New Adams foam board?

[Jaxx]

I was really stoked to get into this and scratch building after discovering it all this week. Then there was this little caveat about the new foam and its pitfalls. No one need bother checking the Gainesville Tx Dollar Tree today - I liberated all the 525 they had.

Welcome to the forum! Did I read that right....525? You are my new hero .

 

[nerdnic]

 

[jhitesma]

Has anyone tried minwax or anything similar on the new foam to see if it helps strengthen it back up at all?

Figures, I finally get my needle cutter going good and start tearing through the case of foam I bought back in September - and now I'm scared to use it up because of this new foam Going to have to scour my local stores this weekend and see if I can get another case or two of the old stuff or if I'm too late....

 

[Stephen_Mc]

Welcome to the forum! Did I read that right....525? You are my new hero .

Thanks for the welcome. I would have posted in the "New guy or girl!" section first but decided to jump right in. They went backwards from 30525 to 30524 with the product code. You would think it would go the other way. For curiosity, I looked up when a company needs to change a product code in a UPC and ran across this:

http://www.gs1.org/1/gtinrules/en/new-product

and this:

https://www.quora.com/When-does-a-CPG-have-to-change-the-UPC-for-a-product

The cashier seemed to already know that the product had changed and cutting it was different. Maybe they have received some complaints. Lets hope they iron the issue out. My theory is that they negotiated a lower price for the first of the year with Adams and then Adams used a cheaper paper to offset the cost difference. It's just a hunch. Lord knows I've been wrong before.

 

[nerdnic]

I actually contacted Adams and the director of sales got back to me. I'm a little more bummed now because it seems FT had a hand in this switch.

 

[Gryf]

For what it's worth, some of us have used Ross Board from Walmart with much success. There are reviews elsewhere on the forum. Personally, I like it a lot. And it's much more like the old DTFB to work with... and certainly better than the new Adams stuff. It's also cheaper, at US$.88 per sheet, last time I looked.

Thanks for the test vid above, Nic. Wow, the new Adams board really IS different. :-(

Gryf

 

[Gryf]

Oops, Nic and I cross-posted. Perhaps we're due an explanation from Flite Test...

Gryf

 

[nerdnic]

From what I can gather FT was pushing for a higher quality board before the WR foam came about. While developing WR foam for FT Adams was also trying to refine the standard board to be more consistent in flatness, based on FTs feedback. WR foam was finalized and FT made the decision to abandon normal white board. Adams produced new white board and FT signed off on it (according to Adams) but clearly there was little to no real testing done.

At this point FT is fully down the path of their WR foam so the white stuff is not on their radar. It's sad because we are left with a worse board than before FT got involved with Adams. Now our low cost hobby is less viable in my eyes. I'm not sure FT will do anything because as posted earlier by Stefan, you can always just buy their WR foam

 

[HilldaFlyer]

Seems to me that Adams is in a great marketing position because they clearly have the capability to manufacture both. All they need to do is rebrand the old stuff similar to what Coke did with classic. They would have a market for both, and for a buck, classic Readi-Board and Ultra-white Readi-Board.

I also have been using Ross more than the Readi-Board. I've only used the classic Readi-board when I want to peel it and fiberglass skin. I'll have to try the new Readi-board.

Hey @nerdnic, Have you tried your tear-away strength test on Ross? I just tried and in my hands the Ross seems to have similar performance to Classic Readi-board (but like I said, I don't have the new Readi-Board for a comparison). That comparison would go a long ways to give people direction. Thanks!

 

[jamboree1]

The kicker is that FT isn't the only community that uses the redi board based upon it's characteristics, i bet a lot of people are disappointed with the performance of the new board

 

[FlyingMonkey]

I wonder if this is an attempt to make the DTFB more like depron?

Clearly it's not a better material for plane building. So I can't see them trying to market it as such. Or, it was a batch mess up, but they don't want to admit to that.

 

[nerdnic]

I wonder if this is an attempt to make the DTFB more like depron?

Clearly it's not a better material for plane building. So I can't see them trying to market it as such. Or, it was a batch mess up, but they don't want to admit to that.

Direct quote from Adams:

"First I would like to assure you that the spec of our foam has not changed at all. We did however change the paper. The reason for this change was to improve the quality of the board as well as the brightness but without jeopardizing the integrity of the product.
Before going to market we did have this new paper tested by a big player in the RC community and we received very good feedback."

 

[jamboree1]

Nic, time to get them to watch your testing videos

 

[FlyingMonkey]

Interesting.

I remember talk that Adams was trying to get a paper that would match the brightness of other brands.

I'm not sure why a "big player" would endorse a product that would be worse than what was already available.

 

[CaptBill]

I'm wondering where they have it made. Environmental issues have sent some foam manufacturing overseas to places that care less about the effects of the nasty chronicles used.
Some of these places are known for cutting corners from time to time, or anytime they can get away with it.
It is possible ,if Adams has the FB produces overseas, that "they" have not changed the formula, but that the formula is changed.

 

[jamboree1]

I went to my nearest dollar tree and bought the last 14 sheets of old stock. They also had new stock and placed side by side you can see not only the color difference but the new stock factory edge cuts were not clean and balled up. I have 2 pics of new and old in store.

 

[CaptBill]

Well it is what it is. It might improve, it might stay the same, or we may find something better.
As my granddaughter learned at school, "you get what you get and you don't get upset about it"

 

[nerdnic]

Interesting.

I remember talk that Adams was trying to get a paper that would match the brightness of other brands.

I'm not sure why a "big player" would endorse a product that would be worse than what was already available.

Let's be clear here though, there is only 1 player in the RC community with Adams ear. I don't think there was ill intention on either side with this 'upgraded' board. It seems more likely that since FT has no interest in the white board, there is no need to push for a better product now, why would they? They initially pushed Adams because the white board was the same exact product we buy in Dollar Tree and FT bought and used in bulk to make their kits. It was in FTs best interest to push Adams to make a 'better' board. However, their focus is on the WR foam now, the foam they had Adams design specifically for their resale. So if the 'new' common white board didn't come out perfect, it doesn't really matter to FT, they don't have a horse in that race anymore. It is sadly convenient for FT that they are the only sellers of decent foam now though..

It just sucks because now we are left with this product that is less than. Will the new foam still 'work' for most people? Sure. But for designers like me, who were pushing what is possible out of Adams foam, it's basically done. It's reached the end. The original board was already near it's limit with how far it could be stressed. So there is not much left to do. I fear some of my designs may even fail during flight with the new board. I kinda feel like I'm done.

 

[Jaxx]

Nic,

I can only imagine your frustration. This impacts you, as a designer and kit producer, even more than it impacts the rest of us. From your interaction with Adams, do you think there might be a chance that we (the community) could get them to go back to the original product? I can't imagine it would be very difficult to start producing the old stuff again. This reminds me of the problem with the cloudy glue sticks from Ad-tech. Maybe we can ask FT to reach out to them on behalf of the community. In his post, Stefan did say that recently they have had problems with the white foam board as well.

 

[97tj-neil]

I bought 25 more of the old style today. I'm at 65 sheets in stock in my shop. Not sure what will happen long term. I am hoping this community will figure out the new foam board before I need to start using it.