Okay, so we've got a chunk of 1/16" aluminum, 7/16" for foam, and 1/4" plywood on top - (possibly fiberglass instead) -- pipes running down the aisle essentially (which will affect the weight) - that gives us (I'm just throwing out numbers) an 1/8" for tubes, nested on top I'm guessing so that they are closer to the floor - we've got aluminum anchors eliminating floor shift. Now what can we do to heat the tubes without adding an additional water-type heater? We don't want to do that because of the weight/cost issues. I'm wondering if an electrical grid ala "rear window defrost" might be a better way to go? lighter, more compact, would it be cheaper? I don't know how they work, anyone? Toby 2029 --- "Dr. Gerald N. Johnson, electrical engineer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Besides keeping the shear sheets separated the foam > or balsa wood or > honeycomb has to keep the shear sheets from sliding > relative to the core > and each other to develop bending stiffness to span > the space between > "floor joists". > > Might be something like a Formica layer on top > contact cemented (there > is a water based contact cement) to a layer of foam > that had water pipe > channels and radiant heat water pipes embedded > (standard contact cement > eats foam for lunch) and a 1/4" plywood or 1/16" > aluminum bottom layer. > Pergo and others keep telling us (on the home shows) > how great such a > pressure laminate is for flooring, why not make it > structural? The water > pipe channels would probably want to run > perpendicular to the floor > joists or spars so to maintain the bending strength > of the sandwich. And > in a trailer would want to only be where the floor > wasn't covered by > sofa or cabinet. Menards sells a fiberglass panel in > 4x8' chunks as a > wall panel for dairy barns and the like. That might > make both skins very > well and be a better insulator than aluminum. > > If the upper surface is the finish floor, then > there's a little more > room for insulation in the panel. The added > thickness adds rigidity > also. > > There is a structural adhesive (blue) for foam > insulation. I tried a > sample of it sticking wood to foam (thinking about > making my own foam > insulated doors for that house I'm hoping to build > last decade) but I > found it wasn't very strong and the foam easily > separated from the wood. > I've use contact cement (water based) to stick foam > blocks together for > landscape modeling and it worked very well there. I > don't have any at > the moment to test, but I do have a way to test for > bending strength > when the temperature is well above zero (with -40 > windchill). And could > compare such a composite to wood or plywood. > > Gerald J. > > > > To unsubscribe or to change to a daily Digest, > please go to > http://www.airstream.net/vaclist/listoffice.html > > If replying back to this message, please delete all > the unnecessary original > text from your reply. > > ===== http://www.airstream-bohemia.com __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Shopping - Thousands of Stores. Millions of Products. http://shopping.yahoo.com/ To unsubscribe or to change to a daily Digest, please go to http://www.airstream.net/vaclist/listoffice.html If replying back to this message, please delete all the unnecessary original text from your reply.
