Foam sandwich repairs - books, websites?

[pir8ped]

Hi,

I have just bought a foam sandwich cat in need of repair. I've done some fibre-glassing before but I haven't worked with foam.

There are only 2 books I see on the subject listed at Amazon and one of them was published in 1972. think techniques and materials may have moved on since then.

I found

a.b.b. - amateur boat building How to build a foam sandwich composite boat

but I need more detail.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

John Pedersen

[GordMay]

Handbook of Adhesive Bonded Structural Repair
By Raymond F. Wegman, Thomas R. Tullos
Handbook of Adhesive Bonded ... - Google Book Search

Specifically:

Repair of Solid Cored Structures (ch. 10, pg. 160 ...):
Handbook of Adhesive Bonded ... - Google Book Search

and:

Joining and Repair of Composite Structures
By K. T. Kedward, Hyonny Kim, Symposium on
Joining and Repair of Composite ... - Google Book Search

and:

Replacing damaged balsa core ~ by Bruce Niederer
http://westsystem.com/ewmag/19/pdf/E...acing_core.pdf

and:

Core Materials in Polymeric Composites
Core Materials in Polymeric Composites

[pir8ped]

Thanks for this list Gordon - it's better than I came up with.

However, Handbook of Adhesive Bonded Structural Repair is aimed at chemists and engineers.One of the others looks like a military handbook, with a lot of information about cores with metal skins, and again, this isn't really aimed at the boat builder.The other links were interesting, and I am picking up bits and pieces of the info I need, but I am surprised there doesn't appear to be some sort of manual for working with foam sandwich specifically for boat builders/repairers.
So I'm still in the market for a book that would save me the time of googling about, picking up tips here and there.

[Southern Star]

pir8ped, I thought the article by Niederer was helpful and spot on (based upon my limited experience). There is also an article in a previous Good Old Boat, as I recall. I'm not sure you really need an entire book.

One question for you to consider is whether you want to re-use the deck sections that you have cut out (as some recommend if you are replacing large areas). Finally, I would certainly recommend using non-blush epoxy resin (available from Mas and others).

Brad

[pir8ped]

Yes, that was a good article, but it didn't really address what I need to do - I may as well spell it out.

The main job I have is to replace the cockpit floor (12' x 6' approx). I have been advised to use foam, Divinycell, 1" thick, with 1000g glass/square metre ( I hope I have that right ). I guess I need to make up the cockpit floor on my workshop floor then fit it into the boat. But I don't know the details of using foam ( without vacuum bagging ). I don't even know such little things as whether I need to seal the foam with epoxy first, or just wet it out, lay on the glass - how many layers - lots of thin layers or one thick. Etc - my questions go on, which is why I thought a book might be a good idea.