John wrote:


The common denominator for bouyancy or density in foam seems to be pounds
per cubic foot. Do you recall what your EVA weighs?
No, I wish I did know. I work in a lab with fancy digital scales.
I could weigh a square foot at 1/4" and extrapolate....might do that.
The foam I have (almost gone now) I bought in 1991. The guy I bought it
from said it was NOT the lightest possible EVA foam. He said it was the
lightest stuff he had in stock, on the floor of the warehouse right now
(well back then, that is). He probably did tell its bun weight, but
I didn't write it down nor remember it.
He suggested some other resin types too, polyurethane, possibly.
I chose the EVA stuff and it worked well. I've been making unsinkable
grasshoppers for almost 15 years now. The fancy, good-looking hoppers
Rainey sells in fly shops now (with beady eyes and double-strand
kicker legs) look great, but they hardly float. I can mend the line
on my hoppers in FAST water, with a heavy nymph hanging off the back,
which sinks the hopper momentarily. And then voila: up pops the hopper
again. Try that with a Rainey Hopper and it stays down for the count.


Do you recall the manufacturer and the product id? Are they on the web
today?
No, but I did buy it from Industrial Rubber in Seattle. They don't like
to even talk to you, however, unless you want to set up a real account
and make recurring purchases.


Y20 and 2# XPE from Specialty Foams www.irfoam.com for example are two
closed cell foams weighing 2 pcf. The Y80 weighs 8 pcf and the 4# XPE
weighs 4 pcf and these may be machinable and shaped but are heavier.

2 pcf sounds pretty light. But I don't really know for sure.


Balsa for example can weigh as low as 4 pcf but most is in the 7-12 pcf
range with heavy knot hole wood in the twenties.

Is your EVA foam machinable? Can it be sanded? Can it be cut or shaped by
a hot wire? What can it be painted with other than Prismacolor or similar
pens?
Machinable? No. It's too soft.
I cut it with razor blades, paper cutters and/or a fabric cutter.
I lash it onto the hook LOOSELY, and then glue it in place with
ZapAGap. If you wrap it on tightly you collapse the foam and lose
the bouyancy.

The white Y20 and off white XPE for example are soft, non-machinable, cannot
be easily bored to create dowells or cylinders easily formed via hot wire,
IMHO.
You can make nice round little holes with a leather punch.
You can cut it accurately with a straight edge and a circular,
disc-shaped fabric cutter. You can cut it with a hot wire, although
I never do.

It glues nicely (onto anything) with CA glue.
Sheet stock 1/4" thick is what you want. You can cut that
down to whatever you need. Or use it at a full 1/4" thick to
make magnum hoppers or giant adult stonefly immitations.

No doubt they float very high on the water but when I asked the sales lady
what type of adhesive to use to attach a hook, she glazed over. But she
quickly assured me they could injection-mold any shape with embedded hook -
if the order was big enough! I did not have enough money or guts to ask her
how big that order had to be! g A Special or new hook minimum order is
100,000. Yep no guts - no $ that's me.

But I am very interested in your response.

Good luck!
John