Kinds of closed cell foam

[Harebear]

I did use one unusual foam source that got me in a bit of hot water with my kids. I was running a bath for them one night and noticed that the letters that they play with in the bath were........closed cell foam! Hmmmmmmmm. They were about 3/4" thick, and wouldn't you know it, my punch set worked perfectly on them. Needless to say, the kids didn't take kindly to me turning their bath letters into swiss cheese so I had to buy them more.

Thanks to you all for the info !!!!!! I'm headin for the craft store now.

Hare

[Janus]

I did use one unusual foam source that got me in a bit of hot water with my kids. I was running a bath for them one night and noticed that the letters that they play with in the bath were........closed cell foam! Hmmmmmmmm. They were about 3/4" thick, and wouldn't you know it, my punch set worked perfectly on them. Needless to say, the kids didn't take kindly to me turning their bath letters into swiss cheese so I had to buy them more.

Thanks to you all for the info !!!!!! I'm headin for the craft store now.

Hare

I have a kittens tail in my pocket right now from one of my daughters foam puzzles...sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.
Janus

[Extremely Low Budget FF]

Dad, How come this pool noodle is shorter than the others???

1. Because the pool shark ate it?
2. What did you think was in those sandwiches I made for lunch? or
3. Because I needed purple for a wounded minnow fly, I answered!



The only problem I have encountered with using foam is that some foams such as the styrene packing peanuts give off toxic gas if you get nail polish/solvent based glues on them.

So, test them outdoors. Some buzzers use a bit of this packing foam wrapped in a piece of stocking for flotation. For these I use a water based polyurethane instead of nail polish

Ed

[white43]

Foam door knockers from Joanne's Fabrics make excellent wiggle bugs, and you can make several of these great bass catchers our of a single door knocker. Don't forget flip flops and the Dremmel trick. Amazing poppers and sliders. JGW

[G-man]

I buy differant thickness's of white from the craft store and use my prismacolor pens to
change the color
G

[jmeyerc]

I use the craft foam and colour it too, but white, black, brown and olive foam is very hard to get here, I then buy these ones when they come into the fly shops. but it is expensive and is used sparingly ( I use every scrap of it no matter how small, it is only the very tiny little bits I reluctantly throw away).

Jeanne

[Joe Valencic]

I buy differant thickness's of white from the craft store and use my prismacolor pens to
change the color
G

Me too! Prismacolor pens will last for years if properly capped when you are finished using them. I use the olive pen the most.

JoeV

[flybinder]

Foam door knockers from Joanne's Fabrics make excellent wiggle bugs, and you can make several of these great bass catchers our of a single door knocker. Don't forget flip flops and the Dremmel trick. Amazing poppers and sliders. JGW

Okay!! I surrender!! I'm not the "brightest colored crayon, in the box of 64" I'll be the first to admit, BUT.............. How HARD to you have to use a "FOAM DOOR KNOCKER", before someone answers the door? Our home, has a BRASS door knocker, that works pretty well, but "foam"??

Anyway, someone mentioned "foam sandals", for bug bodies, too.
I found a pair of sandals for a small child, this past summer, in black/yellow/black layers. .50 @ the 2nd. hand store.
I made a great set of punches out of 30.06 shells for cutting out bodies.
In their normal shape, they punch out great beetle bodies. Hacksawed off, at the shoulder of the casing and you've got the right diameter for hopper bodies.
With the black/yellow/black sandals I bought, I used a .22 shell casing and made small "bees". with a .32 cal casing I made a little bit, bigger, "bees". The .22 casing and all black foam, make great ant bodies.

I also told WarrenP. about this trick of using the shells, to cut out foam bodies. He called me, 3 days later, to tell me how he made out.
When he, at first, told me about; "damaging his tying table, having the cops called to his house and how angry his wife was at him", my first question to him, was.............."Warren? you DID, use FIRED casings, didn't you?"
His answer was, "Well, you didn't, TELL ME, that part!"
If you use this, idea, PLEASE be sure all casings are "pre-fired" before striking them with your hammer!

[ducksterman]

flybinder.....tell me ...as usual you are kidding ....aren't you?????

Warren say it isn't so

[Buddy Sanders]

I've found olive foam at JoAnns in the past, but not lately and it was a rare thing. I occassionally find grey and some other 'softer' or more lifelike colors in small 5X7 sheets at dollar stores, usualy an assortment of fifteen to twenty sheets/colors sold to make photo mats out of.

I've found foam from 2mm up to 8mm at the craft shops. Selection gets poorer as the size gets thicker, but they always seem to have white and black....

I went kind of nuts with this foam idea and bought several thousand sheets, many in large bulk packs on sale. I have lots of colors. Still find that I mostly use white and color it, either with permanent markers (I'm way too cheap for the prismacolor pens, I use the Sharpies-find the multi-color packs on sale-they work fine) or with my airbrush.

Don't foget kids 'play mats', garden kneeling pads (found a really nice chartruese a few years back at Target), garage/shop floor mats (seen these in a really nice grey), 'Yoga' bricks (come in a variety of colors and are what you want if you need bigger or thicker pieces, these are usually around 5X4X, Yoga mats-thinner but HUGE and nice quality foam.

You can get 'foam marshmallows' at Michaels (usually on sale after the holidays) these are neat for bigger poppers, and you can, if you don't want to bother with shaping, use them 'as is'. Used to sell smaller ones, but I bought all of them and they don't have them anymore....

For cutting plugs, I know all about the shell casings and the sharpened tubing, but Harbor Frieght sells a set of punches for under $10 that you can put in a drill press or just use with a hammer. They are clearly marked, will last for five fisherman's lifetimes used on foam, come with a neat case so they don't get lost, are inletted so the plugs pop out, and cut nice clean plugs....with no labor on our part except the buying (I'm the king of 'do/make it yourself', but even I can't justify not having a set of these).

Foam is great stuff. Now that I have all the foam I'l lever need, the dremel lathe, gallons of contact cement, hundreds of permanent markers, drill press and punches, everything I'll need to make hundreds of thousands of foam creations....

I'm buying deeer hair and spinning/stacking like a fiend....

Go figure...

Buddy