update on ground foam for scenery

A while back I posted a link to a page on my website desribing how I was making my own ground foam for my scenery. I got a lot of favorable response from people who have tried it and made their own. Earlier this week it was raining, so I decided to make foam instead of going skiing and accidently stumbled onto something. One of the batches I made was wetter than normal when I dumped it out of the blender. I did not think it would be a problem so I left it to dry along with the 4 other piles that I made. Well, after being sick with that achy, sinusy cold thing tha was going around and not able to do much but sleep for three days I was able to get back down there last night to see if the foam had dried. Well it did, the 4 normal piles were like they usually come out and the wet pile was one solid clump. I tried to break it up but I could only get it into dime sized pieces. so, I figured what the heck…see if I can run it back through the blender. Well I did and the results were stunning. the foam round up much finer and fluffier than what I have been getting. I ran all of the stuff I made earlier back through and it all came out real nice. It seems that the paint stiffens the foam up a bit and allows the cutters to chop it up finer. I did all of this dry and it only took about 30 seconds to run each batch back through on high speed.

Dan Pikulski
www.DansResinCasting.com

Fantastic! I’m in the process of building my first layout and having recently retired, I watch the pennies a little closer than I used to. Between your ground foam formula and the process of making conifers from furnace filters (in an earlier topic), I can save millions! Well, dozens maybe [;)]. Thanks much for the info!!

KarlP
you may also want to check out one of my previous posts on “financially favourable” trees. here is a pic and a link.
Have fun and be safe.

http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=29899

Karl.

Karl,

Very nice trees indeed and I was just talking with my wife about how I’ll need some deciduous and not all conifers. Now I will have to find a substitute for the berry twigs as there is nothing around here like those. Perhaps I can find something in a craft store that will work. At any rate, thanks for the info and the link. Cheers!

Karl (also spelled correctly [;)] )