Hi- Sorry to bring up the same old question again, but I’m interested in trying a new stringer idea with styro. Coming up with a distibutor in the El Segundo area should be a snap, but after looking at the Insulfoam web site I noticed they have a variety of products. Which one is best used as the core? I’d rather buy a block and hot wire rather than glue sheets.
Thanks in advance-
Matt
Forgot to mention that I did scour the previous posts and came up with a couple of things: I read that the SL grade is most desireable and also that B or C grade is best with well fused C being prime. But like I said: which Insulfoam product does this apply to?
Best Regards,
Matt
When I talked to them they said that they did not carry the smallest beaded eps (which I believe is C). I just asked for 1 lb eps - B grade and he seemed to know what I was talking about. The smallest size they would sell me was 8x2x2’
Here’s an old post that may help
Fusion - We usually kind of run a thumb over the edge to see if it breaks off easy. Some experience helps here. If it does break off easily and you can see that the beads themselves haven’t torn then it’s probably not fused that well. Fusion is the most important aspect. Badly fused foam leaks and breaks easily.
Pack - Well packed foam has very little space between the beads. Looking at the hot wired surface you should see even texture without a lot of holes between the beads. The smoother the texure appears the better the pack is.
Bead size - Beads are graded A, B, C, and T. A is the biggest and generally you don’t see those much anymore. Mostly you see B or C size. Generally the fusion on B will be a little better than on C, but the pack will generally be better on C. A well fused C is the best, if you can get it. Our foamer uses a B/C bead which is an in between grade which gives us a very consistant product. The foam processing machines (generally called a press) that are being used today can also process T bead which is very small. As yet I have not seen this fused well enough. The pack is awesome though.
Density - We use every density but on a daily basis the 2# is best for most boards. It has great strength to weight ratio (much better than any urethane), has the best resistance to leaking, doesn’t have to be glassed that heavy and is best for break and dent strength. 1.5# will make some real light boards with light glassing but those boards tend to be weak and on the disposible side… they do ride awesome though. There are some manufacturers who like using 1.5# and glassing them up. This is a very reasonable product anywhere you have a lot of rocky beaches or crowds. This can also be combined with a more flexible epoxy for excellent impact (ding) strength. 1# is used when coring your laminates, like Bert does. Almost all sailboards and the Surftech boards use 1# for the inner core. I have made boards using 1# with a heavy laminate and they ride awesome and have good ding resistance. They do break easy though.
EDRO is the macine that processes these foams above and Insulfoam does use this kind of machines. They are located in Chino CA and numerous other locations. www.insulfoam.com has the info and phone numbers.