outfitting materials other than minicel

philcanoe · Post by **philcanoe** » Thu Apr 26, 2007 10:26 pm

once helped make pillars/walls out of the stuff, we sandwiched a piece of lexan between two sheets... made for an incredibly stiff wall... the foam kept the walls in place, and the lexan added considerable rigidity

bearboater · Post by **bearboater** » Thu Apr 26, 2007 11:36 pm

phil, I have debated adding the blue foam as just the pillar by itself, how much stiffer was it with the lexan, seems liek you would be able to get away with just the 2 inch piece of stiff styrodur.
cheers
-isaac

philcanoe · Post by **philcanoe** » Fri Apr 27, 2007 12:02 am

can't give you numbers...the other guy had access to UAB School of Engineering Lab, and tested a couple of different setups ...

he tested:

1) single lexan sheet laminated between two of foam
2) two of lexan between three sheets (foam- lexan- foam- lexan- foam)
3) a single corrugated lexan sheet between two of foam (this lexan was similar to corrugated paper, with folds-between two sides of plastic)
4) and of course just foam alone

he went with the foam-lexan-foam-lexan-foam ... it checked out much better that the rest... surprising the the single lexan did not blow away the foam only, as when load was applied it tended to list to one side or the other and then fail... i believe the corrugated was strong, but water adsorption was inevitable

John Coraor · Post by **John Coraor** » Fri Apr 27, 2007 4:31 pm

My current slalom C-1, like a lot of other slalom boats, uses a single thickness of blue foam because it is lightweight. However, I have to say that when comptemplating resistance of the potential hydraulic pressure without buckling or twisting, there is something reassuring about a 3" wide minicell wall that is lacking from a 1.5" blue foam wall.

John