Gatorfoam® Imapact Resistance
Jeff made /asked the following comment / questions in my blog post on Adding a Gatorfoam® mine liftout. I felt my answer would be appropriate here also. I should also note that Dave at
http://www.gatorfoam.net usually ships up to 48" long pieces. Buyers have picked up longer pieces from him at train shows and I was able to ride to his place in VT and pick my pieces up, all cut to width by 8 foot long.
How impact resistant is this stuff - I did a brief search on it on the MRH website and it's been mentioned quite a few times now.
ANS Jeff the veneer is a wood composite on both sides of the Gatorfoam® and the foam filler is a rigid dense material, not anything like the foam board we can buy at places like Michaels. Dave buys the higher end quality of Gatorfoam® but there are others selling lower grades.
I'm probably slightly above average in the "clumsiness" category, so I wonder if I were to stumble into the stuff, is it going to crumple under the impact of a 200lbs person?
ANS Jeff my short answer is it will not crumple easily. BUT in the interest of science I took a 3 5/8" X 24" long piece of 1/2" Gatorfoam®, placed it on the 3/4" enge of a 1 x 8, and applied pressure on both ends, It did break at slightly less than 40 lbs of pressure. (Possibly aided by the sharp corners of the 1X8).
I'm reassured on a repeating basis that wood will not, nor will styrofoam backed up by wood.
ANS The above is true but I can drill through Gatorfoam® in 10 seconds just by holding an 1/8" twist drill between my fingers.
The stuff sounds amazingly and wonderfully light - I'm just wondering if there are any downsides to it?
ANS None that I found, I love this stuff! I have found that what makes it easy to place track nails with pliers also makes a poor surface to back up even light hammering. I made a small dent in the surface when I dropped and old cast iron iron onto the surface.
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I wanted the 1/2" Gatorfoam® on the front so I could use another technique I liked to build controls into the 1/2" Gatorfoam® 1 x 4 fascia. I have submitted a step by step article top MRH, so maybe you will see it in the future.
Honestly I have not had any experience with impact resistance. I have another 80 lbs on you and also qualify as a clumsy person. My reason for the Gatorfoam® was to be able to move the sections from the train / bedroom to the dining room table to work on it. On the table I do have the extra support when working over it. However most of my work has been with the extension on it's side, wiring with the top or bottom facing me, not crawling under or leaning over. In the case of track feeders and signal controls I have been able to drill and solder wires from the top, tip the 8 foot 14 pound +/- section on it's side, connect to underneath wiring and decoders and repeat.
Dave at http://www.gatorfoam.net, my supplier may be able to supply some added info. I had the pleasure of visiting Dave's layout and saw what he had done with Gatorfoam® for sturdy, firm, flat and light bases for his models and modeling. See some pictures below.
The base of the roundhouse is 1/2" GF painted concrete color. The flat area in front is GF also.
Dave with one of his larger liftouts.
Building kit built around 1/2" GF
Note Dave's use of GF on his HO bridge.
This is my modified wire rack (Sams Club) work platform I made to counteract some of my clumsiness. Here I am leaning over my original layout built on a 36" hollow core door.
Getting back to your question, when I saw Daves 24" x 48" module using conventional 1x4 wood on the perimeters and a couple of 1x4 wood cross members, I just had to see if I could do it all out of Gatorfoam®. No longer having a workshop I wanted something I could work in an apartment, with little nois and dust. It is working well for me but using Dave's method of smaller sections, supported by traditional benchwork is probably more practical. for most modelers,
However if you find yourself in my situation of wanting a large lightweight removable extension, I am very happy with the way mine turned out.
P.S. I probably will add removable legs to go from my cross members down to my work bench, when I am working above.
John
