Expanding Foam

Hi

Bought a can of Polycell expanding foam for a job the other day - £7 odd in Focus. Used a small amount. Wanted to use it again over the weekend and everything is gummed up solid.

After its first use I wiped the thread on top of the can, cleared the tube as best I could, but still U/S. Cleaned it all prior to second attempted use, still U/S.

When I was in Machine Mart the other day I saw some 'No Waste' expanding foam, but too pushed for time to look and it isn't on their web site.

Any tips on which brand survives more than one use?

(I don't intend to fill a canoe with it BTW).

Reply to
The Medway Handyman
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I had this same issue and eventually, having tried everything I could to get the nozzle cleared, screwed a small screw down inside the plastic nozzle then when it got to the bottom and I heard some hissing of the gas propellant, pulled it out with a pair of pliers...

It dragged this plug of solid foam ( that I couldn't see) out of the plastic nozzle...

Lo and behold...Foam application started working again...

Ged

The Medway Handyman wrote:

Reply to
ged.clink

Buy a gun for it -

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're =A39.90 and keep the foam fresh for months. Also more controllable and less messy.

Otherwise I think Polycell do a resealable one, but it wasn't very good when we tried it.

A
Reply to
auctions

Two questions about the guns:

  1. What makes them easier to clean out than the plastic nozzle supplied with the can?

  1. The main problem I find with a part-used can is not with the nozzle at all, but with the liquid inside the can very quickly going treacly and losing its fizz.

Reply to
Ian White

weekend and

attempted

expanding

site.

A wet matchstick is your friend here. Do the usual 'spray other way up' trick to clear most out by just having the propellant come out, then insert a wet matchstick into the nozzle. When you next come to it, pull out the plug that will have formed round the matchstick. The tubes are fun to clear. I usually push a welding rod down and right through a few minutes after last use.

Don't do what I did once, and drop a new can on it's nozzle and break the valve so all the faom comes out without being able to stop it - what a mess !

AWEM

Reply to
Andrew Mawson

I have found (over a couple of years, with more than one can) that the trick is to wait for everything to solidify, then use appropriate tools to pick, scrape, push out the solidified foam. I use an old hat pin (!! dunno where we got it) to push the core out of the main application nozzle. Because of the smooth surfaces of the applicator there's never much of a problem in cleaning off solidified foam.

The wife's nail varnish remover is used for cleaning stuff that's still gunky.

john

Reply to
John

In article , The Medway Handyman writes

Cleaning out the tube & nozzle with cellulose thinners will make it more likely to be reusable. Drip some in the nozzle, shake out then put in some more & leave upright.

Reply to
fred

You buy a can of cleaning solvent that mounts on the gun in the same way. So after each use you flush all the foam out of it with the solvent.

That seems to be caused by the can leaking its propellent through a non sealing valve.

Reply to
John Rumm

Ahh, I see... thank you.

Funny, they all seem to do that for me, and there's never any obvious evidence of leakage.

Reply to
Ian White

You only use the cleaner after you finish a tube, and not necessarily after every tube - every 3 or 4 tubes is usually fine.

The gun has a metal rod down it's nozzle which is retracted to release the foam, so the seal is made at the very tip of the gun. There is therefore no foam exposed to air after you've finished, so nothing dries up - effectively the gun becomes part of the can, not an extension nozzle.

Because this valve mechanism is higher quality than on a disposable can, it doesn't leak propellant, so a part used can keeps for ages.

The important thing is to always keep a can on the gun, so you need to have the next can ready for when you finish one.

Andrew

Ian White wrote:

Reply to
auctions

Thanks - you've made a sale!

Yep, understood.

Reply to
Ian White

Thanks Andrew & John - I am a wiser man. I shall be ordering a gun & some gun grade foam.

Reply to
The Medway Handyman

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Andrew Mawson" saying something like:

I had an unusual scupture spontaneously form in the back of the van from a leaky foam can.

Reply to
Grimly Curmudgeon

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