contact, especially amazons!
Jack B., Welcome to you, too.
There was a very interesting radio show on NPR today about patent trolls and the legal issues surrounding patent infringement (listened to it while I was working on TPCE today). It turns out that there is a whole industry of patent infringement lawsuits where people submit patents of good ideas that aren’t necessarily unique, substantially ground breaking, or even solely their own. Lots of shady lawyers, shell corporations, and frivolous lawsuits. Then they sell the patent to another entity owned by the same person/people (they have a whole office building full of empty offices in order to establish a legal address) so that they can sue the same corporations all over again. They really are just hoping that the big corporations that really made it happen will just settle, and they usually do. 100’s of millions of $ for being slimy backstabbing thieves.
How do you expect to profit by chasing “Joe foamie builder” for patent infringement, and how do you expect to prove that it was solely your idea, after stating to the world what has already been bantered about openly in this thread by many that have come before you?
Okay, ok, I realize that you are probably just kidding, and so am I, but really? What is it about your epiphany that is new and solely your own? I didn’t see a distinction.
But really, welcome. Don’t take this the wrong way. I admire you entrepreneurial spirit.
190F is the target temperature ... no more or the foam will melt ... The outside is the tension side , where the heat needs to be applied ...
not really what I am up for. I am great at starting projects, but finishing them takes more work, so the easier I can make the finishing steps, the better I am to myself! What is the approximate radius of the top-to-side curve, to help with the planning.
