Depron as a Building Material

Dear people.

i am looking for a cheap supplier of depron and some advice on using it.

thank you
Tony Bennett.

I would seriously suggest a PM to Q on that subject Tony, he seems to know his way round the Depron

Garry

Depron...

Buy from here: www.depron.co.uk/ They're the cheapest that I've found, and deliver in two/three days.

The white stuff comes in slightly smaller sheets, is a bit more brittle and takes a bit longer to form.

The grey stuff comes in a sheet that's 20% larger for the same price. Bit less brittle and easier to form.

Buy a split box of half 3mm and half 6mm, I use 6mm for all the insides and 3mm for skinning.

You can buy a cheap gorilla glue type PU adhesive from your local DIY. I use that for most of the structure, and then UHU Por for skinning.

On my Bucc, the only timber is 20mm pine dowel for the spars, balsa leading and trailing edges and balsa leading edges on the control surfaces. I used Poly-C and 25g/m² cloth to cover it.

Anything else just shout and I'll help where I can

need to cadge a single sheet of 3mm to have a play with before i commit myself to the material.
fancy knocking up a small funfly type machine or a rubber FF model.

Tony
I am not sure you have to 'commit' to using Depron. Unless you are going to build something truly enormous it is so cheap compared to balsa you can play with it as much as you like. In general however the bigger you go the less of an advantage Depron has and the more other, more expensive, materials have to be used as well.

To be exact there are two types of Depron, 'normal' and 'aero'. Both are made of the same type of plastic. The colour itself, white or grey, is not a significant factor to its mechanical properties.
As Monz says Normal is more rigid but heavier. Its 'bubble' internal structure has a denser surface skin.
Aero has a finer bubble structure is more flexible, softer and about 25% lighter. It has no skin.
The aero type is on the left. They are both 20 mm squares of 6 mm thick.


To give an idea of cost a 1250mm x 800mm sheet of 3mm grey Normal Depron at Steve Webb models is £2.99 but of course at that size you have to pick it up.
A tube of UHU POR glue on the other hand is £3.50!

Tony B wrote: Dear people.

i am looking for a cheap supplier of depron and some advice on using it.

thank you
Tony Bennett.

Tony, is this for your possible business venture? most firms will happily send out substantial samples if you convince them it's for a serious business.
I was seriously looking into EPP models & one firm sent me a bloody great block that would have retailed at over £60 ..... but I wasn't joking, I meant it as a business & possibly still do.
I can advise you on some of the chemical aspects of Depron, you know about science being my field.... I can't advise further than that because I don't know what you're cooking up.
I hope it's good mate.

i just want to have a play with it for now and see if i like it before i "commit" to buying loads.
want to build a couple of sports models first.

Could you use it to build a .40 size model with an I.C. engine and what is the difference between the white and the grey?

OF
Depron is much lighter (and weaker) than balsa so I am sure you could use it for the parts of an IC powered plane that have the lowest stresses.
I expect the structure would have to go hardwood or ply, then balsa and finally Depron.

I think polystyrene is ok with diesel fuel but I believe methanol/nitro does soften the surface.

White is slightly more expensive as the sheets are a bit smaller for the same price.

I live in N.Wales and the nearest Depron supplier I know of is Steve webb in Chester.. I will check our more local suppliers when ?I get a chance. John Mantova

Polystyrene can be attecked by ether and /Methanol but the real problem is the Nitro eats it . Nitromethane was the real force in Nitromos paint stripper but has been now banned and Nitromors is nowhere aqs good as it was . Be warned. test it if in doubt and see for your self what happens. You may be lucky My concern would be if the fuel might soak into the foam

Hi John and welcome to the forum. When you have 5 mins spare, just pop a post in the introduce yourself thread , so members know what sort of experience you have with the hobby

Garry Pollard
Administrator

hello John.
nice to have you here.
welcome.

tony.

Cutting Depron has a reputation for being hard on blades and it is!
I do all my cutting using old hack saw blades.

With the benefit of a bench grinder they can be sharpened as often as needed and as a blade they last almost indefinitely.

Hi Simon talking of depron is it being discontinued I have read that it is
I use scalpels number 4 handles and no.26 blades they are far stronger than the no. 11 blades