Quote:
Originally Posted by aguachico  Josh; mucho props to you for this post. The posting alone is a lot of work.
Can you explain the divinycell? Is it just a filler where you do not want to use plywood? Why do you choose it over plywood? How do you prep it so it doesn't absord a lot of resin?
thanks
Art |
Art,
The actual name for anything that is sandwiched between fiberglass is called "core". The logic behind the "core" idea is that the thicker the wall (of fiberglass in this case) the stronger it is, just look at the construction industry, have you even seen an "I" beam, I'm sure you have, the logic behind the I beam is the same idea as the core, the thicker the I beam is, the stronger it gets, same thing happens with cored fiberglass, the thickness relates directly to it's strength.
Two factors to consider in boat building are:
How durable the material is, or how suceptible it is in the water environment where it's going to be used. I'm taking about material decay. Plywood will rot. Divinycell is a composite material, it will not rot.
Weight. The heavier the boat, the more water it will displace, the more power it will require to move it, the more fuel it will use, the more $$$ you'll end up using to move it. Divinycell weights far less.. maybe 5-7% the weight of comparable thickness plywood.
So Divinycell is a semi-rigid PVC foam used as a sandwich core material when strength, stiffness and low weight is desired.
The other issue to consider would be how much resin will it absorb. Divinycell is a close cell foam, so basically it doesn't "absorb" resin, you need to cover the cells that were left open when the sheet was cut but that's not absorbing in my book, that's wetting...
Also the close cell characteristic of Divinycell also makes it makes it impervious to water.
The bottom line is that even though any core is going to be sandwiched between layers of fiberglass, it's going to be only a matter of time till water gets thru the fiberglass layers and into the core. I'd rather have the peace of mind that my core will not rot, thus I will keep my strength, and the boat is lighter thus I'll spend less money every time I use the boat.
The divinycell pays for itself in a flash with today's gas prices.
To answer your last question of how do I prep the divinycell, well I don't, I just use my compressed-air-gun to make sure it has no dust or so.
Josh out
Enjoy the mini update guys.... As Fred Archer says, knowledge is everything...
I'll post some pictures tomorrow....
Linear Mode
