Foaming Tips and Tricks

[Yacht Dr.]

I have seen alot of foaming questions so I decided to post some tips for everyone <br /><br />1.Tape some plastic around your fill holes (so when it comes expanding out you dont have such a mess )<br />2.Have plenty of heavy dish rubber gloves on hand ( one pair may not cut it )<br />3.Have a little bucket of acetone on hand to wash your gloves in from time to time<br />4.WEAR a resportator !!<br />5.drill some vent holes if your filling a contained area. (If your foam filles your fill hole..and still expands..then Ker-Pow !! you could do some damage )<br />6.use a plane ol' hacksaw blade to cut away any excess foam<br />7.used buckets will get hot ! do not place them near flamables (like your handy acetone bucket)<br /><br />Thats about all I can think of at the moment..Peace and good luck

 

[Moody Blue]

Re: Foaming Tips and Tricks

A couple more.<br />1) Forgot one important tip. Wear safety glasses. Because of the tenacity of this stuff and the chemicals required to clean it up, you don't want it getting in your eyes.<br />2) Mix the product close to where you will be pouring it. Once it starts to catalyse you won't have time to walk across the garage and up a ladder into the boat etc.

 

[BillP]

Re: Foaming Tips and Tricks

The problem with pouring too much foam is it WILL plug up the escape holes before all is fully expanded. It will bust everything so be careful on the measurments.

 

[Crappie_Fan]

Re: Foaming Tips and Tricks

This is something I've been reading in the archives (search feature) and had it all figured out untill everyone started saying how easy it is to bust your floor or hull. So now I guess I will pour small amounts with the floor out, then shave the foam back down level with cross members in my hull. Seems like more work but I dont want to be repairing anymore holes or cracks etc... And since my foam is more structual foam than float foam, I need it to be right against my floor. <br /><br />Thanks for the tips

 

[Yacht Dr.]

Re: Foaming Tips and Tricks

Actually..Ive only seen a floor "POP" 3 times..<br /><br />it was a full flooring job...Big Bang..WoW !<br />It never was a Hull blowing ( would kinda speak volumes if a hull failed b-4 a deck did.. can somebody say Weak hull then ?? )<br /><br />You dont really need to worry about a breakout unless your doing large amounts of foam pourings..

 

[Crappie_Fan]

Re: Foaming Tips and Tricks

Alright in my situation, I have 2'x 2' sections that I will need to pour. thr problem is the deepest part is about 2.5" from where I would pour in to the hull. Seems like it would be hard to get to slosh to the sides of the cavity and not come right up and out of the hole I poured it in. How does that sound, doable or should I pour before the floor goes in?<br /><br />Thanks for the advice.

 

[BillP]

Re: Foaming Tips and Tricks

Pour before the floor goes in. You will have better coverage and can do it in 2-3 pours to control thickness. This also lets you line the area with plastic if you want to keep the bottom of the foam out of bilge water.<br /><br />I've only seen one floor pop up...and three of us were standing on it to keep it down. It wasn't glassed yet but we thought our weight would keep the foam down. Wrong.

 

[Maximerc]

Re: Foaming Tips and Tricks

The stingers in the Baja I have been working on only run the length. I put holes every 2 feet of so, Tipped the boat up as high as I could, would guess it was a 25 degree angle. Started filling from the stern. I dont have any real closed in areas but it still soncerned me , I did a sample pour in a area that needed foam anyway to get a feel for how much I was really gonna get.

 

[Maximerc]

Re: Foaming Tips and Tricks

The stingers in the Baja I have been working on only run the length. I put holes every 2 feet of so, Tipped the boat up as high as I could, would guess it was a 25 degree angle. Started filling from the stern. I dont have any real closed in areas but it still soncerned me , I did a sample pour in a area that needed foam anyway to get a feel for how much I was really gonna get.