A canned ham in foam: Built

[GPW]

NMM needs no advice from us ...he’s doing a Fine job without our intervention. And we much appreciate the “testing" of the seam filler ....that’s been discussed for a while ...

If you think about it .... Ham used to come in a can (and still does) , but now it also comes wrapped up in a FOAM tray ..

[OP827]

What are fine job with canvas, a piece of art, really.. Those are canvas, right? I would love to see a beatiful painting on such a beatiful trailer, but sorry, did not mean to influence the builder here.

[CyeDavid]

Looking Great!!!! I cant wait to get out and finish mine up..

[Wolffarmer]

NMM, I just found your build tonight and read it all. Great work. I like the size and profile of your trailer. Something that I may need in a short while. I like the story of your Grand father. Reminds me of a guy I worked with back in the 70's. He could not read or write and was not to good with numbers. We had to fill out his time cards for him to make sure they where correct. But he made the most beautiful split bamboo fly pole I have ever seen and he built his house with a set of blue prints he bought. But he wanted them mirrored which he did in his head. I did not see his house myself but other coworkers did and reported the craftsman ship was amazing.

You build might give me an excuse to go see my sister in Albuquerque ( oh hell I just spelled that correctly on the first try, never did that before ). Deliver her a cat or 4 and see your build.

Randy

[Mary C]

NMM you are doing great. About sizing, From what I have learned through out the years the definition has sorta grown but originally it was a chemical that was put into material that worked on three levels, bug repellent crisp and no wrinkles, the problem and at first there were a lot of problems the chemicals caused itching and allergic reactions. The chemicals made it easier for clothing manufactures to make cuts and sew without messing up. They now put chemicals in for flame retardants too. Most of which add up to stiffness and once washed the material sometimes shrinks. I bought canvas with no sizing, but I have used some on shelves and other places that has had sizing. using a putty knife, credit card or plastic scraper once you have applied the glue to the foam and laid on the canvas will pull out most of the wrinkles. I did have a little shrinkage because as it dried it bent the foam on the 1/4 inch pieces, haven't noticed it as much on the 1/2 inch and two inch foam. my attitude was scrape and scrape and get all the wrinkles out and get it very even. It looks like you have done just that.

Mary C.

[NMMarauder]

Having worked with painted canvas all my life , we always start with a ‘sizing’ , which is a highly thinned “glue" (rabbit skin glue in my case) which encapsulates the canvas fibers and protects them from decomposition from air and water and oils (Rot) ...
And as we found out , unsized canvas cannot be completely protected (saturated/encapsulated) with normal painting without the sizing . Even modern primers cannot completely protect the canvas fibers without the sizing step ... all well tested ...

I never thought about the glue encapsulating the fibers. After gluing the canvas on, I applied a thinned coat of glue and squished it into the fibers to get full penetration of the glue in the canvas. I was really just looking to get a good bond. I'm glad to hear that I accidentally did something that was positive (encapsulating the fibers).

The down side to doing this, is causes irregularities in the surface underneath the canvas to show more. I squished the fully saturated canvas into every nook and cranny and the defects of the surface underneath show more. My thought is to add a subtle texture to the surface to help hide those defects. They are pretty slight and most people wouldn't even notice but I'm afraid that I'll notice and it will bug me. I used really nice canvas from Big Duck canvas and it has zero defects so any defect underneath shows. The HF drop cloths that I have used for the interior has enough texture (a polite word for flaws) that they hide some defects. I've gotten good enough at seams now that I think in the future I might stick to the cheaper (in every sense of the word) drop cloths and just deal with the seams. The Big Duck canvas is nice but for a foamie they may not contribute much.

I thought about using a long nap roller or even one of the 'Restore' rollers that is used for applying deck coating. Does anyone have suggestions for applying a subtle texture?

Maybe a texture is a bad idea. Thoughts?

[NMMarauder]

More pictures of progress....

Here are the seams from wrapping the side canvas onto the curved roof. It took an entire day to get those cut and glued down well.



Here it is all covered in canvas.


The darker yellow areas are where I had to really work to get the wrinkles out of the canvas as I was smoothing. So they ended up with more glue in that area. This was the side that I didn't hang the sheet beside it. Letting the sheet of canvas hang beside when you glue resolved some of these issues.


I'm very pleased with how the roof seam came out. The walls overlap 3 inches onto the roof and the roof canvas runs right to the edge of the roof. Not sure if it shows in the picture very well.

[NMMarauder]

You build might give me an excuse to go see my sister in Albuquerque ( oh hell I just spelled that correctly on the first try, never did that before ). Deliver her a cat or 4 and see your build. -Randy

You are more than welcome. Just give me advance notice. Since most of my paid work is on the computer I don't spend much time on it while I'm at home. So I am really bad about keeping up with email or posting progress. If you are going to be in Albuquerque, you are welcome to drop by.

[NMMarauder]

my attitude was scrape and scrape and get all the wrinkles out and get it very even. It looks like you have done just that.

Mary C.

That's exactly what I did. I'm glad to hear about the history of sizing. It isn't something I ever really considered before now. Mostly I was worried that the canvas would shrink too much but the wood glue dries so fast (and it just isn't that wet) that it wasn't a problem.

[GPW]

Super job !!! A Great example for us all !!!

Texture ??? Possibly ! It’s never going to match the smoothness (or expense) of fiberglass or metal ... Never was meant to , really !!! Many texturing agents you can add to paint .... see your paint dealer... ( a good experienced ,knowledgable one , not home depot or Loew’s )

[wagondude]

Wow! That is looking great.

[OP827]

A VERY NICE looking seam

How did you prepare your foam before gluing canvas on it? The foam looks untouched at the photo before putting cancavs on the roof..

[KCStudly]

Great work! I aspire to achieve the same quality when I do TPCE.

[NMMarauder]

How did you prepare your foam before gluing canvas on it? The foam looks untouched at the photo before putting cancavs on the roof..

I've just sanded the sheen off of it with an orbital sanders and about 100 grit sandpaper. I used to try to rough it up more but it appears to be unnecessary as the canvas sticks just as well. That may be because I am immediately coating the canvas with thinned-out tite bond 2 and then squishing it through the canvas to make sure the canvas is really bonded well. If that step is skipped, maybe it wouldn't stick as well.

Here in the desert the TB2 sets up pretty quick. That may not be the case in more humid parts of the country.

I recommend practicing on smaller projects before you get to the outside. I built a desktop (using it right now) as a test of the technology, then I canvased the door and that taught me how to handle curves and seams, then I did the interior of the walls and finally I helped my wife canvas the back of her stage (professional flamenco dancer). All of that has paid off. The only problem I had was that all of my practice was on things that were laying down. When I got to the exterior wall it was standing up so I had to adjust but hanging the canvas beside the wall works well.

Here is the desktop

[Mary C]

Wow, nice picture on the desk. You are doing great. I didn't do anything to my foam befor putting the canvas on I didn't even sand it. I haven't had any problems the canvas has held with no problems.


Mary C