I Used Pink Foam & Styrospray to Make This

[Alan Malmstrom]

I finally had a chance to do a carving in pink insulation foam board and it was a learning experience. The foam carves nice but upon close inspection I found a lot of loose hanging fuzzies. Using a pointed eraser that is placed on a pencil worked really good for removing most of it but theres no way to get some of it off because it's just attached a little too good and I didn't want to take out chunks.

Using the stytospray is like spreading wood glue on the styrofoam. But it dries quickly and has a thick coating. It's almost like it doesn't thin down at all as it dries. The appearance is like that of frosting. It doesn't level off as good as I thought it would. It does level of to become smooth but it reveals various thickness appearances along the surface. And it tends to settle down to the floor of the carving instead of sticking to the higher artifacts. Affter the first coat there was a lot of little fuzzy peices of foam that stuck out. But I must say that the plastic type of material that it is, sands down very nicely between coats with dry times of 3 to 4 hours. If you were to work at it long enough and put enough thin coats on, you could in fact maintain a very nice smooth carved appearance. But it would be a lot of work.

I'm happy with the foam and styrospray 1000 but I might see what MDF board can do for this type of thing next time.

I used a plastic primer from rustoleum and covered it with two coats of exterior paint which seemed to smooth it out even better as I dabbed the brush on instead of stroking. I think this sign looks pretty good in the framed area in the front of my house (I just finished the siding and soffit and all). All white looks pretty good for this too.

I'm going to make another one with a different design for the spring and fall seasons.

[RogerB]

That looks great.Carved very nice.

[ladjr]

I agree great job.

[bergerud]

Very interesting experiment. The result looks great. You will have to post some pictures of the process next time.

[badbert]

Alan, that is beautiful. And the surface imperfections add to the look, not take away.

[cnsranch]

Alan - I found that a heat gun works wonders on the fuzzies - works great, just keep that sucker moving.

[Capt Bruce]

Great project (and experiment report) Alan,

You've answered several questions for me in advance for a similar Seasonal carving I want to make so your write-up and the photo are appreciated. May I ask how you mounted the carving to the background so you can change what is displayed? Thanks agin for sharing, and Merry Christmas.

[Alan Malmstrom]

Great project (and experiment report) Alan,

You've answered several questions for me in advance for a similar Seasonal carving I want to make so your write-up and the photo are appreciated. May I ask how you mounted the carving to the background so you can change what is displayed? Thanks agin for sharing, and Merry Christmas.

Capt Bruce

I put two deck screws into the wall 12 inches apart from each other verticly centered. And I used my router with a dovetail bit to make slots in the back of the foam board also 12" apart. Actually I used my rotary tool with the dremel router base and a small dovetail type of bit. The hole I made in the foam is smaller than the screw which helps to hold in on tighter. Also I plan on making the next outdoor aplique a little deeper so as to be more visible from a distance. Which means I will have to be carefull how deep I make the slots.

Also I would like to add about the Styrospray 1000 it has a shelf life of about 6 months. And the wormer that the product is at the time of aplication the thinner it goes on. It can also be applied over wood because it its somewhat stretchable. But I can'e really comment on longevity for cracking in an outdoor environment. If it was thick enough it would probably last a good long time.

[Ropdoc]

Nice work.

I started using this foam. But my vacum system was not installed yet. And the shavings gummed up everything. I would get about halfway thru and the carvewright would shut down. I was working on making cement molds. I think this would be a fun project.