#1

[ghcoe]

Nice gutter ... very Cool idea !!!

I'm watching you!!! looking great!! I like the kerf idea. keep it up your will be unique!!!
Mary C.

Thanks guys.

[ghcoe]

So now that the kitchen is nearly ready to put together I figured that I had better start thinking about the hatch. I was not looking forward to trying to figure out how to do the tight radius on the hatch with foam. I tried a coupe ideas that I had and none seemed to work for me. It finally came down to my last ditch idea that I really did not want to go with because I thought it would be too time consuming.

So the idea came down to cutting small ribs of foam that I will be gluing together. Kind of like kerfing except it is cut all the way through. I made a hot wire jig, yes another one. The jig will make two ribs at a time so it goes pretty quick. I then set them next to each other and attached them together with some packing tape. The idea is that when I am ready to attach the ribs to the hatch that the packing tape will hold them together while the glue sets up. I will be using Great Stuff (GS) down each kerf in hopes of sealing up and gluing the pieces all together to make a nice tight 6" radius roof line. A bit of sanding and it should look great. Yes, I am being optimistic.

Roof for small radius

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So before I can glue the radius on I need to make the hatch sides stable. One panel is now glued and clamped.

Hatch

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Hatch 2

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[atahoekid]

that is coming along nicely. I think the gutter idea is a great one (try that with wood. LOL) I'll keep fingers crossed for your hatch. It sounds like it should work, but best laid plans...

[GPW]

George, you could glue something thin like old bedsheets to the tops of the hatch pieces , forming a living hinge on top , and that adds an extra bit of reinforcement under the skin too ...

[RandyG]

I just tuned in and went through the whole build, looks great! Have you thought about maybe making a template for you hatch from some plywood? Or go the other way and make a mold to keep your radias constant.

[KCStudly]

George, you could glue something thin like old bedsheets to the tops of the hatch pieces , forming a living hinge on top , and that adds an extra bit of reinforcement under the skin too ...

make a mold to keep your radias constant

These both sound like a good ideas to me. I would not trust the packing tape to hold under the pressure of the GG. That stuff has pretty strong hydraulic pressure and it would be heck to correct if things start moving around during the glue up.

I have also found that Reynolds brand plastic coated freezer paper (butchers paper, available at Wallie World in the wax paper and aluminum foil aisle) makes a reasonably good release ply for the GG; keeps it from sticking to things that you don't want it to, so that might be a good thing to use between your glue up and any molds, strongbacks, or whatever.

She's looking good! Keep up the good work.

[ghcoe]

Thanks for the tips guys.

[Audnorge]

George, your build is far better to one I've been working out in my head for some time, lightweight, strong and innovative use of foam!

Your use of the hot wire cutters and especially your rear hatch design are far beyond anything I knew about....very inspirational and educational. Thank you for sharing this with us.

Please, would you consider doing a short tutorial on just your knowledge of the hot wire cutter: how you build them, the parts needed, how to set up different shapes and jigs? This is the best thing I've seen on the foamie build pages and I need to know about hot wires before I can build the one I see in my head.

Aud

[ghcoe]

Please, would you consider doing a short tutorial on just your knowledge of the hot wire cutter: how you build them, the parts needed, how to set up different shapes and jigs? This is the best thing I've seen on the foamie build pages and I need to know about hot wires before I can build the one I see in my head.
Aud

I did do one a few weeks back. I use a car battery charger to power my hot wires, but some do have problems with different chargers. There is some info on the web on how to build your own hot wire power supply. I like the hot wire over other cutting tools because there is no foam dust.

viewtopic.php?f=55&t=55323

P.S. Thanks for the kind words on my build.

[swampjeep]

So now that the kitchen is nearly ready to put together I figured that I had better start thinking about the hatch. I was not looking forward to trying to figure out how to do the tight radius on the hatch with foam. I tried a coupe ideas that I had and none seemed to work for me. It finally came down to my last ditch idea that I really did not want to go with because I thought it would be too time consuming.

So the idea came down to cutting small ribs of foam that I will be gluing together. Kind of like kerfing except it is cut all the way through. I made a hot wire jig, yes another one. The jig will make two ribs at a time so it goes pretty quick. I then set them next to each other and attached them together with some packing tape. The idea is that when I am ready to attach the ribs to the hatch that the packing tape will hold them together while the glue sets up. I will be using Great Stuff (GS) down each kerf in hopes of sealing up and gluing the pieces all together to make a nice tight 6" radius roof line. A bit of sanding and it should look great. Yes, I am being optimistic.

DSCF1988 small.jpg

So before I can glue the radius on I need to make the hatch sides stable. One panel is now glued and clamped.

DSCF1989 small.jpg

DSCF1990 small.jpg

I have not had a chance to try any hot wire cutting myself yet, but I'm curious of this, if you were able to do these rectangle cuts, why could you not cut thin triangles kerfs, leaving maybe 1/4" of foam?
would this be easier the trying to glue a bunch of ribs together?

[ghcoe]

I have not had a chance to try any hot wire cutting myself yet, but I'm curious of this, if you were able to do these rectangle cuts, why could you not cut thin triangles kerfs, leaving maybe 1/4" of foam?
would this be easier the trying to glue a bunch of ribs together?

I did try and play around with that Idea. The problem was that the foam would fail at the kerf lines. I even went quite close to the surface. I think with this type of foam that it will tolerate bends to a certain point, but once it reaches that point it fails. Heat would probably had helped some, I did not want to mess with that though. These ribs did not take long to make and I am pretty sure it will work out the way I want. Whether it is the fastest or best way I don't know. If I build more I will work on other options.

[GPW]

If you did cut the V grooves to 1/4” (a bit thin) it would soften correctly with heat ...a possibility .. We bend the heck out of 1/4” foam all the time , with heat ...


George ... Ever think of using The Gripper instead of Gorilla glue .... less messy and it’s already primed... sorta'

[ghcoe]

George ... Ever think of using The Gripper instead of Gorilla glue .... less messy and it’s already primed... sorta'

I have been using Great Stuff (GS). I like the sanding attributes of it better than GG, and the foaming is more controllable and easier to cut too. I will be using Gripper to glue my galley panels together. I am trying to used different ideas for the build to see what works better and what I like to work with. So far I do like Great Stuff over Gorilla Glue for general gluing.

[ghcoe]

So I have been working on the hatch some today. I got my ribs set up and ready for gluing. I used packing tape for the media to keep the ribs all together for the glue up. I know some here do not like packing tape, but I have found it to work quite well when used properly. It works good as a fastener to hold parts together as they set up. Easy to remove once setup is complete. Also, I can contain "foam out" of the glue and it also works great as a releasing media.

Hatch radius ready for glue up

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So I set up the ribs the way I wanted and then attached them with packing tape. then folded the radius back over onto the hatch. Now it is time to apply the glue. I used my inner hatch walls to help with the alignment.

Glue applied

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Once the glue was applied in the valleys it was time to flip the radius back over and clamp into place. I am just gluing up the radius and did not want to actually glue it to the hatch yet. I applied packing tape as a releasing agent to the radius on the hatch and inner galley walls. I also used packing tape to clamp the radius to the hatch and inner galley walls

Radius

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[ghcoe]

A shot of the inside of the radius. The Great Stuff is filling in the voids pretty well.

Great stuff

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No glue "foam out" on the top. Should be easy to sand the radius.

Top

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I purchased some Gripper yesterday so looking to glue up some galley parts soon too....