Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Proof of concept: hollow fiberglass shell using insulation foam

I had a rather clever idea last night that I decided to test: a quick, easy, and [realtivly] cheap way to make hollow fiberglass shelled parts.

The idea came to me as I was working on Collin (my companion cube [picture of him soon!]) as I was using Great stuff expanding foam. I had my resin near by and thought "Well...since I plan to coat Collin, might as well run a test on what the resin will do to the foam board and Great Stuff!". Before I ran the test, I remembered I had some insulation foam I was going to use for a proton pack (basic idea was to make the pack from foam, coat in resin for toughness, and paint). So, while I was testing stuff, I cut off a small chunk of the board.

Shortly before I mixed the resin, I remembered that a friend is looking to make a gauntlet (one that wraps around the forearm). As such, it needs to be hollow. So the idea set in: see if the insulation foam melts in acetone. 

Tested the foam against acetone: and whatda know, it melts! Step two was to ensure the foam didn't melt with the epoxy. So I brushed some mixed resin on: no melting! So I figured "lets step up my game" and put two sheets of fiberglass cloth on top. Still holding up!

I let that dry, and came back today: no damage to the foam, and the resin was set!! Finaly test: resin against the acetone! Below is that test video.

Hint: it works!!


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