Model Plane Foam

Time flies! It has been too long. Life gets busy.

I just got a load of Model Plane Foam's A-grade stuff, 16 sheets for $60 shipped, and I'm very happy with it.

Lets compare it to Dollar Tree's Adams Redi Board:

Surface Area: Adams =  600 square inches  per 20x30 inch sheet, while MPF has a surface area of 1152 square inches per 24x48 inch sheet. For all practical purposes MPF sheets are equivalent to two sheets of Adams.

Price: Adams costs $1 per sheet, while MPF costs $1.88 for an equivalent sheet if you buy the A-grade stuff ($60/32).

The Foam Itself: At first blush I like MPF better. It's maybe not quite as stiff as some depron I've ordered, and it certainly isn't as stiff as Adams, but there's no paper on it.

Thickness: Both are 6mm thick, so plans designed for Adams ought to work with MPF.

Weight: Adams weighs .19 grams per square inch (source), while MPF weighs .14 grams per square inch.

To calculate MPF's weight we take the retailer's figure of 2 pounds per square foot of density (a 12x12x12 inch cube) and divide by the total number of 1 inch square cubes in that large cube, which is 1728. Then we divide that by 4, because the stuff is 1/4 inch thick. We get a weight in ounces of .005 per square inch of material. This converts to .14 grams per square inch.

Conclusion: MPF has no paper to deal with, it's strong but not as stiff, and it's about 25% lighter. I'm liking it so far... I'll build a plane with it and report back.