drying out floatation foam

[paul watki]

Re: drying out floatation foam

sorry button slip.

 

[paul watki]

Re: drying out floatation foam

Hi craig<br />Reading about your foam problem.<br />If you use epoxy resin in any quantity be aware of the toxic fumes this gives off when curing,<br />wet foam could be the least of your problems.you said you removed this foam in good sizes, have you consider using polystyrene foam, Its waterproof, dense, making it very bouyant for its volume and reasonably cheap. builders suppliers sell it for insulation in large cuttable pieces. Just a thought

 

[Craig W]

Re: drying out floatation foam

thanx for the comments pw. I have been working extensively with epoxy on my other project. This thread was just a "throw the idea out there" type post. M original post, was not so much based on cutting costs (I'm a firm believer in spend the $$ and do it right the first time), but I was much more concerned about the temps needed and my "window" of time left which I might have been able to foam. I thought long and hard on my own and also about what was said here, I now also having foam components left over from my other project. So, I will be throwing out the old foam and re-pouring new stuff once the temps warm up.<br /><br />Franki, take Hooty's comment with a grain of salt. It's your perogative to use plastic pop bottles along with foam, however, beside just reading this post, if you arent' aware of the thread he's 'referring' to, run a search for "ping pong balls" and "floatation".

 

[Hooty]

Re: drying out floatation foam

Fyi, plastic bottles and ping pong balls work very well for floation. The only thing wrong with it is gasoline disolves the ping pong balls but it also disolves styrofoam so you figger.<br /><br />c/6<br />Hooty

 

[Bco128]

Re: drying out floatation foam

recieved an e-mail on the versi-foam.but going to start a new thread on it.easier to locate that way,plus i wont be running around turning craigw's tread into a new one

 

[greatdayne51]

Re: drying out floatation foam

Craig, I agree with all the above that say replace it. When you figure the safety and the cost, it has to be like a 2 to 5 % ratio, time to replace. Just my opinion. That's about 2 cents. Anyway, have nothing but fun on the water, that's what it's there for.

 

[dabble73]

Re: drying out floatation foam

I am curious to the fact why so much talk about foam. It does not add boyancy to the boat unless it the boat starts to take on water? I filled my last boat hull with a two part that I got from the local marine repair shop about $110 for a gallon. I don't know if it was closed cell or open cell though. Some people just say leave it out unless you put alot in...because if you breach the hull it will take a lot of foam to keep it afloat unless your foam to boat ratio is correct as you see in most bass boats.

 

[JasonJ]

Re: drying out floatation foam

dabble, all you have to know is it only takes about 16 cubic feet of foam to keep a 17 foot boat with gear and passengers at the surface. A boat that weighs X amount of pounds on land is lighter by the amount of water it is displacing when fully submerged. If boat weighs 1200 pounds on land and it displaces (for example) 9 cubic feet of water while fully submerged, then it only weighs 615 pounds under water. If you want that boat to stay at the surface, then you need at least 9 or ten cubic feet of foam to displace enough water to keep it afloat (1 cubic foot of water equal about 62-65 lbs). You also want to account for the max payload including passengers, so you add more foam, but you also acount for the water displaced by the people/stowed gear and put the appropriate amount of foam. Make sense?

 

[AW]

Re: drying out floatation foam

I found I could fiberglass to polyurethane and it worked pretty well.<br /><br />Polystyrene (coffee cup white Styrofoam) is lighter, doesn't absorb water, and depending how you buy it it's probably cheaper. The down side is it doesn't stick to the boat, and polyester resin eats through it, so you have to rely on the boat holding together enough to keep the foam inside. I'm not sure how epoxy would work on it.<br /><br />Most of the floating docks I have seen have either blue or orange foam, which I think is polypropylene. Polyurethane isn't good for docks because it absorbs water, as you know.

 

[dabble73]

Re: drying out floatation foam

great info, thanks jason...i guess a little physics in college would have helped me out here