After watching a Nova show about making stronger materials, I was inspired to create a super strong foam cylinder wrapped in a strong, resin-soaked cloth. My first attempt involved spraying foam in between two pieces of PVC pipe to create a nice, even wall thickness and a perfectly cylindrical outside and inner core.
I wrapped both pipes in thin plastic to keep the foam from sticking to the PVC. As you can see, whatever chemical reaction was supposed to happen, didn't.
Unfortunately that didn't work. I'm not sure if there wasn't enough air, or the can wasn't shaken well enough, but very little of the foam actually expanded like it was supposed to.
My next attempt involved creating a hallow cylinder out of fabric and filling that with foam. It seemed to work, but only kinda. Firstly, I didn't have quite enough foam, so the cloth wasn't filled all the way. Secondly, because there's a seam where the two halves of the cylinder come together, that point is very weak. Thirdly, it's really ugly looking and way too big around. I was hoping to get a taller, thinner cylinder, rather than a short, fat one.
No comments:
Post a Comment