Fun with Ethafoam Blocks

[Mike McCrea]

The shop didn’t stay boat empty for long, I needed to bring in a couple repaired boats and get them ready for transport. Long, narrow wobbly kaya. . . .things.

PC130004 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Note the angled foam block stabilizers on the sawhorses. That led to shop fun with Ethafoam blocks.

Back when I was part of the workaday world I saved ethafoam packing blocks from crates of expensive laboratory equipment . Those blocks would otherwise go in the trash, and I have uses for free easy-cut foam. Closed cell foam, but not minicel or EVA foam; ethafoam will start to UV degrade after a few years if outside exposed, but they are free, landfill destined and I have mostly indoor uses.

Cut and angle-notched those ethafoam blocks made dandy hull stabilizers for working on an upright canoe, or kayak flipped either way, and I can adjust them to fit different hull dimensions.

A paddler friend from my lab days received a shipment of -80c freezers and asked if I wanted the ethafoam blocks, “each 12.5" long c 5" wide x 3 1/2" thick”. Oh heck yes, count me in. “Each” meant happily receiving dozens of them. I was ethafoam rich again.

Ethafoam slices and dices like butter. So easily I don’t need the bandsaw, just a coping saw. And a scrap piece of 2x4 to trace an angled slot, to cut out slightly narrower than the sawhorse crossbar’s 1 ½” width so the stabilizer block has a firm grip.

Really oomphing around with repairs I cinch a cam strap around the horses to snug the hull tight to those foam blocks, but for most more gentle boat work the angled blocks alone are sufficient.

PB110010 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Those ethafoam stabilizers don’t need to be huge, although taller sometimes helps to keep narrower sharp stemmed or vee bottom boat bottoms sufficiently elevated.

PC140009 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

For starters I cut a four of those blocks in half to make eight 6 ¼” long chunks. Traced a 2x4 outline and made the cuts a little narrower, angled at end of the fitted slot, so they would seat on the sawhorse 2x4’s tilted inwards /-/_____\-\ to capture the chine curves of a hull.

Yeah boy, those ethafoam blocks cut in half lengthwise made a two set of 4 each stabilizers in a few minutes work.

PC140003 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Time to make a production run batch of slotted/angled boat horse stabilizers. I will be seeing a number of paddling friends before the year is out, and maybe I can channel my inner Oprah, “You get a set of stabilizers, and you get a set of stabilizers. . . . .”

PC140011 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Plenty to go around. Stocking stuffers if the recipients have really big feet. Heck, if my friend in the Nutmeg State ever gets off his butt and fixes his boats I’ll mail him a four set.

I still have lots of those ethafoam blocks left uncut, and I have ideas. The crossbars on my folding plastic “travelling” sawhorses are wider 2x4’s, and I need to pack those travel horses for some upcoming boat deliveries and away-from-home canoe repairs. I made a custom four set with 2” wide slots for those folding plastic horses.

PC140002 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

 

[Mike McCrea]

More ideas.

The boat transport involves a couple sea kayaks, and I have no kayak cradles, rollers or J-bars left, not even any shallow minicel vee rests, gave them all to kayaker friends. Those foam cradles are only like $6, but the shallow vee hull shape is hardly universal.

https://www.amazon.com/Equinox-1489...ocphy=9007844&hvtargid=pla-352349598843&psc=1

I wanted something that better conformed to the hull’s bottom shape near the bulkheads, and slotted to fit my rectangular Thule bars. Something custom fitted, so I made a set, lengthwise slotted to fit on my (narrower than a 2x4) Thule crossbars.

I don’t have a dado blade, so the easiest way to fashion that slot to fit over the 1 ¼” wide Thule bars was to slice and dice a couple full length blocks into three lengths, cut the recessed sandwich piece Thule bar wide but shallower, and then contact cement the pieces together.

PC150005 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Those sat contact cemented and clamped for a night

PC150008 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

The next day I cut out a hull-bottom arch, custom shaped to fit a Current Designs Nomad I need to transport soon.

PC150009 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Since the cradles are made from three slices of ethafoam contact cemented together I ran a bead of E-6000 adhesive sealant at the seams inside the recessed Thule bar edges.

PC150011 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Those toothpaste tube squeezer keys are wonderful for any adhesive or other product that comes in tubes. Inexpensive stuff like E-6000 or pricey stuff like G/flex 655; good to the last drop, and not a drop wasted.

I wanted to “seal” the slices together on the top side as well, and unlike minicel Ethafoam is kind of rough surfaced. A couple pieces of neoprene, cut to size and contact cemented in place resolved both issues.

The usual long push-pin restraints, so the neoprene doesn’t curl up as the contact cement gets tacky,

PC150012 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Contact cemented and sand bag weighted those sat for a spell.

Slotted onto the Thule racks I backed up the foam cradle with padded load stops on either side in the \______/ orientation. Those Thule Load Stops, with a strip of exercise flooring glued on, make multi-functional gunwale stops. Sometimes I want the stops angled away from the gunwales, think shouldered tumblehome canoes or decked boats. Sometimes I want vertical stops, slab sided canoes, lumber, mattress/box spring, etc.

And, as always with foam block solutions, a short webbing strap securing the cradle to the crossbar.

PC160014 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Those are dang near perfect, much better than one-size-fits-all cradles. I have a feeling we’ll be making those for a friend’s kayak trailer, custom sized for his crossbars and various boat bottoms.

PC170015 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

 

[alsg]

Time to make a production run batch of slotted/angled boat horse stabilizers. I will be seeing a number of paddling friends before the year is out, and maybe I can channel my inner Oprah, “You get a set of stabilizers, and you get a set of stabilizers. . . . .”

At the risk of being presumptuous, can I put in an order? Except I want mine with no notch (my sawhorses are too wide) and wedge shaped (to prevent rocking). A slope of about 1.5 inch rise/drop over a over a six or eight inch run ought to be about right! Two pairs should be sufficient. Definitely would be more welcome than the last gift you gave me -- cord lock remnants from your salt water corrosion destructive testing experiments.

 

[Mike McCrea]

Presume, assume, whatever; I’ll bring a couple of the uncut 12” x 5” x 3.5” Ethafom blocks next time we paddle together. BWAHAHAHA.

If your sawhorse crossbars are wider, like a 2x4’s 3 ½” width, just make the notch (a hair under) 3 ½” wide. I have a set cut that way for just that purpose, the bottom crossbars on my two-boat sawhorses are bolted on in that orientation.

Or you can pick up a set when you come by the shop to drop off that derelict Kevlar Courier, and I’ll teach you how to use a coping saw.

 

[Sweetfancymoses]

Fun with Ethafoam Blocks​

Boy, was I relieved to see that you didn't carve one into a dildo.

 

[Mike McCrea]

I did not post the NSFW photos.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

Heck, if my friend in the Nutmeg State ever gets off his butt and fixes his boats I’ll mail him a four set.

I think I know the person you're referring to and, if I'm right, I know for a fact that he does not own a saw horse on which to affix foam stabilization blocks.

However, his unfixed boats rest on a rack of 2x4's under his back porch, and the sea kay**s thereon could benefit from cheap foam cradles.

 

[Mike McCrea]

Glenn, yeah, that’s the guy. Not only does he not own a sawhorse, or comprehend that you kinda need two, I doubt he owns a coping saw.

His forlorn decked boats, the Prijon Yukon, Surge Marine and ancient Gyromax, would benefit from some angled bolster support before the decks have dents, but I have as much faith that he will tend to them as I do that he will ever regunwale his neglected and brightwork rotting Explorer, Winisk, BJX or Millbrook ME. An entropic decline to disorder of weathered boats awaiting attention.

Same deal as I made ALSG. Festively wrapped and awaiting his pick-up.


PC200012 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr