OT - cutting foam rubber for cases

vicmilt wrote on 7/25/2007, 3:58 AM
I read this in another link from Farss ( Bob ) and thought it interesting enough to repost here:
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To scuplt foam rubber freeze it first. The stuff ends up like wood. A dark secret I learned from the guys who make props.
You do need to get it really cold, around -20 C or lower, at a pinch hit it with a CO2 extinguisher.

Bob.
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Now my addition:

I use an electric kitchen knife to cut my foam rubber. It does a great job - infinitely better and faster than hacking away with a regular blade and/or scissors.

v

Comments

UKAndrewC wrote on 7/25/2007, 4:11 AM
This is entirely hearsay but I have heard that the freezing method releases toxins from the foam rubber when it thaws.

Andrew
JJKizak wrote on 7/25/2007, 5:24 AM
Remember there are a zillion varieties of foam rubber products.
JJK
farss wrote on 7/25/2007, 6:06 AM
Well I wasn't talking about cutting foam. For that yes an electric knife is the best way unless you've got access to a laser cutter.

What I was talking about was making a foam rubber scuplture. Say you want to make a dog out of foam rubber, you might need to shave or sand the foam rubber. If you feeze it first I'm told this is very easy to do.

There was a TVC down here where a couple are driving along and a dog leaps off a cliff, lands through the sunroof of the car into the drivers lap and the car runs off a wharf into a lake. Obviously they didn't throw a real dog of the cliff, someone made a foam rubber stunt dog that looked pretty close to the dog you'd seen a few frames before chasing a bird towards the cliff.

Anyway, one day I'm buying some foam rubber for our Pelican cases and I see these very large cubes of the stuff and ask the guy what anyone would use them for and he told me the secret of how one of his customers uses them to make one off foam props. Obviously they couldn't throw a wooden dog off a cliff hoping it'd land in the cars sun roof while it really was been driven.

I guess for me the interest in this is so many times we think it's CGI when it's not. It's amazing what can be done without a computer. I remember well the first fim I worked on, we wanted some fancy titles so we bought some black cardboard, did the text with Letraset and doused the cardboard with kerosene and while our Bolex was running lit the bottom. One could spend ages doing this effect in AE that we did in minutes.

And if anyone's wondering why I was buying foam for a Pelican case (actually we use the Storm cases) when they come with foam already cut. We find the precut stuff doesn't last. And yes there's many types of foam and of varying rigidity, it pays to have a collection on hand when lining cases. The rigid stuff is easier to work with but doesn't absorb any impact, so at times we use a mixture of both.

Bob.
epirb wrote on 7/25/2007, 3:00 PM
I have used hard cases w/o foam liners ...lined with heavy duty style garbage bag w excess to cover all edges. filled carefully with the spray insulation foam, when it has expanded lay another piece of bag on top and depress equipt into to shape.(make sure your bag is heavy duty and i even seran wrapped my cam for extra protection while doing so) thean after cue cut away excess bag and foam.
the top side i just put a flat layer of foam on.

Mainly did it cuz i had a spare old hard shell tool case with rollers that worked great for transport etc .
but it worked and doesnt really look like a cam case(ie Vic Milts suggestion of stowing equipt in non decscript cases not shouting"Expensive camera equipt , come steall me!"