Sponge Bar Workshop Report

Last Saturday Lynne, Nancy (me), Val, Cathie, Theresa and Tom met at the library and spent a few hours together learning how to replace the sponge in our tired and worn sponge bars.  Thank you all for coming - I certainly enjoyed the day and your company!

Having done this once before, I became resident expert and lead the proceedings.  You can read a bit about my first try here.

At left, everyone is hard at work getting the old and broken down foam cleaned out.  "Goo Gone", a flat screwdriver and some elbow grease are the best tools for getting the really stubborn bits of foam out, and this is definitely the most time consuming step.  The foam in our sponge bars seems to break down into a non-springy, discoloured, sticky goo.  I don't know if that is part of its "natural life cycle" or if it is because of interactions with machine oil and the motion of the needles.  I suspect maybe both contribute to the breakdown.  All I could really find was a Wikipedia article on polyurethane that is a bit technical.

The middle picture is of the old sponge before it has been removed.  The pictures on either side show workshop participants hard at work!

The next, somewhat tricky part is accurately cutting a 1/4" to 3/8" wide strip of cloth-backed foam.  What could be so hard about that, you ask?

Well, making sure that your cutting tool cuts a strip of foam that is the same width at the top as it is at the bottom is a bit of a challenge, more because of the length of the piece (usually about 4') I think.  Try it yourself if you have a piece of foam lying around.  A short piece should be no trouble, but once you get beyond the limits of your ability to reach without having to stop and re-position yourself and the scissors or rotary cutter, then the trouble can start.  Luckily, however, as long as there's enough foam to sit in the metal frame and be fairly consistent across the length, it does not have to be exact.

Another option besides using foam yardage is to find the correct measurement and foam density in weather stripping.  I spent longer than I would normally spend in the weather stripping aisle of my local Home Depot trying to find just that correct measurement, and didn't quite find anything but I'm sure it's out there.  The piece I did pick up, to have for discussion at the workshop, really didn't have the right amount of "spring"  in addition to not quite being the right dimensions, but it was useful I think to show that there are many variations on density of foam on the market.

So, everyone went home with a revived sponge bar, and I will look forward to hearing from you all that your needles are gliding smoothly!  We have another Saturday booked at the library (May 6), and would also love to hear back in the comments below if you have any ideas for another workshop topic.  Please do let us know!


Nancy