Originally Posted by Wilfor

No no i meant there's going to be Great Weather and no Wind all week in MI ...

Well it looks like you are right about that. 6 MPH and 60 degrees for tomorrow! I already have 1 new and 2 repaired combat planes ready. Foam in the morning then break about 3 and go flying. That's my plan!

And the rest of the week looks sunny and warmer all week. Could be a bummer, but our warehouse/shipping center is surrounded by farm fields..we can fly and pack foam almost at the same time!

Off the "runway" or off the pond!
I got the tracking # but it's not showing up yet in UPS site, so sometime tomorrow....

Maybe at some future time all the backorders will get filled, including my order, and the manufacturer is able to keep a steady flow of foam. When the orders move freely and the operation smoothens out, I hope to see some thought given to producing another thickness MPF foam. I use an average amount of 3mm or 1/8th inch Depron.

I was waiting for the MPF 1/4inch to be dellivered. I could not wait any longer and I used my 3mm Depron foam to do the fuselage and wing skinning. The wing is about 18 inch chord and 10 feet long. It is a mixed wood and foam skin. I use epoxy and 0.70 ounce glass cloth to protect it from rash. It was a good choice for me. It is pretty solid and resistant to scratches and bumps now. I made a good choice I believe. I would like to replenish my supply next winter for my next scratcbuild. So when things smooth out with sales, a consideration can be given to produce a smaller 3mm size MPF foam. A 2ft. X 4ft. or a 1.5 ft.X 3ft. size would be good. Something that works on easy cost basis and shipping. Hopefully down the road after some analysis.
**Neons** Bob

Yeah, a lot of us are interested in a 3mm form factor for this material, but the Michigan guys had a hard enough time just convincing Adams that they were serious about the 6mm stuff. We'll have to wait and see.

I'll tell you what, though -- 3mm Adams would solve a ton of skinning problems for those of us building anything with a compound curve on the surface. I've used 3mm EPP in the past just because it'll conform, but it has all the drawbacks of EPP. Having Adams in 3mm would be a pure joy if it forms anything like the 6mm stuff does.

Adams has offered their Readiboard at a discount in the standard Dollar store pack, and we're pondering if that can be a viable product. On the one hand most guys can get what they need if they have a dollar store nearby that stocks it. On the other, some guys live out away from any store and might be able to use it. It's about 4mm (3/16") without the paper. at this point paper on is the way they can ship it. So, we are looking at the opportunities, but as you said above, we need to really focus on optimizing the setup, packaging and shipping for our main product first. If you guys have any thoughts on the Readiboard, let us know. I may start a new thread for it to assess the market.

it would be cheaper and easier for me to just go to one of the many $Tree locations in town. I would say that the $Tree foam board would be a lot less lucrative than the MPF especially when anyone can buy on line from $Tree and yes the $Tree foam is perfect for skins IMO.
Just my thoughts.

Paper off would be the only option that might make sense to me. Yes Dollar tree(s) nearby. They are almost always out of foam, but I can find it and buy plenty when I do find it.

With paper on I don't want it. With paper off I still probably don't want it anyway because 3mm is best when I want thinner, and Dollar Tree foam is soft. Nothing wrong with that, but for my style I want something a bit more durable. Cellfoam 88 in 3mm beats Dollar tree foam for skinning around my shop. Dollar tree foam is used but not very often. It has a place but very specalized.

If MPF was 3mm too, I'd order a box right now, maybe two. So I am only one guy. Ths should be researched and do the best you can for your business plan. If there is a profit in shipping $tree foam, why not.

Fred

I'm with Fred. The paper only gets in the way, and 4mm is at least one millimeter too thick. If we can't get MPF in 3mm then I'll wait until it does become available. In the mean time I can always fall back to Depron or Cellfoam 88.

it may be possible to set up a jig to cut the sheets in a 3mm sheet and an aprox 2mm sheet out of one 6mm sheet with 1mm apox for the cut. it would be easiest to just cut strips so the foam cutting wire wont have to be as long. then you could purchase the mpf as is and have any thickness you want.

i just use an old pc power supply i converted over. i use the 5v leads and have several diff cutting tools. a battery charger works well also on 6v or 12 just get one with adjustable amperage.

you could skive a piece of 6 mm but it would be closer to 2 mm when you add in the kerf of the cutting wire and you would need a perfectly flat surface with the foam weighted down but it could be done.

6mm and 3mm have sort of become defacto standards because that's whats been offered. But open your mind and consider other possibilities. I am thinking 4 mm and 2mm would be a valuable addition to the market. What do you think? Just asking

I already use 2mm, 1mm (1 mm is actually 1.3mm measured), plus use 4mm ($tree) and have some 5mm cellfoam 88.

The 1mm & 2mm are great on micro builds, non structural bits on all builds, and skins on small to micro. However, micros are a specialty and not everyone is into that. It takes a long time to use up full sheets of material building micros.

My 5mm was white, quite stiff, so brittle too. I really felt it was an ackward size. Yes part of that is something that's different, but things seemed thin, and as size grew this was compounded. Needed more reinforcement and then seemed best on medium planes, etc. In practice I had more joint failures in minor mishaps. My 5mm sits unused for anything now. A relic for the foamie museum.

We already know about 4mm since $tree foam already exists. Some of my 5mm argument exists, but worse is it is a bit thick for skinning. Wing ribs and such can be very small if at all especially on tapered wings when the combined skins equal 8mm or more. If this material did not dent and scratch so easy, I would re-evaluate it.

So ramble on Mr. Fred, my vote is 6mm, 3mm will be widely used, sell the most. 2mm & 1mm are here to stay, but in a limited capacity. 4mm $tree is also here to stay, there is a huge following that builds with it because it was available, cheap enough, and they have the experiance using it now.

Fred

Anyone try Hotwire cutting it thinner for skins yet? Some folks did the same with FFF back in the day. OOPS! I see you guys alreay covered that back a few posts... My Bad

DG

I like the 3mm standard. If going small like indoor planes maybe thinner is good for that. Building 1/4 and 1/5th scale planes with 3mm skin and epoxy works very good. I had many instances using $Tree stuff and it is entry level with poor qualities in my type of buildng. I will not use it in my planes any more.
**Neons** Bob

I'd love to try building with some MPF in 2mm. However, as has been pointed out, 6mm is pretty much the "standard" size that has been adopted all around. 3mm has the benefit of light weight and easy forming, whereas 2mm is prolly too thin to get a whole lotta use. MPF could most likely sell all the 3mm they could produce, but the 2mm stuff would lie around collecting dust until about October. After that it would lie about collecting more dust. The strictly indoor scratch-build market just isn't anything like the indoor/outdoor crowd.