Folks,

I'm looking to get ahold of some Dow BlueCor for a bit of scratch building. Anyone know who carries it the San Jose/Northern California area? I'm not interested in the Owens Corning pink stuff - just the Dow BlueCor.

-ZagiZagi

Should make a contest. Maybe if we give a prize to the first finder we will get it at last here in the bay area. I've visited several Home Depot stores and one Lowes and found nothing comparable.

I do not know if it ios because the lowest temp. here is about 34 (and then we complain about how freezing cold it is), or because of the earthquakes, but I'm starting to believe that houses here do not use this kind of foam.

Michel

Okay, so now I'm on a Mission From God (TM) to find some damned BlueCor in Northern California so that we can create a pack of blue planes. I wrote Home Depot (HQ) and Dow (HQ) with formal requests to tell me exactly where we can get it here. I will most assuredly keep you all in the loop.

We'll get our blue planes yet, lads!

-ZagiZagi

Guys, you wouldn't believe how easy it is to build a Zagi knockoff outta this stuff. I built two 52" span wings yesterday and flew them both today! Think I'll call 'em "ZagNutz" hehehe

With full size radio gear and battery, carbon spar, coro ailerons and winglets the AUW came in at 20 oz! Comes off the high start like a rocket and tracks really well.

Cost to build one airframe? $4.00 bucks! (Yowie!)

All I gotta do now is find a hill!

CenTexFlyer

Are you hot wire cutting the Zagi knockoffs to get the airfoil? How are you making them?

-ZagiZagi

Nope, no hot wire here. I use the fan-fold crease as my leading edge and cut the angle in for the root and the tip with a sharp Xacto blade. I use a tapered piece of 3/4" Blucor foam to form the "spar" to shape the airfoil. A screen wire roller tool creases the foam from the leading edge to just past where the spar is on the upper surface only. This helps to form a nice smooth foil rather than a hard break at the highest point of the curve. Hot glue (hi heat - 160+ stuff!) holds everything together.

The neat part is you can build in a little wing tip washout or roll the leading edge up a little when you join the trailing edge.

I've never flown a Zagi before, and only have seen one in the wild once, but I was very pleased with the flat glide of this Bluecor wing in both test glides and bungee launches. Another session this evening demonstrated some aileron flutter when REALLY stretching the rubber, but a bit of trimming seemed to help considerably.

The prototype wing was fixed up with a Speed 400 and between that and the wind it was WILD! I decided I needed some stick time on the unpowered ones since the prototype flew far, far away from me on Saturday and I had to hunt thru the woods to find it. I think now I could handle it now that I have the two nonpowered ones trimmed out and flying.

I get the opportunity I'll try to get some pics done and posted....

CenTexFlyer

Thanks for the building tips, CenTexFlyer! I think I can get ahold of some of the Owens Corning Fanfold insulation here in Northern California. It's ugly (pink) but it's the same extruded polystyrene that BlueCor is. I plan to build Speed 400 planes with the stuff. I am REALLY looking forward to getting ahold of some of that insulation!

-ZagiZagi

I don't think you'll be disappointed Zag.... gotta figure that even if you go high end, $5 in material and about 6 hours to make a wing you can bounce alot and not worry about it! Keep us posted on your efforts.

i hope your going to tell us other bay area flyers where we can get some ofthis foam from ZAGIZAGI personaly i dont care if its blue pink or red with green spots as long as it's light strong and cheap

Hey Zagi,

I might have a preliminary web page up by tonight on my Bluecor foamie. Stay tuned to this channel.....

This is really difficult research, guys. So far I have talked to Dow, Owens Corning and a dozen stores like Home Depot. Here are the results:

Dow makes a blue EPS sheet product in 1/4" thickness called BlueCor. See the website at http://www.dow.com/styrofoam/na/dow_home/prod/1.htm . BlueCor is not carried by any distributors in the Bay area.

Owens Corning makes a butt-ugly pink EPS sheet product in 1/4" and 3/8" thicknesses called FanFold Foam Residing Board. See the website at http://www.owenscorning.com/around/i...ts/fanfold.asp . Owens Corning Products are carried by Home Depot in Northern California. See http://www.owenscorning.com/around/r...oduct=Foamular .

When I called Home Depot (and I have talked now to 4 stores), they said that they don't normally stock it but that if I put a special order in, they can order it. Problem is, I have to buy a "palette" minimum. A palette is $2300 worth of the product, unfortunately. For that kinda money, I can get a whole whangdoodle of Depron from overseas, I betcha.

I also talked to a company called J R W ENTERPRISES. Their info is 408-988-4097, 850 ALDO AVE, SANTA CLARA, CA 95054. They said that while they don't have Owens Corning 1/4" FanFold, they might (I stress "might") be able to order it if the demand is there. I encourage you guys to call them and ask them for it, so that they can see that there is a demand for it.

Other than that, maybe you guys can help me call all the Home Depots on the 2nd Owens Corning URL above. Maybe one of them actually has the FanFold.

Do you guys realize that Owens Corning FanFold is made in the friggin' Silicon Valley? And we can't buy it here? Insane.

I'll keep slogging away.

-ZagiZagi

Here's how I made my Bluecor ZagNutz

http://home1.gte.net/texhills/index.html

CenTexFlyer

Hey, add another bay area flyer to this list. I am in San Jose on the Cupertino border. I have not found any good blue foam either. I would love to have something to put my full sized gear into. It's just sitting in the drawer.

Good info on different foams at: http://www.cp-inc-us.com/casa/news/news_99-03.htm

Centex,
The design looks good. But, I can't see the measurement dimentions. The numbers just don't show up on my screen. There are pieces of the numbers there and others missing. Does anyone else have this problem?