Continue to Site

Eng-Tips is the largest engineering community on the Internet

Intelligent Work Forums for Engineering Professionals

  • Congratulations MintJulep on being selected by the Eng-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!

Where to scavange and cut high density foam 3

Status
Not open for further replies.

JoseDRG

Mechanical
May 21, 2010
12
Hi,

I need to line a plastic case with high density foam to package some equipment. I know that i can buy HD foam from case vendors but, I was curious if there are some places where I could scavenge it or get it cheaper. Also, how do you cut HD foam to get the nice clean cuts?

Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks,
 
Replies continue below

Recommended for you

Hot wire knife might be one approach. Not sure which particular foam you're looking for, but many such foams are used in the packaging industry.

I've also seen the inverse approach; the equipment is wrapped with plastic and suspended in the cavity of the box and instant foam is applied around it. Home Depot sells something like that in pressurized cans.

TTFN

FAQ731-376
 
Rubber foams like neoprene or silicone should be available from any seal company.

HDPE is more common for packaging.
 
We have a big bin of the stuff downstairs in shppiing, I'm guessing they wouldn't notice if some went missing;-). Seriously though, any place around you that ships/receives relatively high value stuff like fancy electronics etc may have scrap.

As to cutting it, hot knife seems to be how they do it for most of the stuff we play with. However, I've used a band saw with adequate results - though lots of 'fuzz' gets generated.

Posting guidelines faq731-376 (probably not aimed specifically at you)
What is Engineering anyway: faq1088-1484
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Part and Inventory Search

Sponsor