My minicell blocks, as in the ones I use to press my feet against rather than foot pegs, have never compressed. There have been some long paddles where I wished they would…
Rookie - minicell tool suggestions: serrated steak knife, sureform, dragon skin, coarse & medium sand paper.
Have used yoga blocks successfully, and easy to find at a chain store.
Serrated knife works great, lost my dragon skin and have been unable to locate a replacement.
Glad to hear the foam doesn’t compress over time.
@kayamedic Thanks for the link. Had to do a search on dragon skin - came up with some interesting responses.
I have a couple of Microplaners in my kitchen drawer. I can grate really hard cheese with them, so they should be able to multitask and work on minicell. Would be nice to have the same tool help fix my meal and my kayak.
http://us.microplane.com/microplaneclassicserieszestergrater.aspx
@@Seadddict
Had no idea what sureform was but after seeing a photo, happy to learn that’s what the one I have is called. Thanks!
you can get a few hints on carving out a seat or working with minicell foam from this Nick Shade video… https://youtube.com/watch?v=5b6x5M6Z-QM
You can glue up pieces of foam with contact cement.
Remember …“Sanding is fun…sanding is fun…sanding is fun…”
You can get some minicell from Redfish Kayaks cheap. These $12 “kits” have some nice sized scraps from their seat building and outfitting. Nice chunks for a good price.
http://www.redfishkayak.com/foam.htm
Oh Rookie don’t use the same planers for Minicell and Parmesan! I don’t t hink Minicell is good for your tummy! Unless you have cleaning tips for those microplanes… Mine doggedly hang on to petrified lemon zest.
But it’s such a handy little rasp, kayamedic The small one would be easy to use in a tight space - although right now I have no idea if the shaping should be done in or out of the cockpit. Will watch that video overstreet linked tonight.
When mine get gunky (like with ginger) I soak them in hot soapy water for a bit then clean them under running hot water with a small stiff brush. Am too curious not to give it an initial try, but if it doesn’t clean out easily then it will be Plan B.
Thanks, Jon, for the link. Saving all this good info in my “kayak repair” folder.
Kayakmedic: dried citrus makes a nice glue so I know what you mean. I have had success with my zest micro-grater by soaking it in soapy water and cleaning it with a retired toothbrush. All my old toothbrushes go first through a dishwasher cycle for sanitation and then into a jar under the kitchen sink. Perfect for everything from cleaning tile grout to evicting dog doo from the interstices of Vibram soles.
I’ve been wondering about those yoga blocks and bolsters I often see (very cheap) in the off-price stores as raw material for kayak mods. They seem to be made of a pretty dense closed-cell foam.
I have a lot of experience with construction type styrofoam – would not recommend it for any boat modification purposes. Too brittle and soft, also semi-absorbent.
another option is to traipse to big blue box or big orange box home improvement store and buy a package of four puzzle tiles. They are sold as workshop flooring… A little ( or a lot) of contact cement can laminate the appropriate size strips together. Those tiles are the same minicell we all love but in a 3/4 thick by 12 by 12 piece. They go for about twenty bucks for a package of four.
@willowleaf said:
I’ve been wondering about those yoga blocks and bolsters I often see (very cheap) in the off-price stores as raw material for kayak mods. They seem to be made of a pretty dense closed-cell foam.
Great idea. They’re about ten bucks at the local box store. Might pick one up for practice before working with the good stuff as I have some odd protrusions to cover. Also wondering if modeling clay might work as a mold over those protrusions for dimensional purposes.
Amazing the neat stuff you can learn just by having fun kayaking! Kind of an arts and crafts class for wet work.
Dragonskin is no longer available as the sole manufacturer discontinued it.
For cutting thick minicell planks, a band saw works best but if you don’t have one I have used a coping saw to good effect, especially if you want to cut along an arc at a tight radius that a wider blade cannot follow. Lacking that any long cutting tool like a fillet knife or bread knife will work. I favor surface forming tools (surform) for rougher shaping and sandpaper for finer shaping. This little tool is useful for forming curved surfaces:
Don’t use the little bottles of DAP Weldwood with the brush in cap. You will need to use a bunch of them because minicell is thirsty. Go to Walmart and buy at least a pint can or more. I like to apply it using a cheap, metal handle brush (often called an “acid brush”) that you can find at any hardware store.
For a mold, I’ve heard of ww folks using damp newspaper stuffed into whatever space you’re looking to fill, then pulling it out and voila you have a mold.
I’ve used yoga blocks successfully as seat backs and foot blocks. You can get a pretty nice “face” on it using some rough sandpaper.
@pblanc said:
Don’t use the little bottles of DAP Weldwood with the brush in cap. You will need to use a bunch of them because minicell is thirsty. Go to Walmart and buy at least a pint can or more. I like to apply it using a cheap, metal handle brush (often called an “acid brush”) that you can find at any hardware store.
Thanks for the advice. Do have a coping saw. Purchased the small bottle of contact cement to attach a strip of neoprene padding to a section of the seat pan. Rethinking that now as the Gorilla tape is working well, even though it got pretty wet yesterday. Would a pint of contact cement be needed for a block that would be 7" x 7" at the most? This video leaves the impression one very thin application is all that’s needed:
I bought a surform at a hardware store.
You can also glue pieces together with Barge Cement. Follow their instructions to lightly coat both sides to be joined, let tack up slightly, and then carefully stick together. Strap or otherwise fasten the pieces together for the first day of curing.
I have used it for adding thigh brace padding and other kayaking-related applications. It holds up well even in a wet environment.
No, you won’t need a pint. But if you go to Walmart dot com you will find that a 1 ounce bottle of DAP Weldwood costs $5.39, a 3 ounce bottle costs $6.96, and a 16 once can costs $5.47, so you are paying a lot for the convenience of having a little bottle with a brush in the cap.
I do not agree with the video. I have glued together a lot of minicell over quite a few years in all types of environmental conditions. I think the video is making too much about getting an extremely uniform coat. The time you need to let it dry will vary a lot with the particular foam, ambient temperature, and humidity so there is no point in using a timer. You will get a feel for how long you need to let it dry with experience. And I would never, ever apply just one coat of glue to each piece of foam on anything that is going to see regular water exposure.
I have found working in warmer conditions that after applying a coat of glue to two pieces of foam about 6" square in size, that by the time the second piece is coated, the first is nearly dry to touch and ready for a second coat.
Agree with pblanc. DAP Weldwood is not fussy to use. If it was I would have found something else because I can’t make myself care about fussy for kayak work. Just make sure it is on both surfaces and makes it to the edges so a section of an edge is not annoying sticking out when you paddle. I just let it get almost tacky and put the pad in. I have no idea what humidity it has been.
The small bottles are good if you are only doing a little bit and you hate wasting any from it going dry on you over time. But the larger sizes are a better deal in price.
I made myself a kneeling pad around a minicell core. The pad is three by four feet. I covered it with neoprene jersey and on the bottom used carpet grip. I did use a LOT of DAP Weldwood and a uniform coat just did not happen… Yet all adhered well and some twenty years later the neoprene is firmly bound still ( which is a miracle as neoprene is stretchier than minicell and the pad spends a lot of time rolled up)
For carving shapes to fit into curved cavities (and getting the shape of those protrusions), I find a shape gauge invaluable (and cheap). Bought one many moons ago to use for cutting floor tiles and wood in restoring the interior of a vintage motor home (talk about odd shaped areas!) and have used it for all kinds of stuff since then.
https://www.lowes.com/pd/General-Tools-Instruments-Stainless-Steel-Contour-Gauge/1016371?cm_mmc=SCE_PLA--ToolsAndHardware--SpecialtyHandTools--1016371:General_Tools&_Instruments&CAWELAID=&kpid=1016371&CAGPSPN=pla&store_code=3314&k_clickID=207cfd7d-28ca-41c9-3b5b-0000776b6199&gclid=CjwKCAjwg47KBRBkEiwAO4O6ryMRwlXhLPLS2kkP9l1B9TRRc2TuBMrdVRv6FKYoQ56BzKpGVUdjJBoCuVsQAvD_BwE
I wonder – just a musing thought here and it might not work, but I wonder if you could shove a light gauge trash bag inside the hull of a kayak, then gather the opening around a toilet paper tube and fasten it with elastic and then shoot the bag (through the tube) full of that expansion spray foam used to fill insulation gaps. I imagine if done right it would expand and then harden to fill the entire space, then you could pull it out and have a mold of the inside to use as a template. First drawback I can think of offhand is that spray foam is rather fragile once it congeals and the mass might disintegrate when you pulled it out.
I have also used 8 or 10 gauge bare copper wire to make curve templates. It is flexible but holds its shape well.