The Wind Tunnel (Page 4)

Jim started a design for the mount. He had to calculate the forces that the mount could withstand. With a tentative design in place, he headed for a hardware store to purchase the foam insulation. Jani decided that we should try this on some inexpensive toy balls first. So she headed for a toy store and bought about a half dozen assorted beach and kick balls.

Jim pierced a small hole in one of the kick balls and filled it with insulation. Hmmmmmm .... it didn't work like we thought it would. The insulation didn't expand enough and fill the ball evenly. After a couple of days most of the insulation still hadn't dried. The ball looked more like a lop-sided shriveled up orange. Back to the drawing board!

We tried different types of insulation and didn't have much more success. We started to think of other alternatives. Eric Chattot, one of the Cislunar staff members, is also the member of a race car design team. We asked him for his opinion. He suggested a two-step foam that they use to mold custom car frame parts . He had used it before and said it dried into its final shape quickly. He was right!

Jim tried this foam in a clear container so he could watch it expand. He also wore safety glasses and kept a safe distance after he poured both of the components together.

It was fun to watch. He just poured a little bit of the chemicals together and the foam started to bubble and expand and filled the entire container. It looked like caramel colored soap suds. Within a couple of minutes it became very sticky like taffy and then it hardened in to a solid material. We had our answer!