2 pack foam seat ...help please

[John Richens]

Hi, I know that this topic has been covered before, but could someone please give me a quick guide as to how much of the cans one should use, where to mix the solution, and how long you have before you get yourself in a big mess stuck inside the cockpit.

I bought the cans a few months ago and the instructions in total tell you to mix 50% of each solution...end of story.

We are fitting ourselves tomorrow for a single seater and therefore need to have removable seats!

Many thanks in advance,

John

[Slipper man]

Give me a call - I've done it lots of times. As a guide, 1/3rd of each tin is enough for a large seat base for a seven. I'd have thought it would be more than enough to fit the gaps between you and a single seater (Kevin may need more foam blush.gif)

[John Richens]

Thanks Keith....by midday I was literally unstuck out of the cockpit....they got a bit adventurous with the second batch because the first didn't expand too much under my *rse...batch two I could feel going off nicely and there was an element of controlled panic catching the overspill behind my neck and over the cockpit sides...

It went off nicely keeping me nice and warm ..and then I tried to get out and no... I was attached because the bin liner must have burst down my back...the foam went through two layers of clothing and formed very warmly around my skin...It's one way of removing hair off your back I suppose...I now know what having your legs waxed must feel!!

No harm done thank god but it was a slow exit from the car not helped by a dodgy leg !!

THAT'S ALL FOLKS

[Slipper man]

yES i DID THAT THE FIRST TIME. tHAT'S WHAT i WAS GOING TO WARN YOU when you rang..... (the active ingredient of Foam Pack and araldite is the same I am told!)

[Number Six]

Could have been worse John, you might be a soprano by now!teeth.gif

 

Andy

[EFA]

I need to see photo's of this......

 

Arnie Webb

The Fat Bloke blush.gif in a Slow Old Vauxhall wink.gif

[John Richens]

Cameras were mentioned a number of times,but luckily everyone was too busy bailing out !

[Nick M]

I'm sure lots of people have seen this before, but I still chuckle every time I read it.....

 

"A friend of mine once built a canoe. He spent a long time on it and it was a work of art. Almost the final phase was to fill both ends with polyureathane expanding foam.

 

He duly ordered the bits from Mr Glasplies (an excellent purveyor of all things fibreglass) and it arrived in two packs covered with appropriately dire warnings about expansion ratios and some very good notes on how to use it.

 

Unfortunately he had a degree, worse still two of them. One was in Chemistry, so the instructions got thrown away, and the

other in something mathematical because in a few minutes he was merrily calculating the volume of his craft to many decimal places and the guidelines got binned as well.

 

He propped the canoe up on one end, got a huge tin, carefully measured the calculated amounts of glop, mixed them and quickly poured the mixture in the end of the canoe

(The two pack expands very rapidly).

I arrived as he was completing this and I looked in to see the end chamber over half full of something Cawdors Witches would have been proud of.

 

Two thing occurred to me, one was the label which said in big letters: "Caution - expansion ration 50:1" (or something similar)and the other that the now empty tins said "approximately enough for 20 small craft"

 

Any comment was drowned out by a sea of yellow brown foam suddenly pouring out of the middle of the canoe and the end of the canoe bursting open. My friend screamed and

leapt at his pride and joy which was knocked to the ground as he started trying to bale handfuls of this stuff out with his hands.

Knocking the craft over allowed the still liquid and not yet fully expanded foam to flow to the other end of the canoe where it expanded and shattered that end as well.

A few seconds later and we had a canoe with two exploded ends, a mountain of solid foam about 4ft high growing out of the middle, and a chemist firmly embedded up to his

armpits in it.

 

At this stage he discovered the reaction was exothermic and his hands and arms were getting very hot indeed. Running about in small circles in a confined space while

glued to the remains of a fairly large canoe proved ineffective so he resorted to screaming a bit instead.

 

Fortunately a Kukri was to hand so I attacked the foam around his hands with some enthusiasm. The process was hindered by the noise he was making and the fact he was

trying to escape while still attached to the canoe. Eventually I managed to hack out a lump of foam still including most of his arms and hands. Unfortunately my tears of laughter were not helping as they accelerated

the foam setting.

 

Seeking medical help was obviously out of the question, the embarrassment of having to explain his occupation (Chief Research Chemist at a major petrochemical

organisation) would simply never have been lived down.

 

Several hours and much acrimony later we had removed sufficient foam (and much hair) to allow him to move again. However he still looked something like a failed audition for Quasimodo with red burns on his arms and

expanded blobs of foam sticking everywhere. My comment that the scalding simple made the hairs the foam was sticking to come out easier was not met with the enthusiasm I felt it deserved.

 

I forgot to add that in retrospect rather unwisely he had set out to do this deed in the hallway of his house (the only place he later explained with sufficient headroom

for the canoe - achieved by poking it up the stairwell.

 

Having extricated him we now were faced with the problem of a canoe construction kit embedded in a still gurgling block of foam which was now irrevocably bonded to the hall

and stairs carpet as well as several banister rails and quite a lot of wallpaper.

 

At this point his wife and her mother came back from shopping...... Oh yes - and he had been wearing the pullover Mum in law had knitted him for his birthday the week before."

 

 

[John Richens]

Yep...I'd remembered that one and told the story whilst sitting waiting for the kit to go off smile.gif

[Graham Perry]

Speaking of GRP I have found that it is the best way to finish a seat made by two pack foam. Tape is okay, but a more perminant method is to coat it with GRP.

 

One good thing about the foam is that is is easy to use as a filler for all the holes that the initial mix leaves behind in the seat . It can then be easily sanded or surformed to shape.

 

I have used it for all sorts of things over the years. Its so useful to have about

the place, the other day I even used some to repair a hole on the inside of my favorite pair of training shoes !