Thrifty Alternatives ..Building Foam Campers

[GPW]

Just a note to everybody , Apologies for not being around here much , but the wife had major back surgery and neither of us having any family to help , I have to do all the home health care service... And that has kept me pretty busy ... But she’s much improved and walking around again ... Soon we can get back to some serious trailer building again...

[rustytoolss]

Help her as much as you can...the trailer will be there after she gets better.

[GPW]

Thanks Rusty !!

[johnny_swindle]

Just a note to everybody , Apologies for not being around here much , but the wife had major back surgery and neither of us having any family to help , I have to do all the home health care service... And that has kept me pretty busy ... But she’s much improved and walking around again ... Soon we can get back to some serious trailer building again...

Glad she is better. Make sure you take care of yourself also!

Sent from my SM-G935V

[bonnie]

Just a note to everybody , Apologies for not being around here much , but the wife had major back surgery and neither of us having any family to help , I have to do all the home health care service... And that has kept me pretty busy ... But she’s much improved and walking around again ... Soon we can get back to some serious trailer building again...

Glad that went well! There's plenty of time for other things!


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[GPW]

Thanks , we never had a clue how extensive home care was ... Not only for the patient , but doing EVERYTHING else too ...

[rustytoolss]

Can you get them to clean up your garage ? do the dirty (sanding & routering) work on your Foamie ?

[GPW]

Funny , as things get better around here ( H.R.H. ) , suddenly it gets COLD ... Too cold to work on the trailer ... certainly can’t paint it ... (36F)

[lthomas987]

Can't paint at that temp but it is 50F warmer there than here yesterday.

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[GPW]

Laura , looks like we’ll have to start building for Weather extremes... that did seem like some Brutally COLD weather , and with Winter yet to come ...


"Winter is coming , and the night is dark and filled with trailers” ... hahaha

[rustytoolss]

and those trailer are frozen to the ground

[lthomas987]

My trailer still moves but I have had my car freeze to both parking lots and the floor of my insulated garage.

Still thinking after Christmas about pushing it outside and testing cold weather performance. But I want a tiny ceramic heater first. And also testing in the driveway in case it is super awful I can scoot back indoors.


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[Lotsahorses]

Well, the foam cat condo is covered in canvas but I ran into an unexpected problem. I had the entire exterior covered in canvas and cut the "door" out just prior to final coat of Glidden and thought I'd test the adhesion of the canvas on the foam door and it peeled off easily.... My technique was to use TBII at about 90% and applied it liberally to the foam but did not coat the backside of the canvas as I laid it down. I then applied one coat of gripper and one coat of Glidden top color. Was the lack of coating the back side of the canvas my mistake or was there something to do to prep the foam prior to covering it in canvas? This project was really helpful for learning technique; Pinking shears worked great for cutting the canvas, PL premium worked well for joining foam to foam but dries hard and would make fairing a joint quite a bit of work, Drywall screws did only so-so for holding pieces during glue up, and using a dry roller to smooth out the canvas worked very well. This condo will certainly make our outside stray cats happy but I have to figure out what the adhesion problem is or I wouldn't trust my camper build to stay together on the highway.

[ghcoe]

It would depend on what your definition of "easy" is. Usually the canvas is fairly easy to pull off the canvas. It really is not the glue that fails, but the foam. Look at the canvas you peeled back. Did it separate at the glue line or do you have a thin layer of foam still stuck to it? If there is a thin layer of foam stuck to it then the glue up was fine. If not then you had something on the surface of the foam that caused the glue to fail. I usually do a light sanding and/or cleaning with alcohol before glue up or painting. I use a 50/50 mix of TBII and apply to the foam/Gripper and the canvas. Making sure that I fill the canvas weave with glue so that it is wetted out. Then I use a roller to push the canvas down into the glue. In my experience I find that by painting the foam with gripper first and then apply the canvas with TBII I get a better bond to the foam. Still though the foam is usually the weak point.

[KCStudly]

If you grab a cut edge of canvas and pull it up in a peeling motion (tension at the joint) it will separate easily because the foam is not strong and you are only applying a load in a very concentrated area at any given moment. If you try to drag it off of the foam in a sliding direction (tension in the canvas fibers, shear at the joint) then you are loading it the way it is intended to be used and I guarantee you will not be able to fail any sizable sample.

Try bending a sample. Either it will be so strong that you can't bend it, or it will bend nicely with no breaking of the foam or separation at the canvas.

This is why we wrap the edges around as best as possible.

Test 'em like you use 'em.