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Thursday, August 17, 2017

Shaping styrofoam

Styrofoam is one of the easiest materials to shape by normal means e.g. slicing with sharp knives or a hot-wire cutter, sawing with serrated blades, rasping with files, and smoothing with sandpaper. The real challenge lies in controlling the shape and especially, in this case, how one achieves concave forms. Here are the methods I’ve employed for a particular model piece which needed a ‘bowl-like’ form and very regular curves. I’ve used the standard blue styrofoam for this, in it’s most available thickness (2.5cm). There are other styrofoams, such as orange/pink or white, which are even finer and slightly denser. Like almost everything we use, styrofoam is not made for us makers specifically .. it is a roof insulation material, hence it’s not usual to find it in thicknesses less than 25mm or more than 100mm. I assume that the standard sheet size of 600x1200mm has been worked out as the most convenient for interior cladding. Go to the end of this article for advice on where to buy it in the UK.
Note to dispel any confusion, ‘styrofoam’ is the name we use in the UK for this material, officially referred to as extruded polystyrene abbreviated to XPS. Confusingly, in the US ‘styrofoam’ is the name often used for the more familiar white, packaging polystyrene properly referred to as expanded polystyrene or EPS. Both we in the UK and our American friends .. often get it wrong! .. particularly odd for the US considering it’s an American company, Dow Chemicals, who makes the blue insulation foam and who trademarked its name!  So when you are doing web searches for ‘styrofoam’ make sure you know which material is being talked about before you take any advice on board. As you probably know, the two are significantly different, even though they originate from the same material! EPS is much softer, more fragile and has coarser, larger ‘cells’. Wikipedia has it basically right, with an interesting and informative article here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polystyrene


Saturday, August 12, 2017

How to Reupholster Furniture

030 how to reupholster furniture - illustration

Learn how to reupholster furniture and you can extend the life of an old couch with some new fabric.

ISTOCKPHOTO/KEVIN SU
Don't let the title, "How to Reupholster Furniture" scare you off! Upholstery is just one more activity that's wrapped in mystery for no good reason whatsoever. Once you get past your mental block about reupholstering furniture, you'll find that every piece of stuffed furniture is made so that the fabric can be replaced when it wears out, and anyone with basic sewing skills and simple tools (hammer, screwdriver, pliers, staple gun) can do it. There's no need to take an expensive course, or any course at all. Your own sofa or whatever will give you all the instructions you need as you go along. You will be pleased with the final product and the fact that you saved money in the process.
My "teacher" was an easy chair that my husband, Jim, and I bought when we were first married. It
030 how to reupholster furniture - illustration

Learn how to reupholster furniture and you can extend the life of an old couch with some new fabric.
source
Don't let the title, "How to Reupholster Furniture" scare you off! Upholstery is just one more activity that's wrapped in mystery for no good reason whatsoever. Once you get past your mental block about reupholstering furniture, you'll find that every piece of stuffed furniture is made so that the fabric can be replaced when it wears out, and anyone with basic sewing skills and simple tools (hammer, screwdriver, pliers, staple gun) can do it. There's no need to take an expensive course, or any course at all. Your own sofa or whatever will give you all the instructions you need as you go along. You will be pleased with the final product and the fact that you saved money in the process.
My "teacher" was an easy chair that my husband, Jim, and I bought when we were first married. Itwas sturdy, attractive, and very comfortable. Three children later, though, its covering had become badly soiled and worn. Professional reupholstering (we checked) would have cost more than the original price of the entire article—fabric, frame, and all. Although we talked about doing the job at home, the chair's curved arms and deeply tufted backrest made the undertaking seem so complicated that we were afraid to try. Then the poor thing got to looking so sad that we had to choose between discarding it or tackling its renovation ourselves. So our adventures in reupholstery began.
 

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