78: Foam - Day Three

Boy, what a difference cooler foam makes. The high today was 90 inside the house. I kept the unused foam canisters in their cardboard box rather than set them on the table and let the fan blow 90 degree air across them. It made a difference as most all day long foam temps stayed 86 to 88 degrees.

The only problematic thing today was it still took what seemed like longer than 45-60 seconds to spray out each canister, but I'm probably counting too fast. Regardless, the foam expanded up nicely, getting about the yield I thought it should be getting.

I've learned to throw my spray sock in cold water before putting it on each time, which makes it much more comfortable (for a little while anyway) when you have to put it back on. I also learned that if you pull the face mask a little bit lower on your face, you can still get a good seal on your face AND your goggles fit much better preventing foam fumes from getting inside the goggles and making your eyes burn. In fact, if you're going to spray DIY foam make sure your goggles and mask can work together effectively. I got lucky and bought Stanley brand goggles at Walmart, which fit much better and have bigger flanges around the outside to better seal out the crud. The cheapo goggles at Lowes have almost no flange at all.

I also learned today that the brass button on the back of the gun that sets the direction of piston travel can get bumped while you move the gun around spraying foam; and if you bump it hard enough you will reverse the direction of the pistons. The symptom you will see is foam stops spraying. Just push the button again (quickly) and the foam won't set up in the mixing tube, you can keep spraying and you won't lose the remaining foam in the canister.

This brass button thing is just another part of the learning curve we all have to go through. Blogging about it, I hope to speed up your results if you choose Soythane.

So, all in all, I have a better opinion of Soythane today than I did yesterday, and my roof is pretty much 1/3 done.