Thrifty Alternatives ..Building Foam Campers

[Mary C]

Ok so there is a foam glue thread too where there was a big discussion of height, weight, wind speed and glue. I gotta get off her and go outside and enjoy my second cup of coffee and get the wood from the barn. Have a great day. !!

Mary C.

[GPW]

Mary , I informed the RC Foamie plane guys about the Gripper , and now they are doing their own testing , so far it looks really good , just some are “inconvenienced “ by the 24 hr. + drying time .... Now they’re suggesting using it like contact cement , coat both surfaces and let it tack up a bit before joining .... just as a way to shorten the drying time ...

So far , their testing has indicated the Gripper is EXCELLENT for the more porous EPP ( expanded polypropylene ... waaay too expensive for our uses , virtually unbreakable ...) and the EPS Beadboard .... Both drying fully and much quicker than the closed cell foam ...on the INSIDE !!! The Foam we normally use takes much Longer to fully dry inside on large panels , and proper clamping is Important when laminating parts , as is pretty much the same with wood or anything else ... So it’s still all Good , as long as you’re patient ... Since a foamie trailer is much Bigger and takes longer to assemble , likely you’ll never notice when the Gripper is fully cured , so a panel waiting a week or two before assembly would only allow the Gripper to more fully dry/cure.... just sayin’ ...No worries !!!!

[Jack B.]

Thanky sai on the Glidden info. And this stuff holds foam sheets together well in layers? Seems too good to be true, which makes me question twice before coating once. I know the theory behind testing, but if it's already been done by someone here . . .

Spring may be actually almost herein south central MN. I almost have a yard on the south side of the house, and by that I mean snow free. Might be time to take the 850cc out from under the tarps and to get the 650 all put back together. I've been seeing an hearing the bikes on the road again. We've had snow into late April though so one never know do one?

It's been a little while now since I read through this whole thing so lots of little stuff has settled to the bottom of the memory stacks as it were. Or would that be as it is? Well settled is at least right.

Jack

[razzer]

Thanks everyone . I work with industrial insulation everyday so I might be able to help with some questions . A very big " but" though , I almost never use foam for my work , everything I insulate is way too hot or too cold for that type of foam . Sorry So most of the time I learn just as much as you do from the tests . Chuckle , I feel like I've been part of the extended family for a while , hearing about the dogs , cats , ponies , camping trips and all the hard work everyone has done . Oh , what is the BUB ?

[Mary C]

Bonnie,...... Oh Bonnie,...... Hey Bonnie someone here needs a history lesson on BUB. I wouldn't mind a little too. Please? at least I think you know...... and speaking of that how is the rebuild coming along? and where bouts you live? I cant remember right off and are you going to CRA this summer?

Mary C.

[bonnie]

BUB is the trailer I bought and am finishing out for camping. BUB was named by it's creator and means Big Ugly Box.
Here's his build thread: http://www.tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=19227

My avatar is the first picture on the way home. It has a torsion box deck, axle and a straight tongue bolted directly to the box portion. The bottom portion is 9' 5" long and 5' wide. The side walls are 36". I am adapting my brother's pop top design to BUB's dimensions. I hope to have it campable by the CRA in July.
Here's my build thread. The first couple of pages are a former design. http://www.tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?t=46804
With the medical costs I'm facing and the 10% I'm supposed to be losing to the sequester cuts; I won't have nearly as many build fund monies as I had planned on. No worries. BUB will get done. I am committed to the project.

[Wobbly Wheels]

Just another quick thought on the Gripper for fellow canucks...

I called Glidden in Surrey this morning and they said that it's $25 a gallon. I mentioned that, in my case, I was looking for a sandable latex primer to fill the weave on a 'glassed surface and he was saying that people normally use the 'block filler' for that.

I haven't looked into it yet, but that might be the way to get a smooth sanded finish on a TD finished with canvas and Gripper....

[GPW]

W2, From personal experience (building my house ) I can certainly recommend Block filler as a finish primer ... Much Thicker than the Gripper ... and about the same price ... Testing the Gripper on my plane model , the Gripper does sand OK ... !!! So with enough primer and block sanding , it should be possible to get a very smooth finish with the weave filled ... if you want that !

[GPW]

Tip of the day !!! The plane guys are putting the Gripper in plastic squeeze bottles (as for Ketchup or Mustard) for ease of application ... Good idea huh for those small areas on ours ... Handy for just applying a little bit ...

[Mary C]

I am making a little saw dust today sawing the base making my frame for the trailer. so I can make it 5 feet wide. I have to get my TD built and ready to travel by May 8 I am going to try!!!

GPW Thanks for the Gripper info and the squeeze bottles is a great idea. I think it will work nicely where I am putting the foam to foam. Did anyone try it foam to wood ?

Mary C.

[Mary C]

OK, I am outside finishing up the wiring Waiting for the Iron to heat up and thinking about the next phase after the base and it occurs to me we have been talking about gripper and how great it is, well question: Why not paint the bottom of the base with it???? we have talked about the black stuff, roofing tar , house Trailer roofing white stuff and putting a bearer of aluminum some type of wood and other plastic stuff so ...... How about gripper on the wood base????? Will check back later for your respected, important and honest answers........ and even the phunny ones too.

Mary C

*******

[wagondude]

It should work fine on the bottom. There is not a lot of exposure there. The only thing you might want to be conserned with might be where the floor bolts to the frame. the paint might be thin enough to wear through with road vibrations. The roofing tar (black goo) has a bit of a self healing property to it for about the same cost.

[Wobbly Wheels]

Why not paint the bottom of the base with it????

My concern with Gripper as an undercoat would be more about impact damage. If Gripper hardens to the point of being sandable, it suggests that rocks and debris would take off chips, leaving the wood more susceptible to water intrusion. As we've seen from Big Mike, once that starts, it leads nowhere good.

The advantage of asphalt based undercoats, at least from my limited perspective, is the self healing ability once the temperature comes up. That said, I'm not a body man, restorer, nor painter...nor have I actually used the Gripper.
EDIT: looks like Bill went there before me...

Sounds like a great 'destructive test' (just wait till you folks see what I have planned for my wheel well boxes: frozen turkeys, indeed lol)

[GPW]

Just me , I’m sticking (excuse the pun) with the roofing cement on the bottom ... We Know it works , having been much used by those wooden trailer folks (non -Foamlings)

[GPW]

Some people in “other" forums viewing here have cast doubt on the Grippers ability to dry/cure inside large laminated panels .. Apparently the less porous the surface , the longer the dry time , deep in the inside ... The extruded foam we normally use for trailer building (Blu' or Pink) will take in water after a while soaking , indicating a small degree of porosity , so the Gripper would fully dry Eventually ... Yet to be determined... more testing is indicated ... Guess the next test is making a larger test lamination and cutting off strips at timed intervals , seeing if the inside glue has dried yet . Never ending this testing !!! Naturally none of this doubt would be questioned of the Gripper as an adhesive for the skins...


Ps. My little Foamie plane model with small laminated panels seems to be dry and it’s stiffened up the surfaces considerably ... been several days drying now ...
here’s a pic of my model decorated with tape ... hence the idea a little decoration goes a long way ... from a meat tray ...