Shipping a Model 33 (RO) Teletype

[John Foust]

At 09:35 AM 11/13/2004, Joe R. wrote:
>It's not even cost effective for SMALL items! The amount of foam that in one of those cans is pathetic! I tried to use that when I first shipped stuff that I'd sold on Ebay and a full can won't fill even the left over space in a a 6" ^3 box.  The other problem with that stuff is that it keeps expanding for hours (at least!). 

If you look closely on the cans at your average home repair store,
they'll often have a selection of varying expansion rates.  If you're
filling the gaps on the side of a window frame when you're building a
house, for example, you don't want it to keep expanding for hours.  
You want something that'll expand quickly, not too much, then stop.
Otherwise it will expand with such pressure as to prevent the window 
from opening, believe it or not.  Other cans advertise that they'll
fill large gaps, meaning the foam expands more, longer.  There are
some foams that are latex-based as opposed to the aldehyde (?) form.

One of my clients is a pottery.  They have a big foaming machine,
I think it's connected to one or two large vats perhaps a cubic 5x5x5 ft.
They lay down a thin plastic sheet, foam into the bottom of the box, 
lay down another sheet, drop in the pot with a covering sheet, then 
foam again with another sheet on top so it doesn't stick to the box.
You can see how you'd want it to expand quickly, to a certain volume, 
then not expand any more.

(Us rural geeks must often have a wide range of talents, from construction
to woodworking to tractor driving to sheep wrangling, etc.  For computer
consulting, I've been paid in pork, fish, vegetables, poultry, baked
goods, etc.)

- John