expanding foam?

[steve barry]

I just got done making a hard case for the car. i made a wood frame to fit inside a rubber maid action packer. i am a big guy and can stand on the action packer - so its pretty heavy duty - not the average rubber maid container.

http://www.rei.com/product/634288

my question is - has anyone used the expanding spray foam "great stuff" to pad a camera in a hard case? seems like it would be a pretty good, form fitting solution for odd spaces. it may get crumbly real fast though. i already used the low expanding spray foam to pad the space between the wood frame and the plastic walls of the action packer. worked like a champ.

i will not be putting glass in the case....just camera and camera accessories.

thanks

steve

[Ralph Barker]

I've had various electronics companies ship equipment in foam that was form-fit to the gear. They line the box with plastic sheeting, spray in the expanding foam, add another sheet of plastic, then press the item into the foam while it is still wet. After the foam dries, it has looked like they trimmed off an excess foam to fit the box.

As you noted, out-gassing might be an issue. And, I'm not sure how the rigid-when-dry foam would compare to the usual flexible foam rubber in terms of vibration reduction, and so forth.

[steve barry]

Thanks Ralph - I had not considered the vibration absorbing. probably right. and also, i just realized that if i did this - i would have to adjust my camera exactly the same way everytime i put it back. probably not the best idea.

[Ron McElroy]

When I had my race car I made a couple of seats from this 2-part expanding foam. This stuff gets HOT when curing so I don't know how safe it would be for camera gear.

I bought it from Pegasus racing supply.

[steve barry]

im just talking about the stuff in a can, "great stuff" is the brand, and you get it at home depot. its one part. there are two types....one expands quite a bit, and the other is low expansion for windows and doors. it does not get hot as it cures....and it is flammable, but not extremely. or at least, the gas vapors are at relatively low concentrations when using a little can in say a garage. maybe huge amounts of the stuff curing in a sealed room would be a problem.

[Tim k]

Steve,
We use the great stuff at work. When its wet its the stickiest messy stuff you can imagine. There is practically no way to get it off you, or anything it gets on. When its dry its not terribly durable. If you could find the stuff the shippers use, I think you'd be way better off.
Tim K

[CG]

I had an issue with home user foams like Great Stuff. I padded a camera container and had an odd occurrance. Immediately after installation, the foam looked like all was normal. But, after a day or two there was considerable additional expansion. The space for the camera shrunk after a couple of days, and the sides bowed out. I was using cans of old foam that I had left over from some building projects, so the foam may have been old.

I may have done something wrong in my application, but I probably won't be using consumer grade foam to build cases.

C