I’m a University of Wisconsin, Madison engineering student and I’m currently doing a senior design project. We are designing some “water shoes” to walk on water (though I won’t go into the specifics). At any rate, the only manufacturing within our means for our prototype is foam and fiberglass. So far, we haven’t had the best of luck finding materials, but it looks like much of what we’re looking into has been thoroughly tested with surfboards already, so I thought I’d fire a few questions off here to see what some builders have to say. Some real advice would be good, as we are going to be building a pair of these for a prototype competition.
First of all, we need some foam for these things. While we don’t need to be so picky about our prototype, we need to consider the market for a finished product. Water absorbtion would be big here - we need these things to be easy to take care of w/ minimal maintenance. Density isn’t that big of a deal, honestly, an extra lb or two/ft^3 won’t hurt - we don’t need ultra-high performance. I noticed some will foams will delaminate over time or are harder to fiberglass. What are the foams out there and where can we get them?
Secondly, while a few of us have a little experience fiberglassing, we have not done foam and we have not purchased the materials ourselves before. Are there any good how-to’s out there? What kind of weight fiberglass is typically used - is heavier tougher? Multiple layers? Also, these have to look very good for the competition, so any finishing advice would be nice as well.
It’s tough searching forums for this kind of advice (and tougher searching google).
All your help is appreciated, thanks!
-Justin